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Nicknames I have known

Marcy is not my real name. I’ve been Marcy for 67 years and I have no plans for going back to the original. My parents gave me the name Marcia, (pronounced like Marsha) which was a perfectly nice name – until I was in my mid-teens. In 1951 Stan Freberg made a record entitled ...

Our opinion: County misses out on state funding

In a recent news release this month, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced 50 highway, bridge, aviation, port, bike, and pedestrian projects in 27 counties across Pennsylvania were selected for $54 million in funding through the Multimodal Transportation Fund. These new investments, the release stated, will improve safety, strengthen local economies, and enhance mobility across the Commonwealth, connecting communities and people to opportunity. In Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, $972,000 will support the redesign of the intersection at Prince Street and Houcks Road to make it safer for ...

Our opinion: State can’t sit on reassessment sidelines

We typically represent our political parties either with an elephant or a donkey. But in the case of Pennsylvania lawmakers at the state and local level, the ostrich would be a better representation. No one wants to take on the issue of property reassessments because they don’t want to upset voters. The problem is property reassessments are a necessary pain in the tuckus that make sure our system of taxation to pay for public services is done in as fair a way as possible. One reason property reassessments cause ostrich-like behavior now is they happen decades apart in too many ...

Our opinion: Using caution as schools reopen

Students are heading back to our county’s schools starting today. With this yearly occasion, we remind the public to discuss traffic safety with youngsters and, for those who also are motorists, to be careful as children will be along our streets and roads on weekday mornings and afternoons. The website for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers some tips. "Your child should arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus arrives," the website advises. "Ahead of the new school year, visit the bus stop and show your child where to wait for the bus, ...

Our opinion: Can animal hoarding be slowed?

Legislation introduced recently in the state House of Representatives wouldn’t bring an automatic stop to incidents of animal cruelty that routinely pop up around the commonwealth. But we do think Rep. Eddie Pashinski’s House Bill 2279 could be a useful tool for local law enforcement and judges as they deal with animal neglect cases that happen with alarming regularity in both Warren County and the rest of Pennsylvania. While state law recognizes "neglect" and "cruelty" to animals, Pashinski wants state law to also include "animal hoarding" and provide for mental health ...

Hidden inflation drives up state costs

When most people think about inflation, they think about groceries, gasoline, housing, or electricity. But another form of inflation is quietly making Pennsylvania more expensive, and most people have never heard of it. It does not happen at the grocery store. It happens in the courtroom. A major new academic study by researchers from Georgia State University and Brighthouse Financial has confirmed that lawsuit costs are increasing faster than normal inflation and that the biggest reason is rapidly growing jury verdicts. The researchers analyzed more than 74,000 jury verdicts and ...