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Wrong party

Letters

The past has finally caught up to Graham Platner. Enough credible accusations of bad conduct towards various women has surfaced that he has dropped out of the Maine Senate race. It took awhile for his party to be convinced of the credibility of his actions, but they finally withdrew their endorsements so that he had to leave the race. Admittedly it took quite some time to believe all the stories and rumors and the significance of his Nazi tattoo, but in the end the Democrat Party did the right thing. In a way I feel bad for Graham. His mistake was he belong to the wrong party. Let me ...

Addressing eyesores should start with individuals

Editorials

Muncy Borough Council adapted tougher penalties for codes violations at a recent meeting. As last Monday’s edition of the Sun-Gazette reported, the new policies intend to focus on repeat offenders of maintenance and nuisance ordinances. It isn’t necessarily fair to single Muncy borough ...

New business numbers should be source of optimism

Editorials

We know and share in the pain that fluctuating energy costs and gas prices and a decade of rising prices for groceries and other costs of living have inflicted on our nation and region. A Center Square article in Tuesday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette offered some good news: The ...

Homebuilding keeps weakening in latest data

Other Commentaries

Inflation fell more than expected in June. That gave consumers some breathing room, and they kept spending – even if they became more selective about where their money went. Homebuilders were less optimistic. Beneath a volatile monthly increase in total housing starts, single-family construction continued to decline. Multifamily construction may be approaching a bottom, but overall homebuilding has fallen back toward its pre-pandemic pace – not nearly enough for a country with a 4.7 million-home housing deficit. Sadly, the relief may also be temporary. Asking-rent growth has ...

Error rate is high — but new numbers provide hope

Other Commentaries

Pennsylvania is wasting millions of dollars on overpayments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. If nothing changes, the state faces hefty penalties next year. But Pennsylvania can do more to stop the waste without harming those who depend on SNAP. For more than a year, Pennsylvania has not only overpaid SNAP recipients but also refused efforts to shed light on these overpayments. For more than a year, the commonwealth has stonewalled all federal requests for data, even though the federal government shoulders most of SNAP’s cost. Now, ...

Social Security

Letters

It seems that there is a simple, fair and just solution to the Social Security problem, a solution that the experts can’t seem to come up with for a system that is predicted to run out of reserve funds by the early 2030’s. The simple solution is to levy the 6.2% social security tax on all personal income, not just on earned income up to the current earned income cap of around $184,000, but all earned income above the current cap, as well as all unearned income (i.e. investment income) as well. But do not require employers to add their 6.2% of all earned income above the current cap. ...