Pa. citizens want end to gerrymandering

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

 Pa. Dept. of State

The 2018 map of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts.

Survey shows sentiment cuts across party and geography

Pa. Dept. of State

The 2018 map of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts. (Courtesy Pa. Department of State)

• Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly favor changing the way the state draws its legislative districts, according to a recent survey by F&M’s Center for Opinion Research in partnership with Fair Districts PA. That was consistent among a dozen demographic groups parsed by researchers. They also found the majority of respondents don’t think state lawmakers represent their communities well, in general, and the vast majority believe gerrymandering prevents elected officials from being held accountable and creates gridlock. Our story about it is here (the story includes a link to the survey topline).

• Speaking of legislative districts: PA Post editor Russ Walker put together this rundown of the Pa. congressional delegation’s web and social media accounts. Many in the delegation are already waging the public opinion fight over impeachment via Twitter. Russ collected Wednesday’s tweets here.

• The 2020 presidential campaign has been raging on social media for months, possibly since Jan. 20, 2017 … and we’re still 13 months ahead of the actual election. The New York Post reports that President Trump’s reelection campaign is spending heavily on Facebook and Google ads, and Pennsylvania ranks No. 6 when it comes to the percentage of the Trump campaign’s social media spending.

Best of the rest

Matt Smith for Keystone Crossroads

Farmer Don Cairns walks to the top of a grain silo on Sept. 25 at the Cairns Family Farm in Sadsbury Township, Chester County. (Matt Smith/Keystone Crossroads)

• Soybean exports are up again after a steady decline as China scaled back on purchasing in response to first threats of U.S. tariffs and then their onset. But they’re far from their peak, as the data in this Mother Jones article shows, and farmers would need a much bigger boost to recover from recent losses. WHYY’s Emily Pontecorvo focused on the topic in this feature about Pennsylvania soybean farmers grappling not only with an uncertain market, but also extreme weather patterns and other challenges.

• PA National Guard suicides are happening at the highest rates of any military contingent and more than double the state and national averages. In response, Gov. Tom Wolf recently created a task force dedicated solely to that issue. Scott LaMar brought in military and mental health professionals working on the effort for the latest Smart Talk episode. Listen here.

• Tioga County is getting $2.5 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission to increase broadband access. That’s the highest amount awarded to a Pa. community by the commission in its latest $54 million round of awards to coal-impacted regions in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee. A rundown of plans for other grants awarded to Pa. communities — including expanding free public wifi in Erie and coming up with plans for broadband expansions in seven counties —  is here, courtesy of the Associated Press.