MONROE UNFILTERED: THE DAILY BUZZ | August 27
ESU's Scary Night, A 146-Year-Old Cold Case Revisited, and Support for Data Center Opposition
Thursday, August 27, 2026
DAILY WEATHER
It was a great start to the week; today we will pay the piper. The National Weather Service calls for thunderstorms with a high near 79°F, a low around 62°F overnight, and a strong chance of rain that holds most of the day. NWS is also flagging a real risk today: scattered strong to severe storms are possible across our part of the state, with damaging wind, hail, and even an isolated tornado on the table. Keep the good umbrella handy, but more importantly, keep an eye on the sky and your phone's weather alerts. Good for grass, plants, and wells, but not great for outdoor plans.
Friday washes it all away: NWS has it mostly sunny, dry, and a high near 84°F, the easy pick of the week. Saturday holds close behind, sunny with a high near 82°F, and Sunday stays mostly sunny too with a high near 83°F.
ESU LOCKS DOWN, THEN CLEARS
East Stroudsburg University went into a shelter-in-place order Wednesday night after State Police received a call around 7:47 p.m. reporting an active shooter on campus, WFMZ/69 News reports. The report triggered an immediate multi-agency response from state and municipal police.
After searching the area, State Police found no signs of an active shooter event and lifted the order, saying there is currently no threat to campus, according to WFMZ. No injuries and no arrests have been reported as of this writing. The investigation remains open, led by Pennsylvania State Police Troop N (Stroudsburg Station) alongside the Monroe County District Attorney's Office.
This is still a developing story. We'll update you as more comes out.
THE DEEP DIVE: A 146-YEAR-OLD CASE GETS A FRESH SPOTLIGHT
Monroe County DA Mike Mancuso and retired Chief Detective Eric J. Kerchner presented a program on their book "Etna: A Murder Out of Time" at Middle Smithfield Township’s 20th annual Memory Makers event on Aug. 8. The unsolved case goes back to Oct. 31, 1880, when 17-year-old Etna Bittenbender was murdered in Hamilton Township. Her gravestone reads, "Murdered by some person, unknown between the hours of 4 and 6 o’clock," per Middle Smithfield Township’s own listing. No one was ever charged, then or since.
Mancuso and Kerchner spent more than eight years applying modern investigative technique to a case that had no surviving case file. They worked from old newspaper accounts, census records, and other historical documents to reconstruct what the original 1880s investigators missed, and traced "long forgotten leads" forward to connect specific suspects to the crime.
They published their findings as a book in 2020, marking the crime’s 140th anniversary. We won’t give any spoilers away here (you have to buy the book!) but per the publisher’s own framing, the two do land on who they believe did it, even without a "case closed" stamp.
STATE OF THE KEYSTONE STATE
Pennsylvania's First Measles Deaths in 35 Years, Now a Real Dispute Over the Records. Pennsylvania has reported its first measles-associated deaths in 35 years, part of a statewide outbreak now at more than 400 confirmed cases across 29 counties, per the Philadelphia Inquirer's Aug. 26 reporting. This week it turned into a public fight: RFK Jr., the Trump administration's Health and Human Services Secretary, said in a CSPAN interview that “they cannot find any measles deaths in Lancaster County,” then followed up on social media suggesting Gov. Shapiro's office may have “fabricated” them. Shapiro fired back on social media, telling Kennedy to stop spreading misinformation, and in later remarks accused him of pushing a “rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and false claims,” Mediaite reports.
Here's what's actually verifiable: Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni told LancasterOnline flatly that “no measles deaths were handled by our office.” His office is investigating one case: an infant who tested positive for measles but died of a ruptured or lacerated spleen. According to Diamantoni, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy did not believe the death was related to measles, though the investigation into whether the infant's mother had measles at the time of birth is still open, per the Inquirer. Diamantoni told LancasterOnline he's pointed to a couple of possible reasons his records don't line up with the state's count, including that his office may not yet have the state's paperwork on its “measles-associated” classification, or that a death could have been handled by another county's coroner. In his own words: “I can't state what the governor or state would decide. I'm not sure how they're classifying.” That's a real, open records question, not a resolved dispute in either direction.
None of that changes the state's broader vaccination push: the Pennsylvania Department of Health says 91 pop-up clinics have run so far with 40 more planned, and that more than 35,000 Pennsylvanians got an MMR shot in July alone (not limited to those clinics). The department's own figures put two-dose MMR protection at 97 percent. No case has been confirmed in Monroe County as of this writing.
Data Center Order Picks Up Reinforcements. A little over a week after signing Executive Order 2026-05, which directs state agencies to build the GRID data center standards we've told you about into permitting and legally enforceable agreements, Shapiro is racking up a broad coalition of allies, per an Aug. 26 release from the governor's office. Building trades unions NABTU and LiUNA both endorsed it, with LiUNA's Brent Booker calling it “commonsense,” and Amherst College professor Austin Sarat went further in an op-ed, calling it “a model for the nation” that “other governors would be well advised to follow.” Environmental groups EEN Action, Climate Power, and Vote Solar voiced support as well, though with some adding that more still needs to be done, alongside a Wall Street Journal op-ed from former PA Congressman Patrick Murphy calling it “the sensible middle.” For Monroe County, where Smithfield, Pocono, and Tobyhanna townships have been fighting data center proposals for over a year, the order could be significant, though some local opponents have said they wanted Shapiro to go further and enact a full pause, as some other states have done.
WHAT WERE YA THINKIN'
Recovery Center Repeat Offender. Casey Jones, 32, of Mount Joy, was trespassing at Pocono Mountain Recovery Center around 10:30 p.m. Aug. 20 after staff say he was throwing objects and acting erratically, per Newport Dispatch. Police walked him off the property without incident, but Jones came back at 11:53 p.m. and started making threats at staff, turning the second visit into an arrest on criminal trespass and disorderly conduct charges. As always, he's presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Headlights Are Not Optional. An officer on routine patrol on Route 611 in Scotrun spotted a white Nissan Murano cruising south with no headlights or taillights on the night of Aug. 15, according to CrimeWatch. The stop turned into a DUI arrest for driver Maurice Gatlin on a general impairment charge plus two additional counts. Driving drunk is always a bad choice even with the headlights on. He's presumed innocent until proven guilty.