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Our Opinion

Our opinion: Crisis needs funds, not position

There aren’t many state legislators more engaged in the issues surrounding rural EMS services than Rep. Martin Causer. The Bradford-area Republican is frequently part of rural EMS task force meetings and is asking for support for legislation he is drafting that would create an independent Office of EMS Commissioner to operate within the state Health Department. The idea is one that Causer recently discussed during an EMS Task Force meeting he hosted in McKean County recently. Causer thinks creating the state office, which would require the state EMS commissioner to have a ...

Our opinion: More proof to let the status quo go

After listening to the community plead for the status quo in high school education over the past couple of years, we decided to take a look at how our students have been doing under the status quo. The results were sobering, to be quite honest. Some were sobering despite not being surprising, like the decreasing number of high school juniors taking the Keystone Exams across the county. The county’s overall junior class has decreased from 347 students in 2014-15 to 255 in 2023-24, with none of the four high schools seeing a growth in the number of test-taking students. The ...

Our opinion: A wrong way to balance budget

We knew there would be pain when President Donald Trump said he was going to right-size federal programs in an attempt to bring the federal budget under control. The only way to get control of federal spending is through spending cuts. Of course, now we’re finding out just how dependent on federal programs we really are - and some of these cuts come with real pain for people who are struggling to get by. Among them are the 189 Pennsylvania farmers and 14 Pennsylvania food banks that participated in the federally-backed Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program that gave money to ...

Our opinion: Tread carefully with lake renewables

We understand why New York lawmakers are so desperate to put wind turbines in Lake Erie. We’re not so sure why some Pennsylvania lawmakers are so enthralled with the concept. New York lawmakers have set some incredibly aggressive targets for renewable energy use with their Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The only way to meet the state’s demand for power is to scour the landscape for places to put wind turbines and solar panels, though Gov. Kathy Hochul is beginning to consider nuclear power as an option to meet New York’s power demand. But even New York, with ...

Our opinion: Politics can’t shape due process

We are deeply concerned about the misrepresentations surrounding decisions by a federal judge, James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. To be clear, Judge Boasberg has not ruled that criminal immigrants or violent immigrants cannot be deported. What Boasberg has ruled is that the executive branch must follow the practices already in place to provide evidence than an immigrant is a felon or a violent criminal to justify a deportation order. The right to due process is crucially important. The right to due process is not only about the rights of ...

Our opinion: Marijuana legalization shouldn’t be a budget issue

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget includes revenue from the legalization of marijuana. As state lawmakers debate marijuana legalization, they should not think one bit about the $1.3 billion Shapiro projects the state could receive in tax revenue in the first five years after the legalization of recreational marijuana is approved. The argument is the additional tax revenue generated by legalized marijuana will help close the state’s structural budget deficit. We don’t doubt there’s a market, even here in Warren County, given the number of arrests we see of people coming ...