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Pennsylvania rescuers say ground unstable near sinkhole where grandmother went missing – UPI.com

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Pennsylvania rescuers say ground unstable near sinkhole where grandmother went missing – UPI.com


Dec. 4 (UPI) — Officials on Wednesday said a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania is now more dangerous and unstable after a missing woman reportedly fell through it while babysitting her granddaughter.

“The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said during a morning news conference.

Limani expressed hope that Elizabeth Pollard, 64, may still be alive in an air pocket after it was believed she fell in the sinkhole Monday along Marguerite Road down the way from Monday’s Union Restaurant.

“There’s been nothing that said she is not alive or she could not possibly have survived,” the trooper said. “There’s nothing that said 100% definitively it couldn’t have happened. And until that 100% happens, how could I say it’s any other way?”

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Pollard left home Monday in search of her cat and was last seen at 5 p.m. EST that day in the unincorporated coal town community of Marguerite in Westmoreland County located about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Police got a call around 1 a.m. Tuesday from a Pollard relative.

The search ultimately led to the discovery of her car at about 3 a.m. In the vehicle was Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter, who has since been reunited with her parents. The young girl reportedly had been in the car in freezing weather for 10 hours or more when her grandmother went missing.

About 15 to 20 feet away, police found a sinkhole about the size of a larger manhole. Limani said that they believe the sinkhole appeared as she was walking in the area.

A shoe was found in the hole.

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“Let’s just say it’s a modern shoe, not something you would find in a coal mine in Marguerite in 1940,” said Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief John Bacha.

The sinkhole where Pollard is believed to have fallen is in an area with limestone bedrock and had almost no ground left, state police confirmed.

On Wednesday, Limani said cold water that engineers have been utilizing to flush dirt out of the mine has been causing problems with the mine’s integrity.

Limani said the hole — connected to an abandoned mine — has more than enough oxygen and is about 55 degrees warmer than above ground.

“We have to be very careful with the water issues we’ve been experiencing,” he said.

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Abandoned mines and sinkholes, while rare, are uniquely a Pennsylvania problem and have been a safety hazard for decades. Limani noted the sinkhole wasn’t there before Monday. However, experts indicated the mine had been deteriorating for a long period of time.

“A lot of the little villages around here are old coal patch towns,” said Bacha, adding it’s “very common to find a lot of mines in these areas, obviously a concern to have these mine subsidence issues.”

A federal database showed two abandoned mines near the sinkhole where Pollard went missing which “pose the highest danger to citizens’ lives” due to land safety and other environmental concerns, according to the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs.

A few years ago a 30-foot sinkhole uncovered itself in Fallowfield Township in neighboring Washington County where Pollard went missing Monday.

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Pennsylvania has a long and sometimes checkered history with the dying fossil fuel industry dating back to the peak of the coal era with abandoned mines at all corners of the Keystone State.

“Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big,” the U.S. Geological Survey says.

By the 1800s, Pennsylvania coal fueled America’s industrial growth and coal was the primary fuel source for western Pennsylvania’s famous steel industry, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

As of 2020, there were over 3,600 sinkholes in Pennsylvania, according to data collected by Millersville University.

In 1982, an electrician and a 35-ton crane plunged into a 288-foot abandoned mine shaft more than half filled with water around the 80-foot-wide in downtown Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania on the opposite side of the state where Pollard went missing near an abandoned mine.

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It was noteworthy in that rescuers had the option to determine if any other old adjoining tunnel to the mine would give them better access to the main shaft that hadn’t been used since the 1930s.

Years later in 2013, a 25- to 30-foot wide sinkhole roughly10- to 12-feet deep forced forced a family in the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania to evacuate their home after a sinkhole appeared. Five years later a similar event took place in the same region when a 30 to 35 feet sinkhole likewise appeared in Cheltenham Township near Philadelphia.



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Pennsylvania

Shirley Ann Dailey

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Shirley Ann Dailey


Shirley Ann Dailey, 89, of Daytona Beach, Florida (formerly of Montoursville, Pennsylvania), passed away peacefully on February 23, 2026, surrounded by her family at AdventHealth Hospital in Daytona Beach.

Born December 14, 1936, in Sayre, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of the late John and Laura (Reinbold) White. She met the love of her life, Gordon Ell Dailey whom she shared over 60 years of marriage until his passing in 2023.

Shirley grew up in Buffalo, New York, and Dushore, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Turnpike High School in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, and continued her education with two years of college. She went on to have a distinguished career spanning more than 40 years. Her professional journey included roles with the Social Security Administration, General Motors, Pennsylvania Department of General Services, and most notably, 30 years of dedicated service with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). She served as an Administrative Assistant to the District Executive for PennDOT Engineering District 3-0. Shirley took great pride in her work and spoke fondly of her time at PennDOT throughout her retirement.

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In her personal life, Shirley enjoyed collecting artwork, caring for her home, taking walks, bicycling, and vacationing with her family.

