This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Pennsylvania Democrats picked up two significant wins this week in elections to fill vacant seats in the General Assembly. McKeesport police officer Dan Goughnour won a contest to fill a vacancy in House District 35, helping Democrats retain their one-seat majority in the state House. Meanwhile, the party pulled off a surprise win in the 36th Senate District as Democrat James Andrew Malone defeated the Republican nominee, Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, to flip the seat from red to blue.

Philadelphia’s own Will Smith returned home to West Philadelphia this week to celebrate the naming of the intersection at North 59th Street and Lancaster Avenue as “Will Smith Way,” according to 6abc. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other city leaders also attended the renaming ceremony, according to Fox29, and Smith told a story about how his “Fresh Prince” nickname was born at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia.

A strike was threatened, but on Wednesday, Philadelphia’s only fully public college announced that its campus and classrooms would remain open thanks to its eleventh-hour deal with AFT Local 2026, which represents the school’s faculty and staff. The agreement provides for higher wages, smaller class sizes and free transportation – and resolves some 14 months of negotiating, with employees reportedly working without a contract since last August.

Philadelphia’s window on the world has been shut for over a month, thanks to vandalism, technical malfunctions and funding issues. The broadcast art installation drew enthusiastic crowds when it debuted in October in LOVE Park, offering two-way livestreams with cities in Ireland, Lithuania and Poland. But in contrast to its four international counterparts – all of which have broadcasted unperturbed – Philly’s Portal has suffered a cracked screen, a displacement to accommodate the Christmas Village market and, a few weeks ago, the theft of its copper wiring. While sources say its wonky video will fire up again later this week, the Portal awaits a move to an as-yet-unannounced location as well as, hopefully, a new screen. Seeing is believing.

Alarm bells quickly went off in January when LaTarsha Brown, an Allentown municipal employee, reported that she’d found a noose on her desk. The incident drew protests as well as an FBI hate-crime investigation. But it all quickly unraveled when Brown refused to voluntarily provide the DNA sample requested by the investigation – which found that hers was the only genetic material on the noose. Now Brown, an Allentown School Board member, is charged with making false reports and tampering with and fabricating physical evidence.

The borough of Red Lion in York County was scammed out of $65,000 as part of an alleged phishing scheme that has an Indiana woman facing felony charges. According to the York Dispatch, Robbie Ann Golston-McNair was charged with receiving stolen property and other charges after the borough was tricked into wiring more than $65,000 to someone purporting to work for a law firm with which the borough had recently done business. The episode underscores the dangers of phishing attempts and other cyber threats on government entities.