Michael Long

Jan 12, 2025 | lancasteronline.com | Michael Long

For the 250 or so faithful at Clearview Mennonite Church in Rapho Township, worship today looks much like it did centuries ago. The women wear muted pastel dresses that extend at least to mid-calf and white mesh devotional coverings that keep in place uncut hair, parted in the middle. They enter the church through a door on the east side of the unadorned brick building.

Jan 2, 2025 | lancasteronline.com | Michael Long

Three people, all children, died in accidents on Lancaster County farms in 2024, the same number as the previous year, based on LNP | LancasterOnline reporting. Lancaster County – Pennsylvania’s leading agricultural producer – typically sees more farm-related deaths each year than any other county in the state. The county has seen from one to seven farm deaths a year since 2000, and children are the most common victims.

Dec 27, 2024 | lancasteronline.com | Michael Long |Jade Campos

The politics of 2024 were, in the words of President-elect Donald Trump, “huge.”The politics of 2025, by comparison, are smaller in their geographical reach but could be even more impactful in terms of how they shape the daily lives of Lancaster County residents. In next year’s municipal election, voters will pick school board members, township supervisors and borough mayors and council people, as well as a couple of county row officers and district justices, and a handful of state judges.

Nov 17, 2024 | lancasteronline.com | Michael Long

For some reason, excerpts from Anna Kendrick’s film catalog keep popping onto the movie reel in my head. Do you know that scene in “Pitch Perfect” when the bus runs out of gas? The Barden Bellas, an all-girl a cappella group from Barden University, hit the open road, headed to North Carolina to sing in the semifinals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.

Sep 29, 2024 | lancasteronline.com | Michael Long

When deciding on a new book, if the jacket-flap teasers and back-cover blurbs don’t completely sell it, there’s no substitute for opening to the first page, reading a few paragraphs and seeing whether it grabs you. When I picked up “Hillbilly Elegy” by JD Vance, those first few paragraphs turned into a few pages, which turned into the balance of the nine-page introduction and a quick, enthusiastic purchase. Vance’s hardscrabble, Midwestern Rust Belt origin story hooked me from the outset.