From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Delaware Director of Finance Rick Geisenberger said his department and the Department of Labor still plan to fulfill their promise to update state lawmakers this month on their investigation into a former DOL employee’s theft of taxpayer funds.

To make good on that vow, the agencies must submit their report to the General Assembly within the next week.

WHYY News reported exclusively in May that former unemployment insurance administrator Michael Brittingham stole about $181,000 from the unemployment insurance trust fund last year. He took his own life in April 2023 shortly after he was told he was under investigation.

Lawmakers received letters in June from the DOL, the finance department and the auditor of accounts promising to give lawmakers an accounting of the embezzlement last month. Those letters came after groups like the Delaware Coalition for Open Government (DelCOG) began calling for investigations and hearings into what happened and why it was not made public until it was uncovered in WHYY News’ reporting. WHYY News obtained a copy of the letters, which were not made public by the agencies themselves.

DELCOG spokesperson John Flaherty said the group was planning to ask the U.S. Department of Labor to get involved because of the lack of transparency by Gov. John Carney’s administration about the theft.

“We have a known embezzlement of state funds from a fund that is so screwed up that the auditor says they can’t even audit that fund,” Flaherty said. “There’s a deep abiding interest in the public and making sure that the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is being operated in the public good.”

In the June letters to lawmakers, DOL Secretary Karryl Hubbard and Geisenberger argued that not disclosing embezzlement of taxpayer funds was the right move while acknowledging state lawmakers’ supervisory role.

“We fully understand the General Assembly’s important oversight responsibilities,” the administration leaders said. “We are committed to ensuring that you and your colleagues have accurate information and access to a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

Hubbard and Geisenberger promised the General Assembly it would get “a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

However, Geisenberger told WHYY News the report would only go to the legislative leadership, which consists of five Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and five in the House. He did not respond to a question about why it would not go to all lawmakers if he and Hubbard were committed to making sure all lawmakers had accurate information.

Flaherty said the Carney administration doesn’t get to decide who is entitled to information about the theft of taxpayer funds.

“Members of the Executive Cabinet — the Division of Accounting, Department of Labor — for them to say we’re going to pick and choose who gets to read a public document is outrageous,” he said. “This is a public document, about an incident that affected the public and everybody has the right to observe and monitor the actions of our public officials. That’s in the law.”

Arnold never ‘attended or earned degree from Ohio University’

After police announced his arrest, WHYY News spoke with three close relatives who said Arnold never lived in Ohio or went to college there, either in person or virtually.

When WHYY News initially asked Lawson last week about Arnold’s possible falsification of his resume, she said the state — not the district — is responsible for verifying academic credentials that allow educators to get salary enhancements.

“The ultimate verifier of doctoral degrees, and master’s degrees … is the Delaware Department of Education,” Lawson said. “We have a letter on file from DDOE that verifies every employee’s graduate credential/licensure in order for that employee to be paid at the doctoral level.”

The state’s searchable public certification website, known as DEEDS (Delaware Educator Data System), shows that Arnold has a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Ohio University’s main campus in the town of Athens. No doctorate in philosophy is listed.

While waiting for an answer from Ohio University last week about whether Arnold graduated or attended the school, WHYY News asked the Department of Education how officials certified that he had the degrees he had claimed.

A reporter also informed the state that relatives said he never lived in Ohio and the school did not offer advanced psychology degrees online.

Education Secretary Mark Holodick, a former Brandywine superintendent, and other state education officials would not agree to be interviewed about Arnold and his credentials.

But spokesperson Alison May replied in writing that Arnold’s “applications for graduate salary increments were validated by DDOE. Ohio University did offer this doctorate at the time of his attendance.”

May’s email did not explain how the state verified the degrees.

Dan Pittman, Ohio University’s communications director, later confirmed, however, that Arnold never “attended, or earned a degree from, Ohio University at any time.”

WHYY News shared that disclosure by the university with May, who several hours later sent a written statement acknowledging that the salary boost based on Arnold having a doctorate “was approved in error.”

May added that the state was trying to determine how that occurred.

“The department will be investigating how this approval was made and how to improve practices and our systems checks to prevent this kind of error from happening again,” May wrote. “We are alerting law enforcement, who will manage any investigation into potential false documentation.”

May also shared the state’s regulation for approving advanced degrees, and offered a partial explanation of how Arnold was able to exploit the state’s certification system.

The rule specifies that transcripts can be submitted by the university directly to the district, but that the state “in its discretion may also accept verification of an official transcript by other means if the authenticity of the transcript can be made.”

In Arnold’s case, May wrote that he applied for the higher salary when he was hired in October 2021, and “the transcripts used for this graduate salary increment (GSI) approval were submitted by the applicant directly.”

The state issued the approval letter in July 2022, and made his salary boost retroactive to his hiring date nine months earlier.

“The Department of Education recognizes your education level as a Doctorate Degree,” said the approval letter to Arnold and shared with Brandywine. WHYY News obtained the letter under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Asked for further explanation of how the fake transcripts were approved, May wrote that the state “can answer questions related to its findings once complete.”

Montagne said that in the past, when similar issues arose with an educator’s credentials, there usually weren’t “any repercussions. People are shocked and then nothing happens.”

But in Arnold’s case, where someone who faked advanced degrees has been charged with repeatedly raping a child, those responsible for the “ludicrous” error need to be disciplined and possibly fired, she said.

“Delaware’s a small state, so this wasn’t lost in bureaucracy,” Montagne said. “This is probably one or two people that aren’t doing their job. I don’t understand the reluctance that we have to just move on from people that are incompetent.”

Lawon said the debacle with Arnold’s degrees makes it painfully obvious that it’s time for the state, as well as all 19 Delaware school districts and charter schools, to double down on verifying that job candidates aren’t faking their credentials.

“This circumstance causes us all to look at our processes and procedures,” Lawson said. “After seeing what Ohio University wrote, what can we all do to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?”

You may not think it, given the extended heat wave that gripped much of the country this summer, but the Mid-Atlantic region has some of the best seasons and overall mild weather in the country, according to a recent WalletHub survey.

While they won’t compete with historically mild-weather locations in Arizona and California, New Jersey and New York both have cities that made WalletHub’s list.

Toms River, Trenton, Wilmington make list for mild weather

Average temperatures, best sky conditions and snow precipitation were among the factors WalletHub used to examine 600 cities in its “Cities With the Best and Worst Weather” findings.

Toms River ranked 47th on WalletHub’s list of cities with the mildest temperatures overall.

Trenton ranked 51st, Paterson ranked 56th; Jersey City and Union City tied are tied at 65th place.

Clifton and Passaic were also tied in the rankings in 67th place.

Camden ranked in 95th place, and Elizabeth and Newark were also tied at 97th place.

In Delaware, Bear, Middletown, Newark and Wilmington were tied at 63rd place in WalletHub’s “Mild Weather Overall” ranking.

Upstate New York has mild cities

Schenectady, New York, ranked 47th on WalletHub’s list, followed by New York City, ranked 65th.

Albany ranked 91st, and Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and Yonkers, were tied on WallutHub’s list in 96th place.

Rochester ranked 99th, while Buffalo, Canton and Cheektowaga were tied in 99th place,

Syracuse ranked 100th on WalletHub’s list.

Pennsylvania cities make WalletHub’s ‘Mild Weather Overall’ list

Allentown ranked 52nd on WalletHub’s “Mild Weather Overall” list, followed by Reading in 61st place and Philadelphia, which ranked 62nd.

Bethlehem ranked 76th, Scranton ranked 85th, Pittsburgh ranked 87th and Erie was ranked at 91.

Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region.