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(CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — Fracking has been on the national stage this election season and swing state Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes in play, is at the center of the issue with one the largest natural gas deposits in the U.S.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, sees water and other chemicals pumped into underground rock formations that contain methane or natural gas. The fluids crack the rock, releasing the gas which is then captured and brought above ground.

Eight years ago, Michelle Stonemark built her dream home in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, on the same street as much of her extended family. She was followed by some new neighbors — a fracking operation.

As the Stonemarks’ home was under construction, a natural gas company built a well pad for oil and gas production just a few feet away.

“I was scared to death. I was scared about what harms it would cause us,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.

It’s a significant industry in Pennsylvania, but there is precedent for states banning fracking — it’s happened in California, Maryland, New York, Vermont and Washington.

Only Congress has the power to completely ban fracking, but presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris see it as a topic that resonates with voters in the Keystone State.

Former President Trump says Harris is against the practice.

“Starting on Day One of my new administration, I will end Kamala Harris’ war on Pennsylvania energy,” he said at an Oct. 26 rally. “And we will frack, frack, frack.”

In 2019, when Harris was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, she firmly stood for a ban on fracking. During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019 when she was still a senator, Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”

Now, Vice President Harris has positioned herself as a supporter of fracking. Harris reiterated that she would not ban fracking during the ABC News Presidential Debate.

“I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States,” she said during September’s ABC News debate. “And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking.”

The Stonemarks documented the experience of living so close to an active fracking operation, with video showing flames shooting into the sky in the middle of the night as excess natural gas was burned off.

Their windows and tools in their garage often vibrate with the hum of machinery at the nearby well pad.

“The noise that comes off of that … are low-level sounds, low-level frequencies, more like a bass that cause vibrations, more like a constant hum, the kind of noise you feel in your chest and in your ears and in your head,” Michelle Stonemark told ABC. “We suffered from headaches and nosebleeds during that time.”

In Cecil Township, there’s legislation that would require new fracking operations to be placed at least 5,000 feet away from schools and 2,500 feet away from homes. The current minimum distance is 500 feet. The city council passed the resolution on Monday night.

Stonemark supports the legislation, but it may not change her situation. The family has already upgraded their air filters and installed air quality monitors outside, but she’s angry about it.

“Every day we wake up and we don’t know what we’re going to get. We don’t know how loud it’s going to be, how what it’s going to smell like outside,” she told ABC News. “[Or] If my kids can play outside; we don’t know if we can have people over.”

She’s also concerned that it’s causing health issues for the family.

“We don’t know if the nosebleed my daughter has is from fracking. We don’t know if the nausea and the headaches that we’re feeling are from fracking,” she said. “Every day is undue stress and anxiety on myself, my husband, my kids. So, yeah, it pisses me off.”

In 2023, a taxpayer-funded study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh found that children who live within one mile of unconventional natural gas development — including fracking — were found to be five to seven times more likely to develop lymphoma, a type of cancer. It was also linked to adverse birth outcomes and exacerbating existing asthma symptoms.

In the race for the White House, politicians are hoping a vow to keep fracking will secure them votes. However, the issue is more complex for the people with fracking operations in their backyard. Even pro-fracking Republicans like Scott Byrd are in favor of the proposed changes.

“First of all, I’m very pro fracking,” he told ABC News. “It just has to be done in an industrial rural area.”

However, Byrd noted that neither of the candidates have offered particulars on the issue.

“I’m mainly motivated by responsibilities as a parent,” he said. “You see your two children, you have to do everything you can do to protect them.”

In a statement to ABC News, Range Resources, which runs fracking operations in Cecil Township, noted that it works closely with “municipalities and residents to foster open communication, address community concerns, and proactively minimize any potential impacts.”

However, it said that the township’s ordinance is “a stark outlier from the 50 other municipalities where Range operates, as it seeks to restrict future natural gas development within its borders.”

Byrd emphasized the need to frack safely.

“If the technology is not there to do it without hurting children, everybody else, we need to get more into research and development. We’re not just going to jump the gun,” he said. “They’re running with it and ignoring the risks. We have to do something.”

Stonewall noted that fracking is a polarizing topic, but it shouldn’t be something people are simply for or against.

“I’m neither for it or against it — I believe it has its place. I believe that we need to be an energy independent nation,” she said. “I just don’t believe that we need to be doing it at the expense of people living their everyday lives.”

