Nearly every American has suffered financially from the COVID-19 epidemic. At least 36 million of us were laid off from our workplaces. Even those still on the job have seen their retirement savings decimated. But a few people — those who had some forewarning of the economic havoc to come ...
Social distancing is working. So is only leaving the house for essential trips, working from home and limitations on non-essential businesses. And as we think about gradually reopening components of our society and ramping up some of the clinical services in our hospitals and clinics, it will ...
As the coronavirus epidemic hit full stride, Americans learned to our dismay that the nation lacked adequate supplies of COVID-19 test kits, personal protective gear such as face masks, medical ventilators and other necessities for dealing with a massive health care emergency. To their ...
Governor Tom Wolf is bringing to life the maxim: Never let a good crisis go to waste. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Wolf wants to roll out a new program that will cripple the state financially and supposedly fix a problem the governor himself is causing. Through his “Commonwealth ...
As Pennsylvania reopens, counties will begin the transition from mitigation phase red to yellow and eventually green by gradually easing stay-at-home orders and restrictions. As this happens, we all need to consider how we can continue to do our part to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 in our ...
The administration of Gov. Tom Wolf has, to a large extent, ignored the press and the state Legislature throughout the COVID-19 Disaster Declaration as information was requested on what criteria, data and processes were being used in its decision-making and policy formation. This is just ...
One of our presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, famously and rightly pronounced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was right then, and if he were alive today, I believe his words would again have great meaning and substance. Look, I’m as concerned as most people ...
Joseph L. Rider, Esquire, died on May 3, 2020. Joe was a 57-year member of the Lycoming Law Association. He served as the Association’s President in 1977. The first time I heard the Rider name was when I came to Williamsport to work for Judge Muir. I often thought that Judge Muir only hired ...
As we gradually reopen in the new normal world of COVID-19, there will be much to sort out. Continued adherence to safety rules that we have learned in the past two months is of paramount importance now as our society boldly walks out of isolation and slowly gets back to business. And it is ...
Human trafficking is commonly thought of as a global human rights issue that disproportionately affects international migrants and impoverished people in developing countries. But the reality is that human trafficking affects individuals, families and communities all across the United States ...
During three and one-half years, Americans converted a peacetime economy to become the arsenal of democracy and win World War II. The “greatest generation” accomplished that because it had to be done, for the good of all humankind. Now we as a nation face another challenge, of far less ...
August will produce a silence that will echo around the world. There will be no youngsters arriving on airplanes from distant lands. There will be no dreams to chase on baseball diamonds in a few short months. Nobody will become champion of a 2020 Little League World Series. The ...
Hundreds of thousands of hogs raised by farmers to provide Americans with ham, bacon and other meat products will not make it to the slaughterhouse unless ways are found to cure a nasty side-effect of COVID-19. It is that a number of meat processing plants have been shut down because of the ...
You may think you are reading the final Sunday edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, and to a degree, you are correct. This is the final Sunday in which a multiple-section edition of this newspaper, complete with circulars and coupons, arrives on the doorstep of subscribers. But this is ...
It’s not an understatement to say every Pennsylvanian has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands have faced the virus itself, over a million children are not in school, and more than 1.5 million workers have lost their jobs as a result of Gov. Wolf’s shutdown. The governor ...
Imagine you are taking 50 kids on a bus trip to Washington, D.C. They are given an allowance for stuff they might want to buy and told to bring money for meals on the way down and back. The problem is, at the first stop for gas, Johnny and Jimmy and some of their friends spend all of their ...
We all need a bit of a psychological pick-me-up. The tough fight against COVID-19 is taking its toll on us emotionally. Coronavirus blues, meet the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Just in time to give our spirits a boost, NASA is planning to send a new group of astronauts into ...
A yellow traffic light typically does not mean “proceed with caution.” Typically, it means slow down. A red light is coming. But today, we get the yellow light that signals an ability for life to get moving again — with extreme caution. Today most counties in our region enter the ...
More than a month into the 2020 census, many people have yet to respond. As of Wednesday, 56.8 percent of households nationwide had responded, and just a bit more, 59.1 percent, of Pennsylvania households had responded. In Lycoming County, 59 percent had responded, while in Williamsport ...
Virtual learning for every student is the goal of a $366,480 investment into laptops and electronic tablets in the Montoursville Area School District. That sounds like a lot of money for a district that not long ago was in financial turmoil and board upheaval over an expensive high school ...