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Opinion

Our opinion: Forest Service shift could benefit county

Our Opinion

We won’t pretend to be experts on the U.S. Forest Service or forest management. Only time will tell if President Donald Trump’s move to reorganize the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies that include the U.S. Forest Service, reduce bureaucracy, and place more employees outside Washington, D.C. is a good move or a bad move. But bringing more Forest Service staff to Warren County as the county becomes a headquarters for the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, a region that covers 12 states, can only be a positive development locally. We are a region that has been ...

Our opinion: A weak response on maternal care

Our Opinion

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Healthy Moms, Vibrant Futures’ Maternal Health Strategic Action Plan sounds like a real step forward in helping expectant mothers in rural areas. Perhaps it’s unfair to expect a problem that has metastasized over the past two decades to be fixed quickly, but in our view Shapiro’s plan doesn’t seem likely to accomplish much in its first year. And that’s too bad, because there are some 175 soon-to-be mothers in Warren County who we think deserve better. The plan has several components, but given the recent closure of Warren General Hospital’s ...

Having some taste watching the money

Local Commentaries

Recently, there was an article published by the Times Observer, “RDA Approves Loan for City Business.” On Facebook, this resulted in a spirited flood of comments, mostly from people recognizing that a 3% loan for a high-failure restaurant over 15 years is a negative investment from the city. The Fed funds rate is 3.75% and bank loans are probably in the 6% range. Assuming the business survives 15 years; most restaurants fail before year seven. In the comments, many people had mentioned this was “taxpayer money” and that the city has “too many pizza places” and it wasn’t ...

Readers Speak

Letters To Editor

Restore Liberty Street or lose Dear Editor, I care about public spaces because they remind us that we belong to each other. Here in Warren, we have the bones of something real — something that can bring people together. Liberty Street isn’t just a road. It’s a corridor full of history, life, and possibility. But if we want it to matter again, we have to be honest: the renovation of Liberty Street buildings isn’t optional. It’s critical. When buildings are restored, something comes alive in the street. Windows glow, doors open, and the street speaks again. People slow ...

Our opinion: Resurrection delivers hope to all

Our Opinion

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying ...

No pay for Congress until they fund the government

Local Commentaries

Funding the government is the most basic constitutional function of Congress. When lawmakers repeatedly fail at this fundamental task, it shows just how dysfunctional our legislative system has become. In the last six months, America has endured three government shutdowns. The latest — a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security — is now in its seventh week and is a clear example of this systemic failure. It is an embarrassment to the country and creates real harm: serious hardship for federal workers and their families, billions of dollars in economic losses, risks to ...