By Tim Lambert | Editor-in-chief
“Eligible Pennsylvanians who choose to vote by mail should have confidence that they can continue to do so safely and securely. The Shapiro administration fought to prevent this unprecedented overreach into Pennsylvania’s elections, and we will continue fighting to ensure that the people of this commonwealth have yet another free, fair, safe and secure election this November.” — Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, reacting to Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a mail-in ballot rule before the November elections.
A good Wednesday morning to you. It doesn’t look like the early hours will be as cool as yesterday, but the forecast shows we’ll be dipping below the 80s after tomorrow (at least for a few days).
I may have to turn in my Yinzer card as a native western Pennsylvanian. I neglected to mention in the previous Morning Guide that Sept. 15 was Roberto Clemente Day across Major League Baseball. As a way to honor the Pittsburgh Pirates legend and Hall of Famer, every player wore a No. 21 patch on his uniform. Clemente died on New Year’s Eve in 1972, when a plane he chartered to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua crashed shortly after takeoff. He was 38-years-old.
He once said: “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth."
Thanks for starting your day with us. As always, we deeply appreciate you reading, sharing and supporting our work. -- Tim
A sign at a University of Utah health clinic warns visitors about the spread of measles. Under the Trump administration, federal health officials have cut back the number of recommended vaccines, and more states are offering exemptions for parents who don’t want to vaccinate children entering public schools. (Photo by McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
By Peter Hall
Two more Pennsylvanians have died after becoming infected with measles, health officials said, bringing the number of deaths in the commonwealth attributed to the virus to four.
State Department of Health officials said Tuesday the dead are an 18-year-old from Mifflin County, according to the county coroner, and a 40-year-old Jefferson County woman, who died Saturday. Both were unvaccinated, the department said.
The deaths are in addition to two Lancaster County infants who died after exposure to the virus.
In a news release, the state Health Department stressed that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the best protection against measles. Two doses of the vaccine provides lifetime protection at a 97% immunity rate.
In addition to mail-in ballots, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said the commonwealth's oath for poll workers applied to insider trading on prediction markets. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
By Whitney Downard
Pennsylvania’s top elections chief hailed a U.S. Supreme Court decision as a major victory for voters.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Monday’s ruling blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a mail-in ballot rule before November’s crucial midterm elections is necessary to protect state elections.
“Eligible Pennsylvanians who choose to vote by mail should have confidence that they can continue to do so safely and securely,” Schmidt said in a Tuesday press conference. “The Shapiro administration fought to prevent this unprecedented overreach into Pennsylvania’s elections, and we will continue fighting to ensure that the people of this commonwealth have yet another free, fair, safe and secure election this November.”
The author’s Chevrolet Bolt charges at an Applegreen Electric station at a Pennsylvania Turnpike rest stop near Newburg in July. (Photo by Kyle Bagenstose/Inside Climate News)
By Kyle Bagenstose of Inside Climate Change
As I drove 500 miles across Pennsylvania and back in a little blue Chevrolet Bolt EV, a charging station near a dumpster at the back of a Pizza Hut parking lot proved to be a convenient stop. But after spending two hours charging there on back-to-back days and encountering more feral cats (four) than other drivers (one), I started to wonder about its overall utility.
It’s an important question, because the charging station was subsidized with $705,000 in federal taxpayer money, part of $4.5 billion being spent across the country through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, a Biden-era pot of money to install thousands of EV fast chargers nationwide.
Just up the hill from the quiet Pizza Hut station was a Tesla supercharger station constructed with no such subsidy. It was crowded with drivers like Levi Morgan, a western Pennsylvania resident who stopped there amid a six-hour drive to Virginia with his family of five. For him, the company’s robust network was a major selling point, and he actually welcomed having to stop and charge every now and then.
Independent reporting on Pennsylvania state government that impacts communities statewide — free to read and republish.
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School District of Philadelphia Chief of Safety Craig Johnson shares updates with press at Abraham Lincoln High School on Aug. 20, 2026. (Photo y Sammy Caiola/Chalkbeat)
By Sammy Caiola of Chalkbeat
With a new school year underway, School District of Philadelphia Chief of Safety Craig Johnson is determined to maintain the downward trends he’s been seeing in student violence.
The number of weapons confiscated from students dropped about 67%, from 516 in the 2021-22 school year to 171 in the 2024-25 school year, according to district-provided data. Knives are the most commonly found weapons, and firearms typically account for about 4% of confiscated weapons.
The total number of student assaults and fights dipped 22% districtwide from 2021 to 2025, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of serious incident reports.
Still, parents have expressed worries about violence throughout the year, arguing that the district’s plan to shutter 17 campuses in fall 2027 could escalate existing tensions between students from different schools.
TODAY IN THE CAPITAL-STAR
Iran war cost tops $40B and billions more monthly, analysis finds: CBO Director Phillip Swagel wrote in a letter accompanying the report that “the main opportunity cost of the conflict thus far has been the large expenditure of missile defense interceptors, which will leave the U.S. with a reduced inventory of interceptors for several years.”
Trump EPA to strip greenhouse gas limits for power plants: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will revoke limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that run on coal and natural gas, according to regulatory documents Administrator Lee Zeldin signed this week.
Communities confront school closures and consolidations: Declining birth rates mean fewer students. And that means more districts grappling with whether to close or merge schools. “The big shrink” is how Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, described what is happening nationally.
ICYMI
Haitian pastor detained in York, sent to Louisiana: West Manchester Township police stopped Molise Augustave for having a headlight out on Sept. 4. The police officers called Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which then sent officers to detain Augustave. He was sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana.
Maryland museum tries to identify soldiers in Civil War tintypes: Nestled in the oldest armory in Maryland is a set of Civil War-era photographs vexing a small team of military historians. The team at the Maryland Museum of Military History hopes that genealogy whizzes or military history buffs might be able to identify the 45 Union soldiers pictured in a set of individual tintypes.
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