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(NEW YORK) — The back-to-back retirements of two college quarterbacks seemingly at the start of their careers has put a spotlight again on concussions and youth sports, particularly football.

On Oct. 23, North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall announced on Instagramthat he would retire from the sport after being carted off the field in an Oct. 5 game that saw him lose his helmet in a hit.

“As you all know I have battled injuries my whole career, but this is one that I cannot come back from. I have done everything I can to continue, but this is where the good Lord has called me to serve in a different space,” McCall, 23, wrote alongside photos of him playing football as a young kid. “Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up.”

Just five days later, on Oct. 28, University of Michigan quarterback Jack Tuttle announced that he too is retiring from football, also citing medical reasons.

Tuttle, a seventh-year senior, underwent surgery on his throwing arm in the offseason, according to ESPN, and then this season suffered the fifth concussion of his career.

“Unfortunately, the recent experience of enduring my fifth concussion has brought forth the painful truth: that I need to start prioritizing my health,” Tuttle, 25, wrote, in part, in an Instagram post announcing his retirement. “Throughout my college career, I’ve battled numerous injuries, culminating in this difficult choice to step away from playing the game that I love.

Both Tuttle and McCall noted that they planned to stay involved with football through coaching, with McCall writing, “I look forward to taking my passion and love for the game into the coaching space to serve and lead the next group of kids with a dream.”

Whether it’s safe for young kids to dream of playing football is a conversation starting again in the wake of the quarterbacks’ retirements, as well as the recent deaths of two youth football players.

Among youth sports, boys’ football has the highest rate of concussion, with10.4 concussions per 10,000 athlete exposures, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics. Girls’ soccer and boys’ ice hockey followed behind with the second and third highest rates, respectively.

For kids who start playing tackle football at a young age, the concussions can start just as young. A 2018 study found that 5% of youth football players ages 5 to 14 suffer a football-related concussion each season.

And the science shows that each concussion — caused by a jolt to the head or a hit to the body — matters.

While not usually life-threatening, the effects of even a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) or concussion, can be “serious,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, causing changes to the brain that can impact a kid’s sleep, learning, behavior and thoughts.

Over time, repeated concussions can cause long-term problems with concentration, memory, balance and headaches, according to the CDC.

Chris Nowinski, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on concussion and CTE research, told ABC News that while he doesn’t know the specifics of Tuttle’s and McCall’s, it’s notable that they retired from football now, during their college careers.

“It’s important remember, you only get one brain, and when you’re playing football, you’re risking your long-term brain health,” Nowinski said. “And so you want to make sure that when you get warning signs that your brain is losing its resilience to trauma, you shut it down before it gets too bad.”

He added of Tuttle and McCall, “They’re better off finding that new passion versus running their brain to the ground and dealing with those consequences for the rest of their lives.”

Takeaways for parents and young athletes

Nowinski said he recommends that if a child is interested in playing football, they play flag or touch football instead of tackle football for as long as possible.

It’s a recommendation echoed by the CDC, which cites data showing youth tackle football players had 15 times more head impacts during a practice or game than flag football athletes.

If a child is playing tackle football, safety recommendations from the CDC include reducing the number of contact practices for teams, teaching position-specific and age-appropriate tackling and blocking skills, and strictly enforcing penalties for head hits.

Noting the importance of kids getting as few concussions as possible, Nowinski said he also encourages parents, coaches and trainers to give young athletes more than enough time to recover from a concussion.

“That means staying out longer than a week after a concussion, and potentially staying out longer than is even recommended,” he said. “And that when there are two concussions in a shorter period of time, that you take longer off.”

For young athletes hesitant to miss a game or practice, Nowinski said the takeaway message is, “The more [concussions] you get, the more you risk having to step away from your sport.”

Dr. Munro Cullum, a concussion expert and neuropsychologist from UT Southwestern’s O’Donnell Brain Institute, told ABC News that he tells parents and athletes, “If in doubt, sit it out.”

“If you have questions about how you’re doing, the line I use for a lot of young adults that I see is, ‘If you’re impaired and not functioning at your best, you can’t be the best for your team,'” Cullum said. “‘You can’t be there for your team in full strength, and therefore, you need to let people know when there’s something wrong.'”

Cullum said that parents and guardians can often be the first line of defense when it comes to identifying a concussion in their child.

