UPPER BERN — The Trump administration this week finalized the $87.4 million purchase of a warehouse in Berks County that a member of Congress says will be used as an ICE processing and detention facility.

What do we know about the warehouse?
The warehouse at 3501 Mountain Road has never been used, but it was initially designed and constructed as a commercial facility. The property is located in an area of Upper Bern Township that is zoned for industrial development.

Transwestern Development Company completed construction in 2021 and later sold the warehouse to PCCP, a national commercial real estate equity firm, for $57.5 million. Since it was built and placed on the market, the property has remained vacant while generating about $199,620 annually in county property taxes, $31,229 in township taxes, and $597,110 for the Hamburg Area School District.

A marketing brochure for the Hamburg Logistics Center describes the warehouse as a “state-of-the-art logistics center” designed for large-scale distribution operations.

Why did ICE purchase the warehouse?
ICE recently purchased warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill Counties, but the agency has not publicly shared any specifics about how it plans to use them.

However, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents part of the county, told NOTUS and Spotlight PA, “It will be a processing facility and a detention facility.” He said he spoke to Trump administration officials on Tuesday.

Internal documents obtained by multiple local and national news outlets show a broad push by the Trump administration to acquire commercial warehouses as part of a plan to expand detention across the country, an effort funded by $45 billion approved by Congress through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The nearly 520,000-square-foot warehouse, previously known as the Hamburg Logistics Center, is one of 23 locations ICE plans to redevelop into a mass detention facility, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The outlet reported it could hold up to 1,500 people.

This story will be updated as Spotlight PA learns more....

In a scene that could have been pulled from the pages of a legal drama, attorneys involved in a potential class-action suit against the government debated several nebulous questions Thursday morning [February 5, 2026] in a Downtown courtroom:

• Should traveling by air with large amounts of cash be deemed suspicious or illegal?
• Was the seizure of a retired railroad engineer’s life savings — more than $82,000 in cash — justified?
• Does the Transportation Security Administration have “secret policies” that violate travelers’ Fourth Amendment rights?

Attorneys for the government refuted all allegations of wrongdoing and said law enforcement should investigate when a potential crime is suspected. But lawyers representing plaintiffs in the suit against the TSA, Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Government and others countered that the actions against travelers carrying large amounts of cash were illegal.

... [ snip ] ...

An incident at Pittsburgh International
The lawsuit revolves around the case of Terry Rolin, who has since died.

Rolin grew up in a household shaped by the Great Depression, according to his daughter, Rebecca Brown. He shared his parents’ distrust of banks and squirreled away his money, in cash, in various hiding spots around his house in Cuddy, an unincorporated area near Bridgeville.

When he moved to a smaller apartment outside South Fayette Township in 2018 at age 79, he gathered the cash and asked his daughter to fly with it to her home in Boston and create a new joint account. Ms. Brown, who was visiting family in Pittsburgh in 2019, agreed to do so, according to the lawsuit.

Before she could board her plane at Pittsburgh International Airport on Aug. 26, 2019, TSA agents “observed via X-ray that [her carry-on luggage] contained a ‘large’ amount of cash,’ ” the lawsuit states.

TSA screeners “told her they were going to hold on to her carry-on luggage until law enforcement officers could arrive,” the lawsuit states. Agents summoned Drug Enforcement Agency agent Steve Dawkin, who took possession of the money, the lawsuit states.

“They questioned Rebecca about why she had so much cash [and] told her to give them her ID and proof of her travel arrangements,” the lawsuit continues.

“Rebecca had no items that could threaten transportation security — weapons, explosives, incendiaries, or other prohibited items — in her carry-on luggage or on her person. She also had no illegal drugs or any other contraband. But rather than permit Rebecca to continue to her gate, the TSA Screeners unlawfully prolonged Rebecca’s detention,” the lawsuit states.

Ms. Brown hired an attorney. She eventually recovered her father’s money before he died in 2022, but only after a seven-month battle in which the DEA tried to keep it via civil forfeiture, she claimed in the lawsuit. During that time, her father was unable to afford medical care, including a new set of dentures that he needed, she said.

A statewide policy of banning cellphones in schools has taken a step forward this week as Gov. Josh Shapiro and other elected officials have voiced support for the idea.

The state Senate passed a bill, 46-1, Tuesday that would make public schools across Pennsylvania adopt policies prohibiting students from using cell phones during the school day. The legislation seeks to limit classroom distractions, improve academic performance and address concerns about youth mental health and social development, according to Senate Republicans.

“Our classrooms should be places for learning, not constant notifications,” said state Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, who co-sponsored the bill. “This bill gives students the freedom to focus, connect with peers, and protect their mental health from the pressures of social media.”

The legislation has bipartisan support. A similar bill, co-sponsored by Democratic state Rep. Mandy Steele, of Fox Chapel, has yet to reach the House floor for a vote.

When it does, however, Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat, appears poised to sign the proposal into law. The governor has made recent comments, including this week during his state budget address, stating his support for the legislation.

Donny Convict — the drooling loon his cultists believe is God’s Own Avatar On Earth — is what would happen if the seven Deadly Sins became a real boy. let’s run through the list: pride — yup. greed — you betcha. lust — just ask Ivanka. envy — no shit. gluttony — have you seen his waistline? wrath — ducked any ketchup bottles lately? sloth — the lazy fuck drives his golf cart right up onto the green.

with those bona fides, it’s only natural that God’s Own Avatar be anointed to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast.

naturally, it was a burst trash bag of rattlebrained incoherence — brags, boasts, outright lies, and fever-swamp fairy-tale nonsense. let’s settle in and sample some of the effluvia that oozed out of Donny’s rancid anus-mouth.

Length: 00:38, closed captions available

“remember Christmas was, uh— when I ran in 2015, when I announced, I said ‘we’re gonna bring back Christmas.’ because the word ‘Christmas’ was almost gone.”

oh please, not this inane hallucination again. Donny makes a point of bringing this up at every prayer breakfast, about how that Muslim bastard Barack HUSSEIN Obama outlawed Christmas. how back then, you couldn’t say Merry Christmas — because if you did, MS-13 gang members would appear out of nowhere and beat the shit of you. thank fuck that Dear Leader put an end to that. we’re forever in your debt, bro.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The dwindling number of people who still subscribe to the Washington Post plummeted even further on Thursday after owner Jeff Bezos named Melania Trump the paper’s new editor-in-chief.

Calling the hiring of the First Lady “not a bribe,” Bezos said, “We wanted to find someone who wouldn’t be tainted by any experience in journalism, and Bari Weiss was already taken.”

Mrs. Trump will make history as the first editor of a major US paper with a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, industry experts said.

In her first official act, Melania changed the Post’s slogan to “Democracy in Darkness Be Best.”

MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report)—As part of the DHS drawdown from Minneapolis, on Thursday Tom Homan ordered all 700 ICE agents leaving the city to return their signing bonuses to him in a paper bag.

In a memo sent to all departing officers, the border czar instructed them to place $50,000 into a paper bag from the restaurant chain Cava and meet him in the DHS parking lot after sundown.

“And make sure no one’s freaking filming us,” he added.

While some ICE agents grumbled about transferring their signing bonuses to Homan, he sternly reminded them, “Taking away people’s freedom isn’t free.”