By Tim Lambert | Editor-in-chief
“I hope PDA (Pennsylvania Department of Aging) will take a good look in the mirror and do what’s best for older Pennsylvanians. Now isn’t the time to point fingers and make personal attacks. It is time to do what’s right and improve the system they created to oversee investigations of elder abuse.” — State Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, whose office released an audit of the department.
A good Thursday morning to you. We’re just a day away from starting the final weekend in September.
When looking up a little factoid about Pennsylvania history for today’s Morning Guide, I came across something that I’d never heard of before. On this day in 1950, the area known as the Pennsylvania Wilds started to slip into darkness at around 3 p.m.
The Wilds cover a 13-county area that includes Cameron, Centre, Elk, Jefferson and Warren. And on September 24, 76 years ago, it found itself cloaked under a mass of black clouds as if it were nighttime. After several hours, daytime returned — but just in time for the usual arrival of night.
The cause was never determined.
Thanks for starting your day with us. As always, we deeply appreciate you reading, sharing and supporting our work. -- Tim
A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer cards for food aid is displayed at a grocery store in California. New data shows millions of Americans have lost food stamps since the passage of a major law last year. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
By Kevin Hardy of Stateline
Tens of thousands of Americans continue to lose access to food assistance each month, even as Congress debates slowing down major cuts to federal food stamps.
New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows more than 330,000 Americans lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, between May and June, the latest numbers available.
More than 5 million people have lost food stamps since the enactment last July of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut taxes and federal safety net programs. The law changed SNAP eligibility rules, ended certain work requirement exemptions and shifted new costs to states that administer the federal program.
According to the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), Pennsylvania saw a 12% decrease in SNAP participation from July 2025 to June 2026. The number of Pennsylvanians who lost access to food assistance over that time span went from 1,937,908 to 1,714,398 — a drop of 223,510 people.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor speaks during a news conference at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (Commonwealth Media Services)
By Peter Hall
A new system for evaluating the performance of county offices that investigate claims of elder abuse fails to protect the commonwealth’s senior citizens, an audit found.
It was conducted by state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, who released the results Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging, which was the subject of the audit, offered a 30-page response to the findings, saying that the auditor general’s office conducted its probe as the agency was rolling out the new system.
A firefighter watches as the Gifford Fire burns on Aug. 6, 2025, in Los Padres National Forest in California. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
By Marie Cusick of Inside Climate News
In February 2023, George Garrow jumped in his car and hurried to help people impacted by a freight train that had derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.
The crash happened about a quarter-mile west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line and sent plumes of toxic smoke and hazardous chemicals into the air above the small town. A medical doctor by training, Garrow was on his way there when it dawned on him that he was in over his head.
“I realized I don’t know the first thing about what we were supposed to do to care for someone who may be exposed to an environmental pollutant,” he said.
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Mothers in Charge, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization that serves families impacted by gun violence, hosts a holiday toy giveaway on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (Photo by Sammy Caiola / Chalkbeat)
By Sammy Caiola of Chartbeat
About a third of all shooting victims in Philadelphia this year were age 22 or under, or what the School District of Philadelphia calls “school-aged youth.”
That ratio has held steady since 2024, even as the total number of shooting victims has been declining, according to city data. It’s why district analysts are taking a closer look at which youth get shot, and where and when those shootings occur.
Of the 230 school-aged youth who were shot during the 2025-2026 school year, 34% — or 78 students — were active School District of Philadelphia students, 55% were former students, and the rest were never enrolled with the district. The number of shootings of active students has been decreasing annually since 2022.
TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Voters to decide fate of state taxes this fall: This fall, voters in at least nine states will decide whether to cut, cap or raise taxes through ballot measures that will give them a direct hand in steering state tax policy in a conservative or progressive direction.
False birth control claims are proliferating, survey says: More than half of women of reproductive age have seen or heard the false claim that hormones in contraceptives are harmful, and about 4 in 10 have been exposed to the false idea that hormones in contraceptives limit your ability to get pregnant in the future, according to a new survey.
ICYMI
Clearfield County commissioners approve ICE contract extension: The Clearfield County commissioners voted Tuesday to extend a contract to operate the Moshannon Valley Processing Center on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after hearing strong public pushback.
Pa.’s top election official says midterms will be business as usual: Following the defeat of the Trump administration’s push to implement new United States Postal Service rules that could have limited mail voting, Pennsylvania’s top election official Al Schmidt wants to assure voters that this election will work like any other.
Could abandoned mines house Pennsylvania’s unwanted data centers?: Almost nobody wants a data center for a neighbor. Residents fear noise and air pollution, excessive energy and water use and the loss of open land. In Pennsylvania, a hot spot for new data centers, researchers see an opportunity to solve some of these issues by taking advantage of a much older environmental hazard: abandoned coal mines.
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