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Why Pennsylvania leads the nation in preserving agricultural farmland

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Why Pennsylvania leads the nation in preserving agricultural farmland


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Two farms in Beaver and Somerset counties will be preserved for farming now that Pennsylvania has purchased the development rights to those properties.

The Shapiro administration announced in February that state and county governments bought the development rights to 25 farms in 17 counties, investing $7.1 million under Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation Program to ensure the 1,905 acres of land included on those farms would always be used for agricultural purposes and not sold to residential or commercial developers.

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In Beaver County, the development rights on a 62-acre crop and livestock farm in Hanover Township, owned by William McNary Jr. and Deborah K. McNary, were purchased for $234,140, using state funds.

In Somerset County, the development rights on a 125-acre crop and livestock farm in Somerset Township, owned by Tim E. Bell, Thomas E. Bell and Suzanne K. Bell, were purchased by state and local governments for $187,104, with the state paying $181,635 and the county paying $5,469.

“Farmland tells the story of Pennsylvania, of generations who worked the land, cared for its resources and built communities that endure,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding in the Feb. 12 announcement.

“In this America250 year, and through the 2025-26 budget, the Shapiro administration is honoring that legacy by protecting our land, water and soil, supporting the next generation of farmers and investing in the innovation and infrastructure that will sustain Pennsylvania agriculture for generations to come.”

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Pennsylvania voters approved the creation of the Farmland Preservation Program in 1988, and since then, 6,673 farms and 662,940 acres of farmland have been preserved for agricultural production across 58 counties, the announcement said.

Agriculture contributes $132.5 billion to Pennsylvania’s economy and supports almost 600,000 jobs, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.



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Senator says Pennsylvania bus driver had ‘God-given’ right to wear MAGA hat

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Senator says Pennsylvania bus driver had ‘God-given’ right to wear MAGA hat


Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Pa.) has released a statement addressing a former school bus driver in Littlestown, Pennsylvania who left his job after he claimed he was given an ultimatum for wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat on his bus.

The treatment of Littlestown bus driver Dave Bonhoff should outrage every Pennsylvanian who believes in liberty, fairness and the constitutional freedoms that define our nation.

Dave Bonhoff, a retired Baltimore County police officer, stepped away from driving for the Littlestown Area School District after he received a call from his boss at Krise Transportation informing him that one of the students had complained about his hat.

She contacts me and says, ‘Hey, listen, I’m going to buy you a hat, an American flag hat, because the school district has deemed that they don’t want you to wear that ‘Make America Great Again’ hat,” Bonhoff said.

Bonhoff left the company the same day.

Mastriano said in a statement Friday that political correctness has become a “tool of intimidation.”

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Mr. Bonhoff is a retired police officer who continued serving his community by safely transporting children to school. Yet he was effectively forced out of his job because he wore a hat that read ‘Make America Great Again.’ Whether someone agrees with that message is completely irrelevant. In America, citizens do not lose their First Amendment rights simply because someone else claims to be offended.

What happened here is not about ‘sensitivity’ or ‘respect.’ It is about the suffocating culture of political correctness that is spreading through our institutions — a culture that demands conformity, punishes dissent and attempts to silence anyone who refuses to bow to its ideology. Political correctness has become a tool of intimidation. It is used to shame, threaten and drive ordinary Americans out of their jobs and public life simply for expressing views that do not align with the approved narrative. That is not tolerance. That is coercion.

Mastriano said it was brave of Bonhoff to stick to his beliefs, “Dave Bonhoff showed more courage in standing by his principles than many institutions have shown in defending the rights they claim to value. No American should ever be forced to choose between their livelihood and their constitutional freedoms.”

Bonhoff said his hat had nothing to do with political views, “There’s nothing in this hat that says anything about partisanship,” he said. “I think that saying that this hat is political is absurd. It’s patriotic.”

He noted the phrase had been used by both republican and democratic administrations.

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Mastriano said wearing political views should be respected on both sides of the party system, as protected by the Constitution.

I stand firmly with Dave Bonhoff and with every Pennsylvanian who refuses to be bullied into silence. Free speech does not exist only for views that are popular or politically fashionable. It exists precisely to protect the right of Americans to speak their minds without fear of retaliation. Freedom of expression is not granted by bureaucrats, administrators or activists. It is a God-given right protected by the Constitution — and it must be defended without apology.



