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Our opinion: Increasing timber production a responsible decision

A recent executive order by President Donald Trump to streamline regulations and allow more timber to be harvested from U.S. Forest Service lands invites what possibly could be a trivia question: Under which U.S. department’s jurisdiction does the U.S. Forest Service fall? If you answered the U.S. Department of the Interior, which supervises national parks and fulfills a mission of preserving natural areas and sites of note, you would be wrong. If you answered the Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces environmental regulations to curtail pollution and limit environmental ...

Our opinion: Take time to get REAL ID

Gotten your REAL ID yet? No? Don’t worry, you are not alone. In fact, the majority of Pennsylvanians haven’t. According to the latest statistics released by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), only 26 percent of Pennsylvanians have applied for a REAL ID. That’s certainly more than a bit concerning, considering the May 7 deadline is approaching quickly. On Tuesday, PennDOT announced that it will hold special REAL ID Days across the Keystone State to help residents prepare for the deadline when federal enforcement begins. The REAL ID Act was passed by ...

Our opinion: State is about to get serious about distracted driving

A recent analysis of state court data shows Warren County, and its rural neighbors, haven’t been writing many tickets for distracted driving over the past four years. According to data released recently by the state court system, there were 10,291 tickets for distracted driving written from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2024. Only 21 (.21%) of those tickets were written in Warren County. Rural counties in the region followed suit. Forest County had only 13 distracted driving tickets written over four years. The numbers were slightly higher in Bradford County (45 distracted driving ...

Our opinion: State must improve energy affordability

For as much time as state lawmakers spend bloviating about the state’s energy policy, you’d think energy would at least be affordable in Pennsylvania. You’d be thinking incorrectly. A state sitting atop a vast natural gas reservoir finds itself the 32nd ranked state in energy affordability in the Energy Affordability 2025 report from the American Legislative Exchange Council. Wyoming has the lowest average energy price in the country at 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour while California is the highest at more than 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Pennsylvanians are paying 11.86 cents ...

Our opinion: Outgoing CEO was steady hand

Warren General Hospital is about to turn a new page in its history with the naming of Dan Grolemund as its new CEO, succeeding the retiring Richard Allen. But it’s largely due to Allen that there is a page to turn at all. It may be difficult to remember now, but there was a time when Warren General Hospital faced serious financial difficulties. Allen led the hospital board through some difficult choices early in his tenure as hospital CEO - but those decisions have resulted in years of positive operating margins and a 20% growth in net revenues. Improved finances allowed the ...

Our opinion: Deficits, energy still a priority

As time passes, the excesses of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act become more and more clear. Recent analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute confirms that the cost projections for the law when it was passed were woefully — perhaps even deliberately — inadequate. The institute’s studying of the costs places its expense to the American taxpaying public at between $936 billion and $1.97 trillion over 10 years and between $2.04 trillion and $4.67 trillion by the year 2050. For a nation already struggling with a national debt of $34 trillion, we believe this ...