Northeast

Fetterman’s new book details explosive feud with Gov Josh Shapiro over parole board dispute

Published

3 months ago

November 23, 2025

Fetterman’s new book details explosive feud with Gov Josh Shapiro over parole board dispute

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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapio a “f—— a——” during a hot mic moment amid a heated Zoom hearing, his new memoir reveals.

Fetterman, who was the state’s lieutenant governor at the time, recalled delivering the outburst after Shapiro delivered a “very long-winded and unnecessary” speech justifying his decision to vote against commuting the sentences of Lee and Dennis Horton, the New York Post reported.

The Lee brothers had been convicted of second-degree murder in a fatal 1993 robbery and shooting.

FETTERMAN FIRES BACK AT NEWSOM AFTER SHUTDOWN CRITICISM, REFUSES TO ‘PLAY CHICKEN’ WITH THE LIVES OF AMERICANS

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro arrive to speak during a Democratic National Committee (DNC) rally in Philadelphia. (Getty Images)

The hearing was part of the Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons meeting when Shapiro expressed concerns that transcripts from the siblings’ original trial were missing, Fetterman wrote in the memoir, titled: “Unfettered.”

In response, Fetterman became angry. At one point during a private meeting, he threatened to run for governor in 2022 and pull Shapiro into a primary.

“I told him there were two tracks — that one and the one in which he ran for governor and I ran for the Senate (which was the one I preferred),” Fetterman wrote in his new book, “Unfettered,” as excerpted by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I had no interest in friction, only in what I felt was justice,” he added.

The book reportedly details how Shapiro’s people reached out to Fetterman.

“He wanted me to retract things I had said and to deny the rumors about the private meeting taking place,” Fetterman wrote. “That wasn’t going to happen.”

In December 2020, the board voted to commute the Hortons’ sentences. Fetterman eventually invited Dennis Horton to be his guest at the 2023 State of the Union address.

FETTERMAN SAYS HE KNOWS AND LOVES TRUMP VOTERS: ‘I’M THE ONLY DEMOCRAT IN MY FAMILY’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., talks with West Point cadets in the Senate in 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

However, his relationship with Shapiro never recovered.

“I sincerely wish him the best,” Fetterman wrote of the governor. “He is a credit to the state and may one day be a credit to the country. I remember fondly the days when we were nobodies trying to climb the ladder. Even if we no longer speak.”

The roots of the feud on the parole board stemmed from who was granted parole or a pardon.

“I truly believed with all my heart that nobody I ever supported for a pardon was a danger to society. I was willing to stake my political career on it,” Fetterman wrote. “[Shapiro] was far more cautious, and at a certain point, I began to think that what was influencing him was not mere caution but political ambition.”

At one meeting, Shapiro voted against parole in 12 of 15 cases, causing Fetterman to break his reading glasses in frustration, the senator recalled.

“I believe what drove him to delay and deny applications was not the facts of a given case as much as a fear that someone whose sentence he’d commuted would go on to commit terrible violence on the outside,” Fetterman wrote.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at the Celebration of Freedom Ceremony during a “Wawa Welcome America” event on July 4, 2023, in Philadelphia. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Shapiro’s office for comment.

On Capitol Hill, Fetterman has clashed with his fellow Democrats because of his stance on working with the Trump administration and his support for Israel.

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Maine

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

Published

46 minutes ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.

In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.

As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.

The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.

Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.

Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”

After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.

Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.

In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.

First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.

Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.

Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.

Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.

If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.

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Massachusetts

Foul play suspected after human remains found in water in Shirley

Published

1 hour ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Foul play suspected after human remains found in water in Shirley

Human remains were discovered Wednesday in the water in Shirley, Massachusetts, and authorities suspect foul play.

Police in Shirley said in a social media post at 7:15 p.m. that they responded to “a suspicious object in the water near the Maritime Veterans Memorial Bridge on Shaker Road.” Massachusetts State Police later said the object was believed to be human remains.

The bridge crosses Catacoonamug Brook near Phoenix Pond.

The office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said a group of young people was walking in the area around 5:30 p.m. and “reported seeing what appeared to be something consistent with a body part in the water.”

Foul play is suspected, Ryan’s office said.

Authorities will continue investigating overnight into Thursday, and an increased police presence is expected in the area.

No further information was immediately available.

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