By Tim Lambert | Editor-in-chief
“There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. This is the wrong way. We’re in the middle of it. We shouldn’t be in the middle of it. I don’t want to even tangentially support this, and I think there’s a better way.” — Democratic Clearfield County Commissioner Dave Glass, who was the lone vote against extending a contract to operate the Moshannon Valley Processing Center on behalf of ICE.
A good Wednesday morning to you. Time to rise and grind with our top stories.
But first, it’s Luzerne County’s 240th birthday. On this day in 1786, the county was created by the commonwealth’s General Assembly. Its original boundaries covered what is now Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, as well as a portion of Bradford County.
Thanks for starting your day with us. As always, we deeply appreciate you reading, sharing and supporting our work. -- Tim
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center, with beds for about 1,800 people, is the largest ICE detention center on the east coast. Clearfield County serves as a pass-through for about $5 million a month in federal money that ICE pays private prison operator The GEO Group to run the center. The county receives $200,000 a year. (Photo by Ian Karbal/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
By Peter Hall
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.
Speakers called on the board to reject the six-month extension, citing three deaths and complaints about physical and psychological abuse, unfit food, lack of access to adequate health care, and retaliation for protesting the conditions.
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center, with beds for about 1,800 people, is the largest ICE detention center on the east coast. The county serves as a pass-through for about $5 million a month in federal money that ICE pays private prison operator The GEO Group to run the center. The county receives $200,000 a year.
A Pennsylvania mail-in ballot for a Bucks County voter (Photo by Tom Sofield)
As mail ballots begin to go out, Pa.’s top election official says midterms will be business as usual
By Ian Karbal
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.
“Having been a county election commissioner for 10 years, I know first hand how much preparation goes into every election, no matter what cycle or what’s going on in the political world outside of election administration,” he said. “I’m confident that eligible voters in Pa. can and should approach this election like they always do, which means voting by whichever method works best for them.”
The update was provided in a press conference six weeks before election day.
As it stands, Schmidt said roughly 986,000 mail ballot applications have been approved in Pennsylvania — or about 95% of those received.
An inky pool sits in the middle of an anthracite coal pile. (Photo by Jessica Klein/Inside Climate News)
By Jessica Klein of Inside Climate News
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.
Pennsylvania has the most abandoned coal mines in the country, totaling around 5,586 sites across the state. The state reports it would take roughly $5 billion to reclaim these polluted and sometimes dangerous areas, which have contaminated thousands of miles of waterways and are linked to underground fires, subsidence and sinkholes.
At the same time, local opposition to data centers is growing.
Building data centers on abandoned mine lands would provide an alternative to destroying farmlands or local forests, instead making use of already unwanted acreage.
Independent reporting on Pennsylvania state government that impacts communities statewide — free to read and republish.
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Bradford hospital submits closure notice. Ending emergency, inpatient and long-term care services by mid-2026. (Photo by Sydney Roach/WPSU)
By Sydney Roach of WPSU
The Pavilion, a long-term care facility at the former hospital in Bradford will close on or before December 1, according to Kaleida Health officials.
The Pavilion was originally scheduled to close around May. Earlier this year, Kaleida officials submitted a closure notice for the nursing facility and the hospital to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, pointing to escalating financial pressures.
The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, or LECOM, had been in talks to acquire parts of the hospital and the nursing facility. But, in a Sept. 8 meeting, LECOM’s Board of Directors voted not to acquire any of the medical campus, according to a Kaleida Health press release. Kaleida officials did not say why LECOM is pulling out of discussions.
TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Clancy case could spur action on postpartum depression, psychosis: The mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial earlier this month places her future in doubt, three years after she killed her three children in Duxbury, Massachusetts. But one potential outcome is a state legislative push to boost mental health support for new mothers.
States file new lawsuits against Trump’s payouts stopping offshore wind: An eight-state coalition filed lawsuits Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s payments to private companies to cancel offshore wind leases, escalating an ongoing legal battle over the government spending billions of dollars to block wind projects.
ICYMI
Black lung disease is still a threat in Pa., but delays remain in tackling it: In April of last year, the Trump administration paused the enforcement of a rule designed to help protect coal miners from an aggressive form of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung disease, the primary cause of which is exposure to silica dust. This April, the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced an indefinite delay in enforcement of the rule.
Diesel prices shoot upward as GOP senator calls for export embargo: Diesel prices hit a record average of $6.51 a gallon Monday, and some in President Donald Trump’s own party are breaking their support for the ongoing war in Iran that has driven fuel prices to staggering levels in the United States and across the globe.
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