The Morning Agenda

From police officers to Red Cross volunteers to utility repair crews, Pennsylvania is rushing aid to hurricane-ravaged parts of the South. 

Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick have criticized each other's records during a debate.

The two major-party candidates for state Attorney General have argued over their qualifications in their first debate.

 A Snyder County police chief has resigned -- after receiving a job offer in Delaware County. 

WITF's parent company has laid off two dozen employees -- a reduction of 10 percent of its workforce. Among the people let go are 11 members of the combined news team of WITF and LNP | Lancaster online.

 

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Fresh off his debate appearance, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is trying to drum up support in predominately Republican parts of Pennsylvania.

Deadlines for voters to get their mail-in ballots are coming up fast. The earlier you apply and return your ballot, the better.

Thousands of ballots are already cast now that voting has officially begun in Pennsylvania.

More and more money is flowing into political campaigns, from races for state judges and lawmakers to president, making elections in the U.S. among the world’s most expensive. We have an explainer on tracking money in Pennsylvania’s state and federal elections. 

The remains of nine more Native American children who died at a notorious government-run boarding school in Cumberland County over a century ago have been disinterred from a small Army cemetery and returned to families. 

The Republican challenger trying to flip the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania says he'll press for U.S. military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks. David McCormick and Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey are set to debate tonight. 
 

 

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Three people in a northeastern Pennsylvania county are suing to overturn a decision to prevent all four of its drop boxes for mail-in ballots from being deployed.

Counties are starting to send out by-mail ballots and some voters are discovering a sticky situation. Humidity is causing some return envelopes to come pre-sealed.

Fresh off last night's debate, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is scheduled to visit York today. But, he will not be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, as originally announced.

Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey faces GOP contender Dave McCormick in their first debate tomorrow. The slim Democratic majority in the Senate is on the line this November.

Two leaders of the now dissolved Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Penn State will serve jail time in the Centre County Correctional Facility. The sentencing comes seven years after the death of Timothy Piazza, in connection with an alcohol-fueled hazing initiation. 

The ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore are among those closed due to a strike by the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers.  

A new license plate is available to drivers who want to celebrate hunting and fishing and support outdoor programs for young people.  

The co-founders of a central Pennsylvania theater group saw a massive pile of food scraps and cow manure…and decided to write a musical about it. We preview a show that literally sings the praises of turning farm waste into renewable energy.

 

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People who want to put solar panels on their roofs in the midstate could get a better price if they work together. 

State House Republicans say they’ll introduce a package of bills to curb crime. 

A court fight in Philadelphia centers on the University of the Arts' $63 million endowment. 

Democrats are regaining their majority in the state House as they return for voting sessions for the first time since July. 

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, will speak at the York Fairgrounds tomorrow.

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Despite pushback from some community members, Centre County’s board of elections is moving forward with creating a satellite election office on the Penn State University Park campus.

Even with bipartisan support to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 lawmakers don't expect much movement on the issue any time soon.

The president and CEO of Visit Hershey & Harrisburg is stepping down -- just days after the FBI visited her office.

Researchers have found that a drug being developed for cancer treatment could also lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer’s and other diseases. 

A Northumberland County school district is hoping to avoid a planned teachers strike tomorrow..

Elizabethtown College is cutting back on full-time faculty to reduce costs.

Students at Shippensburg University, like others at central Pennsylvania colleges, are among those with a big stake in who the next U.S. president will be.  And they have questions for the candidates.   We recently sat down with eight students at the Franklin County school and focused on two simple questions.

 

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Citing security concerns, Luzerne County is not allowing ballot drop boxes for the November election. 

Counties are testing their voting machines in preparation for Election Day. The tests - combined with post-election audits - make sure the machines count votes correctly. 

Pennsylvania gas drillers slowed production earlier this year.

Philadelphia's district attorney is celebrating a legal victory over GOP state lawmakers who impeached him in 2022.

A Lancaster County Bible study leader is accused of molesting a girl dozens of times over several months.

A man who assaulted a West York Councilman at a York rally for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has been taken into custody. But, police say they don't believe the attack was politically motivated

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Voting rights advocates are asking Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court to stop counties from throwing out what could be thousands of mail-in ballots in November’s election in the presidential battleground state. 

Some energy experts are hailing the planned restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant as good for the climate. Nuclear facilities don’t emit the planet-warming pollution that fossil fuel plants do. 

In a change of course, the  Cumberland Valley School District will participate in a state-funded program to give student teachers thousands of extra dollars. Scores of other schools still have not sent in their participation agreements.

A federal judge has approved a $600 million settlement between Norfolk Southern and people who live near East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed last year, contaminating the community. 

 An arbitration board is allowing U.S. Steel to proceed with its proposed acquisition by Nippon Steel.  

Investigators in Philadelphia are exhuming eight bodies buried in a potter's field this week in the hope that advances in DNA-based testing can help them identify the long-ago victims.

A Montgomery County bakery’s cookie “poll” that started during the 2008 presidential campaign as a joke between the owners and their customers has grown into much more. 

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A panel of judges is requiring a Western Pennsylvania county to give voters a chance to fix problems with mail-in ballots and allow them to vote by provisional ballot if needed. 

With a little more than a month before the election, Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is working to get Republicans to vote for Democrats in Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh has effectively banned rodeos for more than 30 years. But a provision inserted in this year's state budget requires municipalities to allow those events. 

A Berks County woman faces a life sentence for hanging her two children in the basement of their home in 2019. 

Lebanon County voters should get their mail-in ballots early next month.

Police are investigating a former Lancaster Country Day student for creating AI-generated nude images of female classmates.

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Republicans are stepping up scrutiny of the state's system for registering people to vote through its driver’s licensing centers. 

The Ukrainian community in Lackawanna County is thrilled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally visited an ammunition plant to   thank Pennsylvania workers. 

Anti-abortion activists have flocked to the state Capitol for the annual March for Life.

Leaders in Congress say they’ve reached a deal on a spending bill that will head off a government shutdown - for now. GOP Pennsylvania Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson is supportive of the extension.

The candidates for the 10th Congressional District, which represents much of central Pennsylvania, are squaring off in a debate at seven p.m. on October 8th.

A Reading man faces thousands of dollars in fines after a security team at Lancaster Airport found a loaded nine millimeter handgun in his carry-on bag.

The Philadelphia Phillies have clinched the National League East.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the Lackawanna County ammunition factory that is producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces. 

Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance has campaigned at the Berks County Fairgrounds. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has also campaigned in Pennsylvania.

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Dauphin County plans to restart the reactor.

In some places across Pennsylvania, distress calls to 211 or 988 link callers with support professionals - who in some cases, are too far away to act. Chester County has a solution.

Central Pennsylvania is recovering from an intense storm that blasted parts of the region Saturday night.  

Penn State has removed nearly three dozen racks containing its independent student-produced newspaper from on-campus this week because politics-related ads on the racks violated school policy. 

A defense attorney is dismissing as “conjecture” the prosecution’s case against a Berks County woman charged with killing her two young children.  

Former president Donald Trump has baselessly called out Haitian migrants in the small town of Charleroi in western Pennsylvania. Oliver Morrison is with our friends at WESA in Pittsburgh and spent some time in the Washington County community.
    

 

 

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