Surviving is a son, David (Crista) Dailey of Daytona Beach, Fla.; a grandson, Garrett Dailey, of Daytona Beach, Fla.; sisters, Regina (Drew) Bagley of Shunk, Pa., and Deborah (Ray) Thall of Mechanicsburg, Pa. She is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents and husband, Shirley was preceded in death by a sister, Margaret Pier, and a brother, William White.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at McCarty-Thomas Funeral Home, 733 Broad Street, Montoursville, Pennsylvania, with Pastor David Smith officiating. Burial will follow in Twin Hills Memorial Park, Muncy. Friends may call from 9 to 10 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at mccarthythomas.com.

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First-of-its-kind legislative funding approved for gambling support in Pennsylvania

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First-of-its-kind legislative funding approved for gambling support in Pennsylvania


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The digital-first gambling support model aims to strengthen the PA online casino industry’s overall infrastructure, including the integration of care coordination and self-help tools.

Players at Pennsylvania online casinos may soon find more responsible gaming resources thanks to a new, first-of-its kind rollout of a digital platform for gambling support known as Almond Digital Health. Approved by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, it represents the first legislative-led and funded program in the United States that aims to bolster the state’s overall gambling support infrastructure. If you’re in Pennsylvania, sign up for DraftKings Casino and get 1,000 Flex Spins:

Legislators take digital-first approach to responsible gambling

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Another example of lawmakers looking to modernize responsible gambling resources among legal sportsbooks and PA online casinos, the program will offer anonymous, multilingual access to responsible gambling educational materials as well as self-help tools and connections to treatment services.

Officials called it the first legislative-backed, digital-first gambling support program of its kind in the nation, with the goal of filling gaps in access to care. That certainly created some urgency for legislators as the real money online casino and licensed sports betting industries in Pennsylvania continue to expand and grow.

The Almond Digital Health platform will be integrated into mobile casino apps, along with in-person casinos and through partnerships with universities and sports betting operators.

Ultimately, officials look to create earlier intervention opportunities to address potential gambling addictions and provide more readily available responsible gambling tools and resources. Get started at BetMGM Casino now here:

New responsible gambling initiative will complement existing resources

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While the program is expected to be rolled out over the next several weeks, it is not designed to replace all of the existing tools and resources offered throughout the state and via PA online casinos. Rather, the Almond platform will act more as a complement to help fill gaps in access as the legal gambling industry continues to grow.

Kath Middleton, chief product officer of Almond Digital Health, emphasized that the platform is about “scale and access,” noting that Pennsylvania is “building an approach that works both within and outside traditional care settings.”

According to a press release, online casino gaming, sports betting, in-person gambling and the lottery has generated tens of billions of dollars in annual wagering. With that growth, officials wanted to ensure that Pennsylvanians had “practical, accessible and multilingual ways” to engage early with and understand all the available options for responsible gaming.

In rolling out the Almond program, Rep. Joe McAndrew highlighted that more and more people betting on sports or playing casino games online will be exposed to responsible gambling habits and how to prevent addiction through education – in fact, earlier than traditional resources.

It’s a practical approach, Rep. Joe Prokopiak echoed, that will provide “instant impact” for individuals struggling with addiction or at risk of developing one. “It’s an evolved issue,” Prokopiak said, which the state can now address “with an evolved solution.”

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Jewish Pennsylvania judge leaves Democratic Party over antisemitism | The Jerusalem Post

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Jewish Pennsylvania judge leaves Democratic Party over antisemitism | The Jerusalem Post


An elected Supreme Court justice in Pennsylvania announced Monday night that he has left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent, citing concerns about antisemitism.

In a statement, David Wecht, who is Jewish and served as Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party chair from 1998 to 2001, said he believed antisemitism has moved from the fringe of the Democratic Party to the mainstream.

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he wrote. “Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders, and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.”

Wecht wrote that he had long understood that antisemitism “always festered on the fringe” of the right, a fact that hit home in 2018 when a far-right shooter killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where he and his wife were married in 1998.

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“In the years that have followed, that same hatred has grown on the left,” he said in his statement. “It is the duty of all good people to fight this virus, and to do so before it is too late.”

Wecht previously made national headlines for his 2020 ruling against an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.

Through a spokesperson, Wecht declined to be interviewed about his exit from the Democratic Party.

Wecht’s comments come as Democrats wrestle with a range of internal tensions over antisemitism.

The ascent of Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who recently covered up a Nazi Totenkopf skull-and-crossbones tattoo, to become Maine’s Democratic candidate for Senate, and the increasing coziness between some progressive politicians and Hasan Piker, the leftist streamer who has said he favors Hamas over Israel, have particularly alarmed some members of the Jewish community.

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Wecht is the son of renowned forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who was involved in investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Wecht’s mother, translator Sigrid Ronsdal, spent the first six years of her life living under Nazi occupation in Norway.

“I know David and his legendary father, Cyril,” Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has clashed with his Party over Israel, tweeted following Wecht’s announcement. “As I’ve affirmed, I’m not changing my Party – but I fully understand David’s personal choice. The Democratic Party must confront its own rising antisemitism problem.”





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