During President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial, we’ll hear a lot of talk about our rules for governing. One frequent claim is that our nation is a democracy. If we’ve become a democracy, it would represent a deep betrayal of our founders, who saw democracy as another form of ...
We applaud City Council’s decision to move its meetings to the Trade and Transit II building. This follows protests that disrupted the countywide administration of oaths of office to local officials at the Community Arts Center as well as last week’s Council meeting inside City Hall where ...
Change doesn’t happen alone. In fact, the African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child,” is very true when it comes to philanthropy in rural Pennsylvania communities, or for that matter, communities all across the United States. The United Way is a shining example of the power ...
School choice week was just observed, meaning school choice proponents across the state spent the week filling social and traditional media with their usual talking points. I want the average Pennsylvania taxpayer to think about not just school choice, but “tax choice.” That is, I want ...
The city’s K-9 program continues to make progress, with the assistance of many city employees. Streets and Parks employees have built a kennel for the first of a three-dog contingent, and the city plans to repurpose a fire station on West Fourth Street as a substation and K-9 headquarters. ...
Kendra Espinoza, a single mother of two young girls, never dreamed that sending her daughters to a Christian school in Kalispell, Montana, would lead her to the national stage. But her lawsuit, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, recently was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, and its ...
“I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, and I’m here to stop the count.” Those words were bellowed by John Bolton in a Tallahassee library in December 2000, when he was part of a team of Republican lawyers trying to stop the Florida recount of votes cast in the presidential race between ...
Had 22,000 people showed up in Richmond, Virginia, to demand stronger gun control laws, it is a safe bet that proponents of them would have pronounced the crowd to be conclusive proof most Americans want such restrictions. But when a group estimated at that size demonstrated recently against ...
Everyone should take a first-aid course. That’s the message of Odren Polk, an AmeriCorps volunteer, and we couldn’t agree more. Polk remained calm one day not so long ago when a first-grader at Stevens Primary School began to choke on a tomato. “Mr. O,” as the youngsters call him, ...
Clearly, the developed world needs to do more about how we dispose of our trash. Just as obviously, the United States, often cited as the chief villain in that regard, is far from alone. For years, much of the plastic waste disposed of by prosperous countries — even much of that officials ...
I don’t blame President Donald Trump for his angst and bitterness over his impeachment by the House of Representatives. In his mind, he has done “nothing wrong” and not acted outside the constitutional powers vested in him, and so his impeachment should not have come to pass. He believes ...
Feeding off a robust national economy, Pennsylvania state government ended the last fiscal year with total revenue collections $883 million above the official estimate. That sets a positive stage for the next state budget, which Gov. Tom Wolf will be proposing soon. The robust economy also ...
Last October, something remarkable happened in Pennsylvania that few noticed. Frankly, it was desperately needed in this moment of divisiveness in our politics and country. As state lawmakers were feverishly working to finish the legislative calendar for the year, and Washington was ...
Somebody once called Israel “The Promised Land for Cats.” Even a short trip to Israel will reveal immediately cities, towns, hamlets and communities full of cats. They are all over the place. You never see mice, rats, moles or squirrels — but cats-a-plenty. Scientists tell us that the ...
Many Americans became heroes on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. One of them, a Navy mess attendant, had been told he wasn’t even supposed to fire guns — because he was black. He was Doris “Dorie” Miller, a young Texan serving aboard the battleship USS West ...
Every hostile nickname that Mitch McConnell gets is further confirmation of his effectiveness. The latest is “Midnight Mitch,” a reaction to his resolution setting out the road map for the Senate impeachment trial. The measure stipulated that House impeachment managers could make their ...
Municipal brush piles — and access to them — has become a hot topic in recent years. It’s quite the situation for the average homeowner. There was a time when municipal street crews would pick up limbs and yard debris left at the curb. As resources dwindled, policies changed, with ...
Pennsylvania House Bill 1897 has been introduced in Harrisburg. It would force school districts to have a Cyber School Program and for all 14 public cyber charter schools to close. The main points of this legislation are: All Pennsylvania cyber charter schools must cease operations after ...
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania recently met to devise five priorities the organization hopes to address. We have to give them credit — they’ve got the list about right. The organization will be working to address property tax reform, increased funding for mental ...
“More variety, and more.” That’s what Chuck Still said he plans to bring to the Community Arts Center in his new role as its executive director. In fact, he told the Sun-Gazette that it just might be his mantra. Looking at his experience, it’s apparent that he just might be the ...