By Peter Hall | Senior Reporter
“Standing with workers also means making sure they are paid for every penny they are owed and the laws that protect them are followed and upheld … Every employer in Pennsylvania should be on notice: we will not tolerate you taking advantage of our youngest workers.” — Gov. Josh Shapiro, on the commonwealth’s settlement with Walmart over child labor violations.
Good Tuesday morning! The weather this autumn has been spectacular. And the good news is we’re in for two more warm and mostly sunny days today and Wednesday. The bad news? The week will end with rain and temperatures in the 40s, with the possibility of snow in places like the Poconos, leaving little doubt winter is around the corner.
Thank you for starting your day with us and for reading, sharing and supporting our work. Thank you. — Pete.
The settlement amount includes $7.68 million in administrative penalties and $142,785 in fines Walmart paid during the initial stages of an investigation by the state Department of Labor and Industry. (Getty Images)
By Peter Hall
Walmart has agreed to pay $7.8 million to settle alleged violations of Pennsylvania’s Child Labor Act at stores across the commonwealth, the Shapiro administration announced Monday.
Stemming from an investigation of minors injured while working in Walmart stores, the settlement also requires the company to take measures to ensure compliance and prevent future violations, the administration said in a statement.
The settlement amount includes $7.68 million in administrative penalties and $142,785 in fines Walmart paid during the initial stages of an investigation by the state Department of Labor and Industry. It is the largest such settlement in the commonwealth’s history, the statement said.
Old Main is Penn State’s administrative building on the University Park campus. (Emily Reddy/WPSU)
By Anne Danahy, WPSU
Penn State is the target of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit for its tuition policy on undocumented residents, becoming the 27th institution or state the DOJ has filed suit against.
Penn State's policy says that undocumented students can be eligible for in-state tuition if they meet the university's residency requirements. That includes going to a Pennsylvania high school for at least four years.
But the U.S. Department of Justice is challenging that. In a news release about the suit, the DOJ says the policy "unconstitutionally discriminates against U.S. citizens" who don't get the same reduced rate and that universities cannot give reduced tuition that's not available to all Americans.
A Penn State spokesman said the university is reviewing the complaint.
Crushed hickory nuts before they enter a press that will extract edible oil. (Photo courtesy of Liv Hamilton/Bloom Farm)
By Jessica Klein, Inside Climate News
If you’ve ever looked for a homegrown replacement for the imported olive, canola and palm oils that typically fill grocery store aisles and home kitchens, there’s a small but growing alternative. A network of sustainability enthusiasts is now making oil from a resource native to Pennsylvania, one of the fastest-growing hubs for this production—bitternut hickory trees.
“We have this staple oil crop on the East Coast of North America that no one looks at as oil,” said Brian Nana-Sinkam, head of product at Third Place Processing in Oley, Pennsylvania, which houses presses that extract edible oil from hickory nuts, “and we import all of the oil that we consume.”
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that American vegetable oil imports cost $10.9 billion, making the U.S. the second-largest global market for cooking oils that year. The global industry relies on mass shipping and other environmentally unsound practices, like deforestation abroad. At home, farmers look to herbicides to profitably grow mass-produced oil.
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. (Photo by Amy Sparwasser/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences just closed – a blow for budding young scientists like me
By Lili Mei Granda Argianas, The Conversation
When I was a freshman in college at Villanova University outside Philadelphia, I visited the Academy of Natural Sciences for the first time.
My friends who were Philly natives were my tour guides, and I was inspired by their passion for the exhibits. I listened not only to the facts they shared about the museum, but also their childhood stories surrounding it.
As a kid, I remember going to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and looking up at the massive dinosaur displays. I wondered how creatures as big as those used to walk the same ground as me. My favorite exhibit was the Hall of Ocean Life, where behind the staircase you see a dark, unlit diorama of a giant squid attached to a sperm whale.
The museum gave my curiosity a place to grow.
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TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Hegseth attacks civilian-led education in Naval War College speech: As calls for his resignation and impeachment grow in Washington, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came to the U.S. Naval War College in Newport Monday to announce a sweeping effort to strip military education of what he called its overly civilian influences.
Trump open to immigration deal, calls crackdown ‘too tough,’ despite Miller promotion: President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday his mass deportation campaign, which helped propel his return to the Oval Office, had gone too far and potentially led to Republicans losing the U.S. House and Senate in the midterm elections.
ICYMI
Pennsylvania's Democratic trifecta renews calls to join National Popular Vote compact: Democrats’ midterm victories in Pennsylvania and other swing states have prompted renewed interest in an alternative to the Electoral College that proponents have urged the commonwealth to join.
Democrats in Pa. now can push forward on issues like election reform and minimum wage increases: The 2026 midterm elections changed the balance of power in Washington, D.C. It also proved to be a pivotal election in Pennsylvania. Gov. Josh Shapiro handily defeated Republican challenger Stacy Garrity, the current state treasurer. Not only that, it looks like Democrats will expand their majority in the state House and have flipped the state Senate, earning a 26-24 majority.
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