The Women & Girls Foundation will host an issue briefing next week, called "Reproductive Health Care for Underserved Populations: Innovative Programming for Incarcerated Women and Minors."

A panel of experts will address efforts to improve reproductive health care for incarcerated women and the rights of minors to access confidential healthcare. Attendees will learn how partnerships, strategic thinking and a modest budget have led to changes across the state. There will also be discussion of reform efforts locally and state-wide to improve conditions for women's reproductive healthcare in jails, as detailed in the ACLU's report, Reproductive Health Locked Up.

The discussion will take place at 9 a.m. Wed., May 29, at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Avenue, Shadyside. The event is free, but registration is required. You can register for the event here.

Nancy Patton Mills, the chair of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, didn't mince words. City Councilor Darlene Harris cannot serve as a Democratic ward chair now that she's registered as an independent.

"I'll be speaking with her, probably tomorrow," Patton Mills says. "I'll ask if she'd like to send a letter resigning from the chairmanship." If Harris doesn't comply, "I'll just send her a letter and remove her."

Patton Mills cited a provision in the party rules asserting that "Any ... party officer who shall register as a member of any other political party shall cease to be a member of the County Committee or a party officer and his or her office shall be declared vacant."

The Post-Gazette, which first reported Harris' switch this morning, notes that Harris' move come on April 22 -- the last day she could switch her registration in time to run as an independent in the November election. There has been speculation that Harris may be pondering a challenge to Bill Peduto, who won the party's nomination for mayor in this week's primary, though Harris hasn't revealed her plans. She has until August 1 to file papers for a mayoral bid.

Patton Mills says that, while she heard rumors of Harris' switch yesterday -- and while "we kind of thought she might do it" -- she didn't have confirmation until today's P-G report. "I also have some questions about her acting as a ward chair since April 22," Patton Mills says.

Harris is chair of the city's 26th Ward committee, in the North Side. Patton Mills says that when a ward chair is removed, the ward's committeefolk would then be convened to select a new chair until 2014, when the party reorganizes itself after the spring primary. Should Harris re-register as a Democrat, the new ward chair could reappoint her to fill a suitable vacancy. Otherwise, Harris would have to run for a committee slot in the 2014 primary.

But that assumes Harris does not actually run for mayor. Jim Burn, who chairs the Democratic Party's statewide committee, says that under party rules, a committeeperson who supports anyone other than a Democrat in the general election can be barred from a committee post for two years. Patton Mills was unaware of that provision -- "This hasn't happened since I've been ward chair; it's a little new to me" -- but said that when it comes to either removing or reinstating Harris, "I will follow the bylaws. We go by the rules."

Sort of a funny piece of business in this Post-Gazette story about Bill Peduto's win in this week's mayoral primary:

One of Mr. Peduto's critics, city council President Darlene Harris, switched her registration from Democratic to independent a month before the primary. Beyond confirming her changed partisan status, however, Mrs. Harris would not elaborate on the switch...

She confirmed Wednesday that she temporarily changed her registration from Democrat to independent to keep her options open. She declined to say what those options might be.

Harris, of course, was a mayoral candidate herself for about 17 minutes. She dropped out to back Peduto's main rival, Jack Wagner, and in fact appeared in anti-Peduto ads to back up claims that Peduto is divisive.

Talk of a Harris candidacy might seem premature, if not sort of crazy. But SOME of us journos are experiencing withdrawal symptoms now that this mayoral race is over. So don't spoil this for me.

And there is a bit of precedent, anyway. The legendary Richard Caligiuri won as an independent back in 1977, running against Tom Foerster. And the circumstances there may be instructive: Caligiuri was at the time serving as interim mayor: He'd been city council president and then succeeded Pete Flaherty after Flaherty took a job in the Carter Administration. Harris, as city council president, would be similarly positioned if Mayor Luke Ravenstahl were to step down ... and I've already heard some suspicions -- not from anyone in a position to know -- that such a move might be in the works. (ADDED: And of course, given the swirl of ethics allegations involving the Ravenstahl administration, there's always a chance that he may not have a choice about leaving.)

In any case, the news that Harris, a ward chair in her North Side neighborhood, has dropped her Democratic registration has already prompted one Democrat to demand she be removed. Matt Hogue, a committeeman with a long history of opposing Wagner, has formally asked that Harris be stripped of her party post, in accordance with party bylaws. (Those require removal of party officers who "register as a member of any other political party"; it doesn't specifically address the case of people who register as independents, and thus have no party affiliation at all. I have calls in to Nancy Patton Mills on this matter, but I'd be surprised if the rules would be any different.)

