Good morning and welcome to Broad + Liberty's Weekly Reads.

Stay up to date on all of this and more when you subscribe to our daily email list and get the best of Broad + Liberty delivered straight to your inbox. 

1. Shapiro admin stonewalls on key HR policies in sexual harassment scandal

By Todd Shepherd
 

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is refusing to provide copies of the human resources policies that would support its central defense: that Shapiro was kept in the dark for months about sexual harassment allegations against a top aide with whom he had been personally close for years because those policies prevented him from being informed.

Additionally, new Right to Know documents obtained by this outlet show that within a week of the allegations first surfacing, both Shapiro’s chief of staff Dana Fritz and chief legal counsel Jennifer Selber knew of the allegations. That finding undercuts Shapiro’s public defense in which he specifically invoked these “two strong women” as trusted leaders the public could count on to handle sexual misconduct issues.

Why It Matters. Shapiro supposedly first knew of the allegations about the time the office was negotiating a settlement — that would be either July or August 2023. Yet Vereb didn’t leave until the last days of September, and the governor’s office has refused to answer the question why he was able to stay on for at least a month after Shapiro supposedly was informed. The same logic would apply equally to Fritz and Selber as well.

Shapiro’s spokesman didn’t refute the notion that the email showed Shapiro’s top-two women leaders were in the loop early on.

“It is the responsibility of the leadership of the Governor’s office to responsibly and legally adhere to personnel policies and procedures to ensure all complaints are fully investigated for legitimacy, employees and former employees’ rights and privacy are protected, and that everyone feels safe in their workplace,” Bonder said. “That is the standard our leadership followed in this instance and we stand by their decision making based on the circumstances of this case, which we unfortunately cannot share publicly due to our legal responsibility to protect the complainant’s privacy.”

Bonder then pointed the finger elsewhere.

“While others have leaked and shared that confidential information, we will not do so.”

Quotable. “This whole debacle has shown that no one bothered to protect her when she was an employee and had a legitimate, credible sexual harassment complaint against her direct supervisor. I didn’t realize protecting employees meant writing a check and making her sign a non-disclosure agreement.” – Rep. Abby Major

Continue Reading

2. McCormick promotes Pennsylvania in a most un-Pennsylvanian way

By Guy Ciarrocchi
 

It’s a tale of two outlooks. A tale of two different priorities. Of two different types of leaders.

Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick invited the President, much of his cabinet and almost 3 dozen of America’s top corporate executives from technology, energy, manufacturing, finance and workforce development to collaborate at his “Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit.”

The focus: America — not China — must win the battle to develop and use artificial intelligence. And Pennsylvania should lead the way to this new economy, with more natural gas energy than Saudi Arabia has oil, technology hubs, nuclear, coal and hydro-powered plants,  and countless universities and trade schools.

Why It Matters. Contrast this with Harrisburg. For the third time in three years, Pennsylvania doesn’t have a budget on time. For the third year in a row, Governor Shapiro is trying to spend more money than we have in revenue. For the third year in a row, he pushes “fixes” to allow him to spend more than we have: raise taxes, create new taxes and borrow from our savings.

The GOP-led State Senate is opposed to spending more than we have, raising taxes, and borrowing to fill Shapiro’s debt.

That’s the story of the last three years — and, frankly, for far too long. 

Continue Reading

3. Lightning Round

• Jeff Hurvitz: The decline and fall of late night TV

• Michael Smerconish: Let independent voters vote

• Marc LeBlond: Shapiro’s JFK moment on school choice

• Stephen Gambescia: Are our nonprofits being good innkeepers?

• Thom Nickels: Don’t ban books — or flags

• John Rossi: My wife and baseball

4. What we're reading

The economy is strong, illegal border crossings are at near zero, and the One Big Beautiful passed. There is plenty for the Trump administration to crow about. But the news cycle is nonetheless dominated by the Epstein files. Part of that is the mainstream media being determined never to give President Trump credit for anything good, but some of the blame must fall on the administration for handling this affair so poorly. 

At the Wall Street Journal this week the editors suggest just coming clean and putting the whole thing to rest. “If Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel are now telling the truth about the contents of the Epstein files, then what’s needed are officials who will take the responsibility—and then take the heat—for declining to publish documents that could hurt victims and ruin reputations without a criminal case.” 

It’s a sensitive matter – the files no doubt contain a mix of serious crimes and unproven allegations. Sort out what should and should not be public will require a series of difficult judgement calls, but that is what the President and his people were elected to do. It’s time to deliver — responsibly — on their campaign promise.