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Search goes into the night for Pennsylvania woman who may have fallen into a sinkhole

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Search goes into the night for Pennsylvania woman who may have fallen into a sinkhole


Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.

Gene J. Puskar/AP


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Gene J. Puskar/AP

A grandmother looking for her lost cat apparently fell into a sinkhole that had recently opened above an abandoned western Pennsylvania coal mine and rescuers worked late into the night Tuesday to try and find her.

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Bright lights illuminated snow flurries and various equipment at the site while crews worked above and below ground, video from the scene showed.

Crews lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole in Marguerite on Tuesday morning but it detected nothing. A camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface, according to Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson, Trooper Steve Limani.

“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.

The family of Elizabeth Pollard, 64, called police at about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out Monday evening to search for Pepper, her cat.

Police said they found Pollard’s car parked near Monday’s Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside the car.

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This Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. image provided by the Pennsylvania State Police shows the top of a sinkhole in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers were searching for a woman who disappeared.

This Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. image provided by the Pennsylvania State Police shows the top of a sinkhole in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers were searching for a woman who disappeared.

State Police Trooper Stephen Limani/Pennsylvania State Police via AP


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State Police Trooper Stephen Limani/Pennsylvania State Police via AP

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The manhole-sized opening had not been seen by hunters and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Pollard’s disappearance, leading rescuers to speculate the sinkhole was new.

Authorities used an excavator to dig in the area, where temperatures dropped to below freezing overnight.

“We are pretty confident we are in the right place. We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in,” Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief John Bacha told Triblive.

By late afternoon, searchers were using access to a mine to try to find her and had dug a separate entrance out of concern that the ground around the sinkhole opening was not stable. Authorities vowed to keep searching for Pollard until she is found.

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Pollard lives in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located, Limani said.

The young girl “nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back,” Limani said. The child stayed in the car until two troopers rescued her. It’s not clear what happened to Pepper.

Police said sinkholes are not uncommon because of subsidence from coal mining activity in the area.

A team from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which responded to the scene, concluded the underground void is likely the result of work in the Marguerite Mine, last operated by the H.C. Frick Coke Company in 1952. The Pittsburgh coal seam is about 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface in that area.

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Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Neil Shader said the state’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will examine the scene after the search is over to see if the sinkhole was indeed caused by mine subsidence.



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Where did people move to in 2025? Here’s what U-Haul says and how Pennsylvania ranks

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Where did people move to in 2025? Here’s what U-Haul says and how Pennsylvania ranks


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A new report from U-Haul shows where Pennsylvania residents are leaving to and where new residents are coming from in 2025. Here’s what to know about U-Haul’s top 10 states with the most and least growth numbers.

Eight warm weather states made U-Haul’s top 10 growth list for 2025, while eight states in the colder Northeast and Midwest filled out the bottom 10, including Pennsylvania and neighboring New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. Delaware ranked 21 out of 50 states in growth for 2025.

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U-Haul also noted besides geography, that seven of the 10 states with the most growth featured Republican governors, nine of which went red in the last presidential election, and 9 out of 10 in the bottom growth states featured Democrat governors, seven of which went blue in the last presidential election.

“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” said John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president in press release. Adding, “But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers.”

U-Haul ranks states growth based on their one-way customer transactions that rented trucks, trailers or moving containers in one state and dropped it off in another state. Their growth index included over 2.5 million annual one-way transactions across the United States and Canada.

Texas holds the number one U-Haul growth state for the seventh time in the last 10 years while California ranked last for the sixth year in a how.

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Pennsylvania’s growth rank for 2025 remained at a low 46 out of 50 states, same as 2024, and compared relatively similar to its growth numbers over the last 10 years, according to U-Haul’s data, with the exception during 2022-2023 when its highest growth numbers hit 24 out of 50 in 2022 and 38 out of 50 in 2023.

Oregon, Mississippi, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana and Montana were among the biggest year-over-year gainers in 2025 compared to U-Haul’s 2024 rankings, while Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Delaware and Nebraska saw the biggest drops.