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How to watch Yale Bulldogs vs. Pennsylvania Quakers: Live stream info, TV channel, game time | Ivy League Tournament

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How to watch Yale Bulldogs vs. Pennsylvania Quakers: Live stream info, TV channel, game time | Ivy League Tournament


The No. 3 seed Pennsylvania Quakers (17-11, 9-5 Ivy League) are squaring off in the Ivy League championship game against the No. 1 Yale Bulldogs (24-5, 11-3 Ivy League). Tune in to see the title game Sunday at 12 p.m. ET, live on ESPN2.

Before watching this matchup, here’s what you need to know about Sunday’s college basketball action.

Check out: USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

Yale vs. Pennsylvania: How to watch on TV or live stream

  • Game day: Sunday, March 15, 2026
  • Game time: 12 p.m. ET
  • Location: Ithaca, New York
  • Arena: Newman Arena
  • TV Channel: ESPN2

Watch college basketball on Fubo!

Bulldogs vs. Quakers odds and spread

  • Spread Favorite: Bulldogs (-9.5)
  • Moneyline: Yale (-500), Pennsylvania (+375)
  • Total: 142.5 points

College basketball odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Sunday at 3:34 a.m. ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub.

Watch college basketball on Fubo!

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How two teens from wealthy Pennsylvania suburbs became suspects in an attempted ‘ISIS-inspired’ attack in New York City

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How two teens from wealthy Pennsylvania suburbs became suspects in an attempted ‘ISIS-inspired’ attack in New York City


BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. — Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have a lot in common: They’re both teenagers. They’re both first-generation Americans. Both live on tree-lined streets in the affluent suburbs north of Philadelphia.

“Nothing crazy happens around this area,” said Logan Lombardi, who went to high school with Kayumi.

For all their similarities, however, authorities say the only known link between the pair is what they did together last Saturday: attempt what investigators describe as an ISIS-inspired attack by throwing explosive devices at a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence.

Federal prosecutors allege that Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, drove to Manhattan from Pennsylvania the morning of March 7, parking a few blocks away from Gracie Mansion before slipping into a crowd that included participants in an anti-Islam demonstration and a group of counterprotesters. The pair was arrested after Balat threw two jars packed with explosive materials at protesters and law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

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Neither of the devices detonated, and no one was injured. Balat and Kayumi are being detained on several federal charges, including attempting to provide support to the Islamic State, after prosecutors said the pair made statements about the terrorist group.

Body-camera video from the New York City officers who arrested Kayumi shows him responding “ISIS” to someone in the crowd asking why he had done it, according to a federal complaint.

After waiving his Miranda rights, prosecutors said, Balat pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State and told authorities that he hoped to inflict more carnage than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which left three dead and more than 260 others injured.

Lawyers for Balat and Kayumi did not immediately return requests for comment. Balat’s attorney, Mehdi Essmidi, told NBC News on Monday that Balat has “complicated stuff going on” and suggested that his client did not know Kayumi prior to Saturday.

“They’re strangers to each other,” he said.

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Classmates recall a quiet, independent student

While authorities have not detailed how the teenagers knew each other, the two grew up roughly 4 miles apart in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Kayumi lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on a street lined with 4,000-square-foot brick homes, and manicured lawns. His parents emigrated from Afghanistan and became U.S. citizens in 2004 and 2009, according to CBS News.

On Thursday, no one answered the door, though a Mercedes sat in the driveway. Neighbors a few houses away told NBC News they didn’t know Kayumi or his family well and said they mostly kept to themselves.

Kayumi enrolled part time at nearby Bucks County Community College in September 2024, according to a college spokesperson.

Earlier that year, he had graduated from Council Rock High School North, which has a football field and track, roughly a dozen newly paved tennis courts and a student parking lot packed with luxury cars. Students said the area is not known for the violence prosecutors now allege.

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“The high school and the town — people are pretty affluent,” said former classmate Connor McCormick. “There’s not really a whole lot of controversy at all.”

The high school said in a statement that “there is no evidence that he has posed a threat to any Council Rock schools” and encouraged concerned students to consult with their school counselors.

Another former classmate, Matt — who asked that his last name not be published due to fears of retaliation — said he and Kayumi were in smaller classes for children with learning disabilities.

Matt said that although he and Kayumi saw each other a lot, their conversations were typically brief and one-sided.

“He definitely was very quiet,” Matt said. “He would not talk unless you tried to talk to him, you know what I mean? Like, he would not say a word.”

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Matt said that while Kayumi did not get bullied regularly, he was sometimes a target.

“He wasn’t really that violent, but if someone would say something to him, like disrespecting him or something, he wasn’t afraid to say something back,” Matt said.

