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1. Gov's office fights to block records related to sexual-harassment scandal

By Todd Shepherd

Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration is fighting in two separate lawsuits to block the release of documents and other information that could shed more light on the sexual harassment allegations that forced the resignation of his top deputy, Mike Vereb, in September 2023.

In both cases, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has ruled that many of the documents should be turned over in response to requests by Broad + Liberty. The legal fight already unearthed in February that the administration completely deleted the email account of Vereb’s accuser after she suddenly quit in March 2023, and the governor’s office has refused to say when the account was deleted.

Why It Matters. The evolution of the scandal suggests more of an unraveling than of anything to being put to rest. An email account deleted at an unknown time, a “get stuff done” executive who didn’t know about accusations against his most trusted deputy, legal exclusions to withhold documents that were easily dismissed by courts, and now court cases seeking to bar documents — all these cut against the brand of the politician who made his fame prosecuting the Catholic Church for its handling of sexual abuse in its ranks.

The administration claims their policy required disclosure only to those with a ‘need to know’ — but has never explained who decided the governor of Pennsylvania didn’t need to know about cabinet-level sexual harassment, or why his top deputies knew within a week but he didn’t know for months.

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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2. To run for office, City Council members should quit their day jobs.

From the Editors

‘Resign to run’ is the only thing Philly does better than the rest of the country. Of course, the career politicians in City Council want to change it.

For the fourth time in 20 years, City Council is trying to repeal the rule that requires city politicians to resign their jobs if they want to run for another public office. The voters are required to approve any change to Philadelphia’s charter, and in the past they have often — wisely — rejected attempts by city council to remove the reform-minded provisions that restrict their behavior in office.

Why It Matters.

Philadelphia’s City Charter was enacted at the high tide of civic reform in the city, following 70 years of unbroken and increasingly corrupt domination of city politics by the Republican Party machine. The corruption was so deep and so pervasive that reform-minded Republicans and independents joined with the much weaker Democratic Party apparatus to win elections and submit a good government charter to the voters in 1951. They were led by a wide collection of local notables, including the Committee of Seventy, which had long advocated honest government in Philadelphia.

Since then, machine politicians have ceaselessly tried to repeal all of the good-government parts of the charter, to return Philadelphia to the old “corrupt and contended” city of pre-charter days. The only thing different is that the machine running things is now called “Democratic,” not “Republican.”

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3. Lightning Round

4. What we're reading.

Did you know there are some people who think the Covid pandemic is ongoing and as dangerous as ever? Like the last Japanese soldiers emerging from island jungles in the 1970s, they persist in their social isolation and N95 mask-wearing as though nothing has changed since that fateful two weeks (which turned into a year and a half) to flatten the curve. At UnHerd this week, Ryan Zickgraf writes about the small but fanatical far-left group that wants to keep America locked in the failed public health mindset of 2020 — forever.

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