No April Fool’s Day jokes here. Now that March is in the rearview mirror, we offer our salute to the final week of the third month of the year. I think we gave more downs than ups, but that’s because it was so cold earlier in the week.

Congrats to all the PIAA boys’ and girls’ basketball champions and best wishes to the Villanova Wildcat men’s basketball quintet who meets Kansas in Saturday’s Final Four.
Conor Lamb. Fresh off the heels of the internal memo that indicated to potential donors that the U.S. Congressman needed to change the game, Emerson College released a poll on Thursday that revealed Lamb was down by 23 points to John Fetterman for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

West Chester Area School Board Dems. A months-long dispute over masks in the Chester County school district culminated Tuesday in a judge ordering all five Democrats on the school board to be immediately removed from office. The order stemmed from a petition a parent filed in February, asking the Chester County Court of Common Pleas to remove the school board members on the grounds that they had voted in August 2021 to make masks mandatory in the district’s schools. In his order that the five Democratic members of the board be “removed from office,” Judge William Mahon wrote that his decision came after there was “no response” to the petition by the school district or its counsel. Four other Chester County school districts — Downingtown, Tredyffrin/Easttown, Great Valley, and Coatesville — have also filed similar petitions.
John Fetterman. The Pennsylvania lieutenant governor earned his arrow after declining to appear at this Sunday’s Democratic Senate debate at Muhlenberg College. Fetterman’s campaign did indicate that he would be present at two debates later in the month and another in May, but gave no explanation for his absence from Allentown.

Kathy Barnette, Lou Barletta and Clarice Schillinger. The trio of Republicans drew the top post position during the casting of lots at the Department of State on Wednesday. All three will be listed first on the GOP primary ballot for their respective election. In a 2004 study of New York statewide races with 4+ candidates, the top name received more than 25 percent of the vote, providing an advantage of between 1.6 and 2.3%.

Carla Sands, Jake Corman and Teddy Daniels. The three GOP candidates drew the last post position on Wednesday with Sands coming in at No. 7 and Corman and Daniels at No. 9. The same NY study stated in races with low name recognition and no party affiliation listed, voters may choose another cue, such as which name is listed first.

Summer Lee. The state representative from the 34th District received an endorsement from The 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club, representing an area that has more registered Democrats in it than many entire Pennsylvania counties. She also did not receive an endorsement from the Allegheny County Democrats, who opted to favor Steve Irwin.

YouTube. YouTube took down the recorded livestream video of last Thursday’s Pennsylvania Family Institute Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Forum at Cairn University in Langhorne.The Institute received an email from YouTube on Sunday that read, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our misinformation policy. We’ve removed the following content from YouTube: [the Gubernatorial Forum Livestream].” “YouTube offered no specifics of what is alleged to be in violation, beyond indicating that it had to do with content related to the 2020 Presidential election,” said Michael Geer, PFI president, in a statement. YouTube restored the video a week later without explanation.

Cris Dush. The Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee chairman from Jefferson County held a hearing to investigate election integrity issues, specifically the security of ballot drop boxes. Dush refused to swear in testifiers, including Lehigh County Republican Party Chair Joseph Vinchot, as he had when Stewart Ulsh of Franklin County testified in September. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) and Vince Hughes (D-Philadelphia) objected and left the meeting. After the hearing, Dush said he realized after the September meeting that he did not need to swear panelists in, and that he wanted the meeting to be more “informative and free-flowing.”

The U.S. men’s national soccer team qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The USMNT missed the 2018 World Cup in Russia but rebounded behind so-called “Captain America” – Christian Pulisic of Hershey. Team USA is in Group B with England, Iran and the winner of the final European playoff: Scotland, Ukraine or Wales. The opening match is November 21.