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• Ed Mahon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  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.

 (Courtesy of BrightView)

BrightView landscapers work on Independence Mall. Brightview has been the largest employer of H2B guest workers in the country for the last several years.

From The Context, PA Post’s weekday email newsletter:

Guest-worker program expands

(Courtesy of BrightView)

BrightView landscapers work on Independence Mall. Brightview has been the largest employer of H2B guest workers in the country for the last several years.

• Federal officials expanded a guest worker program by nearly 50 percent, adding 30,000 visas, WHYY’s Laura Benshoff reports. Benshoff took a deep look at the issue, including how it affects BrightView Landscaping, which is based outside Philadelphia and is the country’s single largest user of seasonal, non-agricultural visas.

• The expansion has its critics, including the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration. A research associate for the center said the program is “a raw deal for Americans,” and he argued it “prevents the neediest Americans (ex-convicts, recovering addicts, the homeless, high school dropouts, etc.) from securing meaningful employment that could transform their lives.”

• Katie Park of The Philadelphia Inquirer recently looked at another aspect of the immigration debate: How a shortage of workers is affecting mushroom, dairy and other farmers.

Best of the rest

Matt Rourke / The Associated Press

This March 16, 2017 photo shows a sticker alerting customers of the sugar tax posted by sweetened beverages at the IGA supermarket in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia.

• The sale of sugary drinks in the Philadelphia region dropped by 38 percent following a new sweetened-beverage tax, researchers found. WHYY’s Nina Feldman has the details.

• Children and youth services received multiple reports before the death of a 2-year-old in York last year, the York Daily Record reports. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services released new information about the death on Tuesday.

• “This community showed more empathy and support than we got from Wood-Mode,” one former Wood-Mode worker told The Daily Item. The wood cabinetry maker in Snyder County laid off nearly 1,000 employees on Monday.