Another Seamus scandal, an honor for the Boyle boys and an exciting special election. See who made this week’s list!

Seamus McCaffery. Last year, the Supreme Court Justice was felled by an infamous scandal over pornographic emails. This week, the Inquirer finally got to the bottom of an even more serious breach of conduct. It turns out the reports that the Justice was referring clients to his wife were true, as the couple made $1.2 million in referral fees from the arrangement. Besides the obvious conflict of interest, the reports also validate previous Inquirer stories that McCaffery vigorously fought. When the Justice agreed to resign, however, the Judicial Conduct Board dropped all investigations into McCaffery’s activities so it’s unclear if this matter will ever be adjudicated.

The Boyle Brothers. Congressman Brendan Boyle and State Representative Kevin Boyle have likely already made their parents very proud. A presidential shout-out, though, couldn’t have hurt. The Boyle family attended the White House’s St. Patrick’s Day Reception with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. In his remarks, the President praised not only the Boyle brothers but also their father who emigrated from Ireland. It will be tough to top that next March 17th.

Penn State University. This week brought the disturbing news that members of the PSU fraternity Kappa Delta Rho were taking photos of nude and unconscious women and sharing them through their Facebook group. Perhaps just as distressing were the tone-deaf responses from the school’s leaders and students. In one stunning example, a member of the fraternity defended the group to Citified’s Holly Otterbein by claiming that their actions were “satire”. The same day, President Eric Barron criticized the media for supposedly impeding the investigation through a rush to judgment. The Patriot-News wrote a powerful op-ed pointing out why Penn State – of all places – should know better. It is far past time for the entire university to shift their focus onto the actual victims and away from their own inexplicable sense of victimhood.

Sarah Del Ricci. On paper, this Tuesday’s special election in HD-170 should be an easy win for the Democrats. Thanks to internal fighting and a spirited campaign from GOP nominee Martina White, though, the race is anything but over. Del Ricci came out swinging this week in response, with endorsements from numerous labor groups including the AFL-CIO. Then, her campaign announced Allyson Schwartz and Ed Rendell will join the candidate on the trail in the closing days. Tuesday night is sure to be interesting.

Kenyatta Johnson. While the Philadelphia Democratic Mayoral Primary has gotten a lot of (deserved) attention, there is another heated, high-profile battle taking place in the City of Brother Love. City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson is taking on real estate developer Ori Feibush and the former recently won some real labor support. First, he received the endorsement of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO and then he picked up the backing of the PGW Employees’ Union. It’s still very early but the incumbent is securing establishment support that could pay off later.

The tweet of the week goes to Philadelphia Magazine’s Joel Mathis for this striking shot of protesters at a town hall meeting featuring Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and District Attorney Seth Williams.

https://twitter.com/joelmmathis/status/578724404206665728