A Harris candidacy would, presumably, seek to champion the cause of old-guard Democrats who opposed Peduto. But backing her could be risky: Jim Burn, who heads the Democratic Party's state apparatus, says any other committeefolk who support her may lose their party position.

"As far as the party's concerned, it's over," says Burn. "[Peduto] is the nominee. And everyone is expected to step up for him."

Of course, it's not unheard of for party officials to back candidates who aren't endorsed by party elders during primary season. For example, after City Controller Michael Lamb won the party's endorsement, state Rep. Ed Gainey had to step down as the chair of the city committee in order to publicly support Peduto. "In the primary, it's been a gray area," says Burn, with party officials allowed to take a leave of absence and later return.

But once the Democratic voters have had their say, Burn adds, "There is no such option in the fall. The party's bylaws are unequivocal: If you support anyone other than the Democratic nominee, you are removed, and you can't be reinstated for two years."

Incidentally: Democrats will be electing their committeepeople again in 2014. And back in 2006, the Peduto-friendly group Progress Pittsburgh ran a slate of some 50 people to become committeefolk. About half of them succeeded, mostly by seeking to fill vacant slots. A couple dozen committee folk don't have much of an impact in a party apparatus that numbers in the hundreds. But in light of Peduto's win, the progressives are riding high right now. If members of the Democratic old guard put their committee status at hazard between now and then, well ... there's always a risk that a year from now, they may not be members of the Democratic old guard any longer.

Yesterday's municipal primary was a big night for Pittsburgh -- the election not just of a new mayor, but of a new governing coalition -- even if the number of people paying attention was small.

City Councilor Bill Peduto won the primary, which will almost certainly make him the city's next mayor -- a post he has sought for the better part of a decade. Peduto won the race with 23,597 votes, according to an unofficial vote tally last night. Trailing Peduto's 52 percent share of the vote was former state Auditor General Jack Wagner (18,060 votes, or just under 40 percent of all ballots cast), and state Rep. Jake Wheatley, with 3,499 votes or 7.7 percent of the vote. AJ Richardson rounded out the Democratic field with 294 votes.

All told, only about 45,500 ballots were cast in the race, in an election where Democratic turnout countywide was just 23 percent. Despite(or because of) all the TV and radio ads, all the debates and candidate forums, all the money thrown around ... roughly the same number of people turned out for this year's race as showed up back in 2009, when Mayor Luke Ravenstahl faced only token opposition.

But the small number of votes mask what is a significant win not just for Peduto, but for the movement he has been heading up for the better part of the decade. Peduto's close council ally in district 4, Natalia Rudiak, beat challenger Johnny Lee by a 52.3-47.6 margin. And Peduto's own chief of staff, Dan Gilman, won a three-person race to fill the seat Peduto is vacating, city council district 8.

The win, as we suggested here yesterday, is the result of years of planning and coalition-building by Peduto, who has assiduously built a network of support while honing a sophisticated political team.

"It's huge; it's epic," said state Rep. Erin Molchany, a Peduto ally on hand for last night's boisterous victory celebration at the South Side headquarters of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Molchany, who was elected last year with the help of his own campaign team, said, "When you look at Natalia's win, Bill winning -- I think the possibilities are endless. I was looking out over the crowd tonight, and every subset of Pittsburgh was here: young and old, black and white. It was amazing."

Today is, obviously, a potentially historic day, pivotal for the future of our region. It's the day that Pittsburgh's men and women, workers and retirees, students and citizens of all kinds, go to the polls and ask themselves the question at the heart of our republic:

"Who the fuck are these judicial candidates?"

But there's a mayoral race too, as you may have heard. Later today, around the time the polls close, we'll be having updates and analysis all through Wednesday morning: A good place to follow the action might be my Twitter account, where I'll be posting updated incoming returns and who is getting drunk at the election-night parties. (Which, by the way: both the Wagner and Peduto campaigns are holding events on the South Side ... a few blocks away from each other. Add in the ever-present possibility that Luke Ravenstahl may drop in out the Rowdy Buck or some such, and it's a recipe for a vibrant bar scene. can't wait!)

In the meantime, to tide us over while the voters are busy having their say, a few thoughts about the campaign season that brought us to this point.