Now that you’ve survived Friday 13th. A few ways to unwind | Five for Your Weekend

Happy weekend, Everyone

I hope you all emerged unscathed from the unluckiest of days in the year 2020, no less.

If you’re looking for something fun and free to do this weekend, the Fall Food Fest is coming to the Pa. Farm Show. From Nov. 13-15 all of your favorite Farm Show food vendors will be in the north parking lot of the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. Parking is free and masks are required! 

For those interested, the menu can be viewed here. 

As always, the top five articles from this week are below.

Enjoy your weekend,

Cassie Miller, Associate Editor

This is your destination for continuous coverage of the vote count across Pennsylvania today. Check back all day for updates.

While the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House is preparing for a wide ranging review of the 2020 election, the review appears unlikely to impact President Donald Trump’s loss in the Keystone State.

That’s despite days of rallies, one big, most small, by ardent Trump loyalists from across the country outside the state Capitol calling for the Legislature to overturn the election results on baseless assertion of election fraud.

That reality became clear Tuesday, as House Speaker Bryan Cutler tapped Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, to assess state election law and the administration of the recent presidential contest at least until the end of November. Cutler appointed Grove the acting chairman of House State Government Committee. He’ll replace retiring Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming.

With a number of key legislative races still undecided amid the slow count of mail-in ballots, some of the internal elections to decide who will lead the four partisan caucuses in the House and Senate have been delayed.

A week after each election, state lawmakers traditionally return to the Capitol to pick which of their colleagues will manage internal affairs ranging from, staffing to parking spaces, as well as dictate policy and strategy for the next two years. These votes are held in private.

But elections for House and Senate Democrats, as well as Senate Republicans, have been pushed back until at least Thursday to give time for winners to be decided in a half dozen or so races and join their colleagues in picking leadership. House Republicans still intend to move ahead with their elections on Tuesday.

When confronted with the inexorable march of progress, it’s pretty well established that, given the choice, Pennsylvania will respond with a hearty “Naw, fam, we’re good,” and contentedly allow progress to march on by, as it watches from the comfort of a lawn chair, a plate of perogies balanced on its lap, and a can of Iron City clutched in one mitt.

In fact, the Keystone State’s long and storied history is replete with examples of resistance to progress: Witness the continued and inexplicable endurance of Pennsylvania’s state-operated liquor monopoly; the Give the Local Cops Radar Guns bill that never passes, and, of course, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe.

So, thus is it, that even as Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman continue to hit a brick wall of GOP legislative resistance to a plan to legalize recreational cannabis, voters in four states, including New Jersey, could well vote to legalize it, our friends at The Appeal report.

If voters in the Garden State, Arizona, South Dakota, and Montana give their assent, the money raised from the proceeds of recreational cannabis sales would be used to raise badly needed revenue for pandemic-ravaged economies and to reverse the adverse effects of stupendously destructive marijuana enforcement, the Appeal notes.

Democrats were hopeful that former Vice President Joe Biden would prevail in a landslide victory over President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 General Election, leading his party in a blue wave that would repudiate Trumpism from the White House to state legislatures.

Those hopes largely dissolved as unofficial election results rolled in last week. While media outlets have called the presidential race for Biden, his party was largely trounced in statehouse races.

Pennsylvania Republicans are on track to strengthen their majorities in both state legislative chambers and to flip at least one row office.

In the presidential race, unofficial results from the Department of State show that Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania hinged on modest gains in a few crucial counties.

And that’s the week. See you all back here on Monday.