Grassroots action in Erie, Pa.

• 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.

 Ed Mahon

A sign for the entrance of Erie Coke is seen on Sept. 11, 2019.

A few victories, but fight over coke plant continues

Ed mahon / PA Post

A sign for the entrance of Erie Coke. (Ed Mahon / PA Post)

• I drove out to Erie in mid-September to talk with a college biology professor, a Benedictine sister and other activists who are trying to put pressure on a polluting coke plant and the state officials charged with regulating the plant.

• “Me personally, you know, I felt like I can’t control what’s happening in Washington,” Mike Campbell, a leader of Hold Erie Coke Accountable, told me. “But I can definitely get involved in my own community.”

• To understand the Erie debate, it helps to know what coke plants produce. Workers at Erie Coke use extreme heat to drive off impurities in coal to create what the plant’s environmental director calls “the perfect solid fuel.” Coke is useful for steel manufacturing, because it produces intense heat but little smoke, according to this description from a steel company.

• But creating coke also releases chemicals, and the state Department of Environmental Protection says Erie Coke has allowed too much pollution to enter the air.

• After some legal fights, it looks the Erie Coke plant will remain open until at least February.

• Erie Coke is not the only coke plant to come under pressure in recent years. StateImpact PA’s Reid Frazier has covered pollution violations at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant. Late last year, Reid reported that the Clairton Plant employs more than 1,000 people — which is a lot more than the about 140 workers at Erie Coke.

• This was my first trip to Erie. I didn’t have a lot of spare time, but I did squeeze in a three-mile run along Presque Isle Bay one rainy morning.

• One regret: I did some reporting at New York Lunch on East Avenue. But I didn’t have time to eat there. (I had to run to my last interview of the day with a different restaurant owner for a separate story.) But the next time I make the five-hour trek from Harrisburg, I’ll make time for a burger at New York Lunch.

Best of the rest

• Pennsylvania’s second lady, Gisele Fetterman, talked with PennLive about living as an undocumented immigrant in the United States — and how she gets more hate mail than her husband most days. “It’s 90 percent immigrant related. And 10 percent eyebrow related,” she said and laughed. “People really have an issue with my eyebrows, which is kind of funny because I love them.”  The story includes lots of good photos and videos.

• The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is fodder for classroom discussion and instruction, Alex Geli reports for LNP. The story describes how one social studies teacher had her students examine editorial cartoons from impeachment investigations of Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

• Speaking of impeachment, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright is being targeted for his support of the impeachment inquiry into the president, Alan Fram supports for The Associated Press. Cartwright, a Democrat, represents part of northeastern Pennsylvania, a pivotal area for Trump’s 2016 victory in the state. Watch the ad.

• WESA reporters Kathleen Davis and Sarah Schneider look a how libraries are trying to meet the needs of teenagers. Some locations offer teens their own space featuring things like 3-D printers, computers with Photoshop software, or a recording booth, they report.  “This has been my main source for everything for the last six years or more,” a senior at Barack Obama Academy said.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Jonathan Lai reports on how Montgomerty County officials are trying to answer complaints about the county’s newly acquired voting machines. Voters found the machines lacking when they were first used in the May primary. Changes for the fall municipal elections include improved poll worker training and the purchase of additional ballot scanners.