Matt and Lombardi recalled that Kayumi was involved in at least one physical altercation at school. The two former classmates did not witness the fight and could not recall who else was involved or who instigated it. They said they remember the altercation because physical violence at their high school was “very uncommon.” A representative for the school declined to comment on Kayumi’s student records.

Lombardi, 19, said he used to sit next to Kayumi on the bus to and from school nearly every day during their sophomore year. He described Kayumi as “independent” but not someone who shied away from conversation.

“He didn’t have any telling signs if we’re comparing it to what just happened,” Lombardi said. “He would not in any aspect whatsoever have been my first guess.”

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Lombardi said that although they spoke often during their sophomore year, Kayumi was not on his list of people to say goodbye to at the end of high school.

It is not immediately clear what Kayumi has been doing since leaving high school and starting community college. A college spokesperson said Kayumi withdrew from the school by March 9.

Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report for her son on March 7, saying she last saw her son at around 10:30 a.m. — two hours before his arrest, according to the complaint.

“If he’s going to be five minutes late, he calls,” Kayumi’s father told The New York Times in an interview.

Teens allegedly drove to New York with explosive materials

Balat grew up 4 miles south of Kayumi on a similarly tree-lined street in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

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His father, Selahattin Balat, immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and became a citizen in 2017, according to a lawsuit he filed against the Department of Homeland Security over his citizenship application in 2015.

On Thursday, a man who identified himself as Balat’s father answered the front door of the family’s palatial home and declined to comment.

Balat is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, according to a school spokesperson. The spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that Balat has been finishing his senior year remotely since September.

When asked for comment on last week’s incident, the Neshaminy School District shared two letters from the district’s superintendent to parents and staff, including one that said there was no information indicating concerns about Balat related to the school.

The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Balat had been selling designer sneakers at a markup, sometimes for hundreds of dollars, out of a Wawa parking lot since he was 13 years old. He was also selling products on Facebook Marketplace as recently as 19 days before the incident in New York.

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One of Balat’s neighbors, who asked that NBC News not publish her name due to fears of retaliation, described the family as “loving,” “open,” “welcoming” and “kindhearted.”

She said she didn’t speak with Balat much over the last few years, but that he seemed like a “typical kid.” Balat shoveled her driveway during a snowstorm a few years ago.

“It doesn’t surprise me because this is the world we’re in right now,” she said. “But it does surprise me that it’s right here.”

On March 2, Balat purchased a fireworks fuse from Phantom Fireworks in Langhorne. Surveillance video shared with NBC News shows him arriving at the company’s Penndel location at around 12:15 p.m., registering his identification with an employee — a step the company requires of all customers — and buying a single 20-foot roll of green safety fuse with cash.

Phantom Fireworks Executive Vice President Alan Zoldan said the company searched its records for the suspects’ names after the attempted bombing and found a match for Balat, which led employees to the roughly 10-minute store visit captured on video. Zoldan also showed NBC News a copy of a subpoena he said federal prosecutors sent to the company.

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Five days later, prosecutors say, Kayumi and Balat drove from Pennsylvania to New York City in a black Honda registered to one of Balat’s family members, crossing the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan at around 11:36 a.m. ET.

Emir Balat flees after throwing a homemade explosive device during the March 7 protestCharly Triballeau / AFP – Getty Images

At about 12:15 p.m. ET, Balat threw an explosive device toward the area where protesters gathered at an anti-Islam rally outside the mayor’s official residence on the Upper East Side, according to officials. The rally was led by conservative provocateur Jake Lang and attracted fewer than two dozen protesters and more than 120 counterprotesters, according to authorities.

Shortly afterward, Kayumi handed off a second explosive device to Balat, who dropped the device near police officers before the pair was arrested, according to the complaint.

After waiving his Miranda rights, the complaint says, Kayumi said he “was affiliated with ISIS; watched ISIS propaganda on his phone; and was partly inspired to carry out his actions that day by ISIS.”

Investigators recovered a notebook from the car Balat and Kayumi drove, which contained handwritten notes that reference “materials that could be used to build explosive devices,” according to the complaint.

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Authorities also removed “explosive residue” from a Pennsylvania storage unit believed to be connected to the incident. A senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told NBC News that local police detonated some of the components out of caution late Monday.

Investigators are still trying to determine how Balat and Kayumi met and what led them to allegedly plan the attack.

For Matt, it’s been difficult trying to reconcile the classmate he remembers and the allegations against him.

“We just thought he was a normal kid, like all of us, pretty much,” Matt said. “We were all shocked.”



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