For some Amish, greener pastures call

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Matt Slocum / The Associated Press

FILE PHOTO: A farmer cuts a field as a horse-drawn cart heads down a county road in Lancaster County.

The price of farmland is out of reach for many

Matt Slocum / The Associated Press

FILE PHOTO: A farmer cuts a field as a horse-drawn cart heads down a county road in Lancaster County.

• The Amish population is growing in Lancaster County, and, no surprise, farmland is getting more expensive. Enter Chet Lapp, an Amish real estate agent who describes himself as a “mad visionary.”

• Lapp helps Amish families move out of Lancaster County to join other settlements. WITF’s Rachel McDevitt spoke to Lapp for a story about the squeeze the Amish are feeling. Rachel looks at one of the newest Amish settlements, which is in the Glen Rock area of York County.

• Earlier this year, LNP’s Jeff Hawkes reported that the Amish population grew by about 1,000 in Lancaster County in 2018, at the same time urban sprawl and development in the county were putting a premium on land. There are more than 33,000 Amish people in the county.

• With an eye on the 2020 presidential election, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks at what impact a pro-Trump PAC had in courting the Amish vote in the last presidential year, 2016. “I’d say the primary thing that brought the Amish out to vote was the Supreme Court,” Ben King, a former member of the Amish community and the outreach director for Amish PAC, told the Post-Gazette.

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(Provided by attorney Christopher Casazza)

Cruz Eduardo Tinoco-Salvador stands with his arm around is daughter.

• Facing deportation to Mexico, Cruz Eduardo Tinoco Salvador warned that gang members might kill him if he returned. But an immigration judge sent him back, and last month he was found dead in central Mexico. WHYY’s Laura Benshoff tells the story of Tinoco Salvador, who said he left the Sureno 13 street gang after his daughter was born.

• Rapper Meek Mill won’t serve any more prison time after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge on Tuesday as part of an agreement with prosecutors, The Associated Press reports. Last month, an appeals court overturned his 2008 conviction. The rapper, whose case gained international attention, has become an advocate for reforming the criminal justice system.

• In a legal victory for LNP and PennLive, a Lancaster County judge says coroners’ autopsy and toxicology reports are public records, upholding a decision by the state Office of Open Records, LNP reports. The newspaper’s editorial board says not having those records impeded the media’s ability to do its job, specifically the work of journalists looking into deaths at Lancaster County Prison. County officials said last week they plan to appeal the judge’s decision.

• New York’s red flag law, which allows judges to temporarily remove someone’s gun rights, is now in effect. New Jersey’s begins at the start of September. In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery, hopes Republican leaders make his red flag bill a priority when lawmakers return to Harrisburg next month.