Everything looks good to me. However, your hot spot should be around ninety, so you should probably change that. It helps with digestion. Since you have a thermostat, your heat mat is just fine for your snake. That part about them being bad for older snakes is not at all true, you just need a thermostat and you're perfectly fine. I would get a temperature gun (you can pick one up at home depot) and check temperatures with that, it's easier. Do you know what your cold side temperature is? What temperature is the room?
Also, I feed all of my snakes in their cages and haven't had a problem, regardless of substrate. Nothing to worry about. They are more likely to eat inside their cage than out of it as they are more comfortable. I wouldn't even bother with the newspaper. I've had one of my snakes on aspen for almost a year now and I've fed in the cage the whole time. It would only be worrying if they somehow got a rat sized amount of substrate in their mouths, which I don't think would be happening.
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