While the national average rent in the U.S. sits at approximately $1,623 per month (0.4% higher than this time last year) the Keystone State boasts a lower rent average at approximately $1,526 per month (1.9% higher than last year), according to Apartments.com. It is ranked 34th least expensive rent by state.

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Here’s what to know about Pennsylvania and what states saw the most and least growth in 2025 according to U-Haul.

Top 10 U-Haul growth states of 2025

In 2025 Pennsylvania ranked 46 out of 50 states on growth as reported by U-Haul.

  1. Texas
  2. Florida
  3. North Carolina
  4. Tennessee
  5. South Carolina
  6. Washington
  7. Arizona
  8. Idaho
  9. Alabama
  10. Georgia

U-Haul reported the 10 states with the lowest growth numbers were lead by California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and Michigan.

Where are Pennsylvania residents moving to and from?

According to the company’s semiannual U.S. migration trends report, based on the one-way rental data after the summer’s high moving season, it revealed that while Pennsylvania remains a top destination, Pennsylvanians are also packing up and heading out. Here’s where they moved to:

  • New York
  • Maryland
  • North Carolina
  • Massachusettes
  • Ohio
  • Michigan
  • Florida
  • California
  • Washington D.C.

According to this report, here’s what states new residents came from:

  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Maryland
  • Florida
  • Virginia
  • North Carolina
  • Delaware
  • Massachusetts
  • Ohio
  • Texas
  • West Virginia
  • Michigan



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Snapshot: Pittsburgh’s New Airport Terminal Celebrates Western Pennsylvania’s Identity

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Snapshot: Pittsburgh’s New Airport Terminal Celebrates Western Pennsylvania’s Identity


Designed by Gensler and HDR, in association with Luis Vidal + Architects, the transformed Pittsburgh International Airport Terminal aims to create a more tranquil passenger experience while celebrating Western Pennsylvania’s identity. Completed in November, it is entirely powered by its own microgrid that uses natural gas and solar energy. A skybridge connects the new headhouse—which con- solidates all major airport operations into a single structure—to a modernized terminal concourse. The roof, which consists of staggered peaks that frame clere- story windows, evokes the Allegheny Mountains, while branching columns recall trees. Augmenting the many nods to the region, the team included four verdant terraces fea- turing native plants, which are sustained by rainwater-harvesting systems.



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Pa. provisional ballot rejection rates dropped 11% after envelopes were redesigned

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Pa. provisional ballot rejection rates dropped 11% after envelopes were redesigned


Counties that used a redesigned envelope for their provisional ballots in 2025 saw rejection rates drop by 11.3% when compared to last year, according to Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.

The new look adopted by 85% of counties indicates which fields are for voters and which are for election workers, and highlights where voters must sign. The drop from 4.96% to 4.4% doesn’t include the nine counties that didn’t use the new design or Chester County, which had a printing error in November that omitted third-party and independent voters from pollbooks.


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The 11.3% figure is adjusted for voter turnout. More than 7 million Pennsylvanians voted in 2024 – which was a presidential election year – compared to 3.6 million in the 2025 off-year election.

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“Our goal remains ensuring every registered voter in our Commonwealth can cast their vote and have it counted in every election,” Schmidt said in a release. “As with the changes to mail ballot materials two years ago, these improvements resulted in more registered voters being able to make their voices heard in November’s election.”

Two years ago, the state conducted a voter education initiative and required counties to preprint the full year of mail ballot return envelopes. Mail ballot instructions and online application materials were also redesigned.

Five counties — Philadelphia, Berks, Butler, Mercer and Greene — worked with the state to craft the new envelopes to be more user friendly for both voters and poll workers.

“The purpose in leading the redesign effort was to reduce errors and have more votes counted, which is exactly what we achieved,” said Omar Sabir, the chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners. “An 11% decrease in ballot rejections shows the real impact that thoughtful design can have on protecting voting rights across Pennsylvania.”

The nine counties opting out of the new design were: Bedford, Bradford, Crawford, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lackawanna, Lycoming, Monroe and Wyoming.

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Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.



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