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When the next pandemic comes — will we be ready?

“It’s going to be bad,” my wife said. Like many people, I had paid little attention to the “novel coronavirus,” but my wife has always followed the news more closely than I have. She was right. Despite knowing something of history and having worked in healthcare for over 40 years, I never expected to live through a pandemic, especially not one that lasted so long as COVID-19 has. I never thought I would see so many people die so quickly unless the nuclear attack that we practiced for in school happened. But here we are. Fortunately, we got a lot of things right. Previous ...

Proposal will increase food insecurity, not jobs

Congressional leadership last week proposed cutting food assistance that helps our neighbors thrive and economy grow. As part of the debt ceiling negotiations, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unveiled the Limit, Save, Grow Act, a plan that would cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and make it even harder for our neighbors to access much needed food assistance. As executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, a Feeding America food bank distributing charitable food in 27 mid-state counties including Lycoming, and with facilities in Williamsport ...

The Federal Reserve’s ‘credibility’

I have heard some people say that the Federal Reserve has a credibility problem. The agency missed the biggest inflation spike since the 1980s, was slow to start rolling back pandemic policies and failed to spot the risks that some banks, such as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), were facing. Instead of instilling confidence and stability, the Fed’s policy communication has at times been so unclear and confused that it has only served to exacerbate market volatility. Credibility is a big enough problem, but unfortunately the Fed’s issues go beyond that. The Fed as an institution, along ...

I am over inaccurate, misleading misinformation about COVID-19

I am over it. You probably have said this to yourself and you probably have heard others state the same thing, “I am over it.” Well, I am over social media, political influence and anyone putting their spin on the day’s happenings. Speak with five people who witnessed an event, and you will most likely find five different interpretations of what happened. These observations are often formed from opinions, beliefs and perhaps what one wants to think happened. Our judicial system understands this fact. It takes twelve of our peers to look at an incident and figure out what has ...

Accountability or political ambitions?

Is it possible to be objective in connection with the Trump indictment? Here is my effort. I had the great privilege of working on the Watergate case with Henry Rothblatt. Rothblatt represented “The Plumbers,” the men hired by CREEP, the Campaign to Reelect the President (Nixon), to effectuate the break in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Complex. When Henry Rothblatt found out that the men were receiving “hush money” to plead guilty, he refused to represent them any longer. Rothblatt, with his impressive staff and credentials, came to my apartment to tell me that I ...

Catching the travel bug while minimizing the risk of getting COVID-19

Being a late learner, I came to understand the words “endemic,” “native,” and “introduced” only recently during travel abroad. Our naturalist guide had defined each of those terms when he described species of plants and animals in the geographic area we were visiting. He was not referring to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, even though that virus had been “introduced” and belongs to the SARSr-CoV species. Our trip to Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands was fascinating. It came about last month after a different excursion to South America, originally purchased and ...