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By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN (CNN) — A number of forces on the left questioned Josh Shapiro’s ties to Israel during Kamala Harris’ rushed running mate selection process in 2024. In his new memoir out next week, the Pennsylvania governor says the former vice president and her vetting team were among them. So much so, Shapiro writes in a copy obtained by CNN, that Dana Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden who became a senior member of Harris’ VP vetting team, asked him, “Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?” “Was she kidding?” Shapiro writes. “I told her how offensive the question was.” “‘Well, we have to ask,’” Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden, said, according to his book. “‘We just wanted to check.’ She added: ‘Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?’” Shapiro’s anger was clearly rising. “If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” he wrote. “I calmly answered her questions. Remus was just doing her job. I get it. But the fact that she asked, or was told to ask that question by someone else, said a lot about people around the VP.” Shapiro, an observant Jew and a proud Zionist, was critical of some protests proliferating on college campuses as tensions rose following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the Israeli military’s response, warning that some of those demonstrations seemed to tip into antisemitism. Despite his condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, some voices on the left called him “Genocide Josh,” which they didn’t do with other politicians. Shapiro spent time in high school working on an Israeli kibbutz and as a volunteer on an Israeli army base. He also wrote an op-ed in college saying Palestinians “do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States,” and had a brief stint in the Israeli Embassy’s public affairs division at the beginning of his career. His staff has previously downplayed the volunteer work in Israel and work at the embassy, and he has said that his writing as college student does not reflect his current views. Harris had her own questions in their interview at the Naval Observatory, which Shapiro writes that he was heading to when he got the call. He writes that she asked him whether he would apologize for statements he made condemning the campus protests at the University of Pennsylvania. “‘No,’ I said flatly,” he writes. But he says he told her he felt he could still make the case for her, even in places like Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a sizable Arab American population and where the state’s “Uncommitted” movement during the 2024 Democratic primary took off. “She heard me and expressed how bad she felt that I had been getting hammered with the antisemitic attacks that she had witnessed throughout the process,” Shapiro writes. Days after Harris became the nominee in 2024, a top aide opted not to answer directly when asked whether the vice president still considered herself a Zionist. The New York Times first reported on the details from the memoir. Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder pointed out that this material is only one chapter of a larger memoir prompted by the firebomb attack on the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg last year on the first night of Passover. ​​“Gov. Shapiro wrote a very personal book about his faith, his family, and the people of Pennsylvania he has learned from and fought for throughout his life in public service,” Bonder said Sunday. A spokesperson for Harris did not respond when asked for comment. Remus could not be reached for comment. Deborah Lipstadt, the former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the Biden administration, wrote in a social media post that the more she reads about Shapiro’s “treatment in the vetting process, the more disturbed (I) become.” “The questions to him, I repeat, are why they needed a…

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Colder temperatures and the federal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday aren't keeping crews from making progress in the ongoing improvement project on 8th Street. Until now, it has generally affected northbound 8th Street, on the bridge over Fountain Creek, and the eastbound US 24 Frontage Road to Cimarron Street. But drivers are about to see impacts on southbound 8th Street. There have been recent traffic backups on northbound 8th Street across the Fountain Creek bridge due to an occasional right lane closure. Beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, and lasting four weeks, that lane will remain closed. The closure enables crews to rebuild sidewalks, driveways, and other street features. Here's some good news, though. After that work is completed, we'll finally see the new dedicated right turn lane open, from the bridge to the US 24 Frontage Road. Both lanes of that road have been closed since just before Christmas, with one lane briefly reopening for the holidays. As for the street impacts hinted at, south of the bridge, expect to see brief lane closures all the way to Motor City Drive. That will allow workers to find utility lines under 8th Street. Then, that work will switch to the northbound side. We're told it'll take a few days to finish all of it. Similar work will occur north of the bulk of the project, as crews locate utility lines at the intersection of 8th & Cucharras streets. All of the coming changes are to prepare for the next major phase of this project — replacing a water main under the affected stretch of 8th Street. Officials emphasize that access to adjacent businesses will remain open, and drivers are asked to avoid blocking driveways to businesses. The post More changes on 8th Street project in Colorado Springs start on Monday appeared first on KRDO.