• UGI announces increased natural gas prices: UGI announced that beginning Saturday, rates for their natural gas will rise by 7.1%. UGI said that the increase was driven by increased demand for natural gas due to colder weather. UGI is, by law, required to pass the cost of gas directly to the consumer without any markup. (Source: LNP)
• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announces federal funds are unfrozen: Governor Josh Shapiro said Monday that the federal government had unfrozen the funding allocated to the state. The Trump administration had frozen billions of dollars to the state, prompting Shapiro to sue the administration. Shapiro’s lawsuit stated that the frozen funds were going to finance projects in the state such as plugging abandoned gas wells, improving municipal water and sewer systems, and reimbursing industrial operations for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. (Source: LNP)
• Lancaster Roots and Blues to skip 2025, come back in early 2026: The Lancaster Roots and Blues festival, which was last held in late September in 2024, will not return in 2025. Instead, it will return to its tradition of being held in the late winter, which means it will be pushed to February through March 2026. Additionally, the festival has been looking for an investor since 2022, as ticket sales have been low and the festival has struggled with debt. (Source: LNP)
• Proposed $250M solution to bridge the gap in the free lunch program: In 2020, students in Pa. were receiving free breakfast and lunch. This initiative was funded by the The U.S. Department of Agriculture, during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, suspending income rules so all K-12 students in the U.S. could eat breakfast and lunch at no cost. Federal support ended in June 2022, but Pennsylvania continued to provide free breakfast at public schools but went back to charging students for lunch depending on family income. Federal meal programs waive the cost for the states poorest children but about 50,000 Pa. children live in a households with incomes just outside the qualification for reduced lunch. State Rep. Emily Kinkead (D., Allegheny) plans to reintroduce bills that would provide students with free lunch regardless of income and another to erase meal debt. (Source: Spotlight PA)
• Nation/world: Republican officials seek information from DOGE after widespread backlash (Source: NBC News) Lester Holt to step down as anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News’ (Source: NBC News) Theranos founder loses fraud appeal (Source: BBC News) Nation: Joann Fabrics to close remaining stores, go out of business (Source: CBS News)
