This summer, a tiny borough in northern Pennsylvania nearly saw its government implode after one hire drew intense local and national scrutiny that set off a string of resignations.

The first person to resign was Timothy Loehmann, a former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, and was later fired for not disclosing that a prior employer had deemed him unfit for duty.

The Tioga Borough Council's decision to hire Loehmann to be its only full-time police officer followed a long line of troubling actions taken by the small community's leaders, and exposed the limits of a statewide hiring database for law enforcement.

Read Spotlight PA's full report: Grudges, tribalism, and infighting rife in Pennsylvania borough that hired the cop who killed Tamir Rice.

THE CONTEXT: Pennsylvania has more than 2,500 cities, towns, townships, and boroughs, and their governments have varying levels of oversight.

In small municipalities like Tioga, local officials control a wide range of critical services, and their personal conflicts can influence otherwise mundane operations.

No borough official has taken direct responsibility for the choice to hire Loehmann, but in the fallout of the decision, finger-pointing and public arguments revealed a dysfunctional dynamic among town leaders.

The incident also showed the limits of the 2020 law Act 57, which requires a database of certain misconduct records for law enforcement to be checked during hiring. employment records of law enforcement to be used during hiring.

Attorney General (and now Gov.-elect) Josh Shapiro reprimanded the Tioga Borough Council in a July letter saying it had not complied with the law. But the investigation found Shapiro's letter to be misleading at best, and regardless Loehmann's record would not have been included in the database because he had not previously worked in Pennsylvania.

A June Spotlight PA investigation found that the database, championed by Shapiro, is hampered by loopholes and a lack of enforcement mechanisms.

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A festive hare sculpture in Villanova. Thanks Don N.! Send us your photos by email, use #PAGems on Instagram, or tag us @spotlightpennsylvania.

JET LOG: A fighter jet that graced Philly's skies Monday morning was escorting a civilian aircraft out of restricted airspace, Billy Penn reports. 

LOTTERY LOTS: LNP's The Scribbler column explains the lottery system through which lots were sold in early American towns like Millersville.

ALL ABOARD: Amtrak announced new trains will replace the decades-old fleets on the Pennsylvanian, Keystone, and Northeast Regional routes.

PHONE HOME: The installers of a refurbished and wifi-capable payphone newly set up inside Philly's Iffy Books hope the device can kickstart a revival of public communications infrastructure.

SIGN SEEKERS: Redditor u/jbilous shares swanky and slightly eerie nighttime photos of lit vintage electric signs in Milford. David Lynch would approve.