“I encourage parents to educate themselves about concussion signs also because some of the changes can be very subtle,” he said. “Their behaviors may change and maybe only a parent would notice that somebody’s more sullen or they’re more anxious than they used to be.”

In some cases, symptoms of concussions may appear right away, while in others it may take hours or days after the injury for symptoms to appear.

Concussion symptoms can range from dizziness, nausea, vision problems and headaches to concentration problems, fogginess, anxiety, sadness, nervousness or changes in sleep, according to the CDC.

When it comes to knowing whether the latest concussion is one too many for an athlete, Cullum said there is no “magic number.”

“We don’t yet know how many concussions are too many or for whom,” Cullum said, adding, “It’s what’s unique about one individual versus another. There can’t really be a blanket prescription that’s right for everybody. One size doesn’t fit all.”

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(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in front of a New York City hotel last week, has retained a private defense attorney in his Pennsylvania gun charges case.

Mangione was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday following a dayslong manhunt. Police said he was found with multiple fake IDs, including a fake New Jersey ID matching the one that the suspect allegedly used to check into a hostel in New York City before the shooting, a 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed silencer.

He has been charged in Pennsylvania with carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint.

Mangione plans to plead not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania, his defense attorney, Thomas Dickey, told reporters on Tuesday.

Dickey said he anticipates Mangione would also plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge he faces in New York in connection with Thompson’s death.

Has refrained from saying how he came to represent Mangione

The Altoona-based attorney has been making the press rounds since he was retained to represent Mangione, including ABC News’ Good Morning America and CNN.

But he could not confirm how he came to represent Mangione; he would only say he was retained Tuesday ahead of the suspect’s extradition hearing in Pennsylvania. He said he “of course” knew of the New York case but said, “I don’t follow a lot of things sometimes in news.”

The court denied Mangione bail during the hearing. Mangione plans to challenge his extradition to New York.

“He has constitutional rights and that’s what he’s doing” in challenging the interstate transfer, Dickey told reporters on Tuesday.

When asked how Mangione was feeling, the attorney brusquely said you can “use your common sense on that.” He later said that Mangione is “taking it as well as he can.”

The attorney told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Wednesday that anyone speculating on the case should take the potential evidence “in its entirety,” rather than take pieces of writing or other evidence “out of context.”

“People put out certain things, parts of different things,” he said. “I think any lawyer involved in this situation would want to see it all.”

“We’re looking forward to beginning our inquiry as to what evidence may or may not be out there,” he said.

Asked whether he would accept donations from members of the public seeking to fund his defense, Dickey said, “I don’t know.”

He told CNN that he probably wouldn’t.

“I just don’t feel comfortable about that,” he said. “It just doesn’t sit right with me, really.”

Asked about the outpouring of support for Mangione online, Dickey told reporters Tuesday, “People are entitled to their opinion.”

“If you’re an American, you believe in the American criminal justice system, you have to presume him to be innocent,” the attorney said. “And none of us would want anything other than that if that was us in their shoes. I’m glad that he has some support.”

Would consider representing suspect in New York murder case

Mangione could face additional charges in New York beyond second-degree murder, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“As we learn more about motives and other things like that … there may be additional charges,” Bragg told ABC News on Wednesday.

Dickey told reporters Tuesday that if the opportunity presented itself to represent Mangione in the New York case, he “certainly would consider” it.

The attorney said he does not have a license to practice law in New York, but that “you can get admitted.”

“I’ve been doing this for 41 years, you can get admitted there,” he said, but added, “I don’t want to speculate about anything.”

Takes on cases ranging from capital murder to DUIs

Dickey is a lifelong resident of Blair County, home to Altoona, according to his bio on his law firm website.

He studied history and political science at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, and earned his law degree from Ohio Northern University.

He opened his private practice in 1984. It takes on first-degree murder, DUI and state and federal drug cases, among others.

Dickey told reporters Tuesday he is “proud to say” that he is one of the few attorneys in Pennsylvania who is qualified to provide defense counsel in death penalty cases.

His decades-long career has included a 2009 double homicide in which he argued post-traumatic stress disorder as a defense for the defendant, an Iraqi War veteran.

“I argued to the jury in my opening [statement], I said I believe that the Iraq war came home that day,” Dickey told CNN following the trial.

The defendant was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after the jury couldn’t agree on the death penalty.

Asked if Mangione’s was the biggest case he’s been on, Dickey told reporters, “They’re all big.”

“All my clients are equally important,” he said.

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