“Please don’t feed the bears.” That sage advice may have been delivered in a 1961 cartoon by Ranger Smith to one of childhood’s favorite bears — Yogi — but it still holds true today. We may not realize it when we put our garbage out at night that the can is among places where ...

Officials of the New Love Center gathered recently in Avis to cut the ribbon on a new distribution, food pantry and fresh food pharmacy building. The new facility brings together multiple programs under one roof to serve the needs of different populations who are food insecure. Six years ...

Saturday, Oct. 24, is National Drug Take Back Day. Since its inception in 2010, the National Prescription Drug Take Back Initiative has allowed state law enforcement agencies to collect more than 12 million pounds of unused or expired prescription medications. Last year, more than 75,000 ...

Just as with the small business community, many of our local institutions and agencies continue to struggle amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently we heard the plight of the James V. Brown Library, which faces level funding from the county this year but the potential for a ...

It is doubtful the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., would have foreseen a time when a bit of sarcasm attributed to him would become obsolete. Sometime during the 1960s, it is said, Dirksen warned against apathy regarding the national debt by commenting, “A billion here and a billion ...

We Americans, collectively, were not ready for the coronavirus epidemic. We ought to be ready for the recovery. It will begin when a vaccine against COVID-19 becomes available. Though a timeline for that is uncertain, it appears safe, effective vaccines will be available early next year. ...

Among the very worst evils in our world is sexual abuse of children. But many of the predators engaged in it have an enemy powerful enough to strike fear in them. Operating far enough under the radar that we doubt many people have heard of it, an organization in Boca Raton, Florida, has a ...

When fire broke out at UPMC Lock Haven Hospital, the health system was actually investing in upgrading the facility by closing off an old boiler room. The fire that resulted, reportedly from a chemical reaction, filled segments of the hospital with heavy smoke and odor. Thus, the hospital had ...

Let’s all go roll a pumpkin. That’s what the kids did over the weekend in Jersey Shore, where an inaugural pumpkin rolling contest was a highlight of Autumn at the Shore. The fun fall festivity was hosted by Jersey Shore Town Meeting, which had to cancel its annual July celebration this ...

A community giant. That’s one way that the late Jean Rita Staiman is being remembered. The wife of Marvin Staiman, she stood by her husband for more than 75 years. Together the couple provided an extraordinary example of commitment and a vital force for good in our community. Indeed, ...

When will we have an effective, safe, vaccine against COVID-19? That depends. Federal public health officials who are in the know and without any political agendas have said deliveries of vaccine can be expected sometime in January. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services predicts ...

Unless the Nov 3 presidential election is decided decisively, one way or the other, there is a distinct possibility of civil unrest in some of the nation’s cities. Both federal law enforcement officials and their counterparts in some states recognize that and are taking steps to be prepared ...

It has been seven months since Americans began locking down against COVID-19. Many have attempted to get back to “normal” by donning masks, washing hands more frequently and taking a step or two back sometimes, to maintain social distancing. But many others have remained cloistered at ...

By the end of September 2019, 30 U.S. law enforcement personnel had been killed while on duty. Thirty-seven have been killed this year. Non-fatal injuries have soared, too. It is not being inaccurate to note that many, probably most, police officers, sheriff’s deputies and other law ...

There’s nothing like fresh construction projects to improve the outlook for an entire neighborhood. We love to see our neighbors sprucing up their homes. It boosts our feelings of well-being when we look around and see others care just as much about their properties as we do about ours. ...

Knowing how many people live here in the United States is more than a matter of satisfying curiosity or writing books on demographics and geography. The Census conducted every decade has enormous ramifications. How about $1.5 trillion in federal funding is doled out to localities and states, ...

Many sectors of the U.S. economy continue a slow but steady recovery from the COVID-19 slowdown. By the end of September, the national unemployment rate had dropped to 7.9 percent, down from 8.4 percent in August. In Pennsylvania, the unemployment rate had dropped to 10.3 percent in August, ...

Were the COVID-19 virus to be a creature capable of thought, it would be easy now to accuse it of engaging in a plot aimed at American democracy. The most devious, evil schemer based in Moscow or Beijing could not come up with a more perfect storm leading up to the Nov. 3 election. With ...

Breonna Taylor’s family is right: The system failed her. She should be alive today, but she is not. It is too late to save Taylor, who died in a hail of bullets from three police officers in Louisville, Kentucky one night in March. It is not too late for law enforcement officials ...

The Lycoming County Commissioners this week renewed the county’s disaster declaration as it relates to the coronavirus for another 90 days. While it allows the county to apply for emergency funding connected to COVID-19, it also signals the view that the coronavirus continues to be a ...