Chester County, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania health officials confirmed a fifth measles-associated death this year, involving an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident whose identity was not released. Two prior Lancaster County deaths involved Amish infants, while Mifflin and Jefferson counties each reported one death, an 18-year-old and a 40-year-old. Confirmed cases statewide have reached 943, the largest outbreak in the state in three decades and the highest case count nationwide this year, with 40 new cases added in the past two days. Lancaster County remains the epicenter with nearly 400 cases, while Chester County has reported 83.

The toll is the nation's highest since 1992, but state and federal officials disagree on how to count it. The CDC currently lists only two measles deaths nationally, a discrepancy tied to decisions under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has clashed publicly with Gov. Josh Shapiro over the state's death count and vaccine messaging. Nearly one in five confirmed patients has been hospitalized, about a third are children, and almost all cases involve unvaccinated individuals.

Three 19-year-old men — Blaze Fuller, James Ryerson and Samuel Carlisle — have been arrested in Chester County, South Carolina, after allegedly cutting down and destroying two Flock Safety cameras owned by the Chester County Sheriff's Office. Investigators say Ryerson and Carlisle used a saw to cut down the cameras and then beat them with a hammer between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Aug. 15, causing one camera to catch fire. The damage was discovered the next day when a deputy noticed the cameras had gone offline.

Carlisle and Ryerson each face two counts of conspiracy and two counts of malicious injury to property, while Fuller faces one count each; the affidavit values the destroyed equipment at roughly $5,150. Sheriff Max Dorsey defended the cameras as tools for solving crimes and finding missing children, calling the destruction a crime rather than legitimate protest. The case adds to a broader national debate over Flock's automated license plate readers and their expanding use by law enforcement.