Breaking News

State needs to resist efforts to increase spending

In a perfect world — or even just a better world — Pennsylvania’s state budget would be both completed on time and would be a plan in which Pennsylvania’s taxpayers could place their faith. We unfortunately do not live in that perfect world, and yet again our state budget has missed ...

Celebrate this Fourth of July

Williamsport is fortunate to once again host one of the region’s premier fireworks shows the evening of the Fourth of July. The fireworks will cap a day of festivities downtown on William Street. The annual event is an opportunity for families to celebrate — celebrate the birth of our ...

Court rules correctly on firearms purchases

We appreciate that a federal judge has correctly struck down an effort in California to sidestep the Second Amendment by placing undue limitations on how many firearms law-abiding Americans can purchase in a month. The judge noted Supreme Court precedent clearly protects the right to ...

What other newspapers are saying: Policy shifts impact most vulnerable

Many of these proposed and emerging policies align with plans detailed in initiatives such as Project 2025, a comprehensive blueprint for restructuring the federal government. Regardless of their origin, the tangible effects of these shifts on crucial support systems demand our community’s urgent attention. The recent news that 23 employees at the North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities (NDCPD) at Minot State University are being laid off — with some already having lost their jobs — is a stark local example of this broader trend. These job losses, attributed to federal ...

Work on derailment needs to continue

An Associated Press article about the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, said the accident prompted a national reckoning with rail safety and calls for reform, although proposals for new industry rules stalled in Congress. Unfortunately, though, with each ...

Impact fee just part of gas industry’s success

$6.9 million. Lycoming County and its municipalities are yet again benefitting from the natural gas impact fee. This year’s $6.9 million disbursement brings the total, since the fee was enacted, to about $134.5 million. The projects on which that money has and will be spent would ...