By Tim Lambert | Editor-in-chief
“Why was my letter not true to what we’re talking about now? That’s a good question. There was some truth — I guess I can’t answer that. I don’t know how to answer that.” — Mahoning Township Police Chief Frederick Dyroff III, on a letter he read at a township supervisors meeting that seemed to characterize his department’s role in an ICE raid as more of supervisory when it appears to have been a more active one.
A good Monday morning to you. With the November election just about two weeks away, we’re here to remind you that today is the deadline to register to vote to cast a ballot this year.
Also today, the state law — known as Act 57 — goes into effect. It prohibits sales in Pennsylvania of electronic nicotine delivery systems — like disposable vapes, e-cigarettes and e-liquids — that do not appear in the state Attorney General Office’s directory. Attorney General Dave Sunday said his office plans to do targeted enforcement and that penalties will be graduated in accordance with the law for repeat offenders.
Thanks for starting your day with us and supporting our work. I hope you have a good one. — Tim
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s badge and weapon are seen as ICE conducts a vehicle checkpoint on Georgia Avenue on Aug. 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
By Ian Karbal
While questions remain over how a Sept. 2 Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Montour County unfolded, emails between ICE and a participating police department shed more light on what happened.
Along with further interviews with law enforcement, the emails obtained through public records requests also show police chiefs — particularly Mahoning Township’s Frederick Dyroff III — downplayed the scope of the raid and their role in it.
The records also confirm some of the accounts of witnesses who claim the total number of arrests made in connection with the operation was far higher than federal and local authorities have stated. It’s still unclear how many people were ultimately detained.
The ICE operation last month – assisted by police – led to the arrests of a number of immigrant workers leaving a construction site on the Geisinger Medical Center campus in Danville.
State Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) speaks at a rally Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, where business owners and volunteer organizations urged lawmakers to pass legislation to legalize and tax skill games. (Photo by Peter Hall/Pennsylvania Capital Star)
By Peter Hall
Pennsylvania’s skill game industry grew for more than a decade in a legal gray area where courts said the commonwealth’s gambling laws couldn’t touch them.
That changed earlier this year, when the state Supreme Court said the estimated 70,000 skill game machines in small businesses and private clubs across the state were, in fact, unlicensed slot machines and therefore illegal.
Now, those machines sit unplugged and dark, awaiting transfer to storage and an uncertain fate, after state lawmakers were unable to reach a compromise to tax and regulate the industry before the high court’s ruling took effect Oct. 14.
The General Assembly’s inaction, with only five days left in the current session, means a multi-billion dollar revenue stream for thousands of businesses and organizations, such as volunteer fire companies, will, at least temporarily, disappear.
Work continues on the new QTS data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah, on April 17, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Tim Henderson of Stateline
The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures.
Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the transcontinental tracks that would connect America from coast to coast.
Railroads in the 19th century consumed about $173 billion in today’s dollars and created more than 2% of the nation’s annual economic output (GDP) over 20 years.
Today’s data center buildout will dwarf that amount.
Mardys Leeper of Radnor, Delaware County, is one of several hundred rally goers at a No Kings event to promote early voting Saturday, Oct 17, 2026, in Media, Delaware County. (Photo by Peter Hall/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
By Peter Hall
Signs catalogued a litany of grievances and criticism of President Donald Trump, his cabinet and hangers on at a No Kings event Saturday morning in the square outside the Delaware County Courthouse in Media.
The way to halt and reverse the erosion of rights under the Trump administration is to vote, speakers and performers told the crowd of several hundred who gathered in the chilly October weather.
“We want our democracy back, and we want it much better than it used to be, too,” Neil Goldstein said as he prepared to lead a group of congregants from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County.
They held signs showing milestones in voting rights from the removal of property ownership as a requirement to vote in the 1800s to the “evisceration” of the Voting Right Act in 2026. Near the end of the line, Mardys Leeper of Radnor held a placard reading “This November Vote Like Your Rights Depend On It.”
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TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Penn State scraps Flock cameras on campus: Penn State is not renewing its agreement with Flock Safety and is instead ending the use of the company’s security cameras on the University Park campus.
Here’s how the No Kings day of action urged early voting: With the general election approaching and early voting underway in dozens of states, people across the nation took to the streets Saturday to urge their friends and neighbors to get out and vote.
Democrats could flip legislative chambers, break GOP supermajorities: Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country — including the Pennsylvania Senate — as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found.
Immigrants from Ukraine, Sudan could soon lose protected status: More than 100,000 Ukrainians and roughly 2,000 Sudanese immigrants are bracing for the possibility they’ll lose their humanitarian protections by Monday.
Philly voters wonder if their ballot matters (commentary): Less than 30 days ahead of the 2026 midterms and almost nobody I talk to in Philadelphia is excited. Not my neighbors. Not my students or colleagues at Temple University, where I research and teach political communication and public opinion. Not even my politically engaged friends.
ICYMI
PAC for nurse practitioner independence releases candidate surveys: In a continued push to practice to the full extent of their licensing and training, the lobbying group for nurse practitioners is pressuring state legislative candidates to commit to change ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Pa. AG accuses insulin makers, PBMs of insulin ‘pricing scheme’: State Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office claims that more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy middlemen worked together to “artificially” inflate insulin prices by more than 1,000%.
Overall health of the Chesapeake Bay gets highest score in two decades: The Chesapeake Bay earned a C+ on the annual report card that calculates improvements or losses in key indicators of health and conditions in the estuary and surrounding areas. This is the highest the Bay has ever scored since the record-keeping began in 2006.
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