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When the lawsuit ad knows your diagnosis

Local Commentaries

Did you know that information from your medical record may be used to identify you as a potential plaintiff in a lawsuit? Most people understand that their online searches, website visits and clicks can influence the ads they see. Far fewer realize that information from patient health records may also be used to identify people as potential claimants in mass tort cases. Pending federal lawsuits accuse hospitals and companies involved in the exchange of health information of using patient records for commercial purposes, including identifying potential plaintiffs. The possibility alone ...

Warren needs to let go of decaying site

Local Commentaries

Last week, I stopped at 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave. I walked back and forth along the sidewalk. I walked around the back of the building. I crossed the street and looked at it from a different perspective. As I stood there, my heart was stirring. I thought about the history that happened inside ...

County should be open to data centers

Local Commentaries

Data Centers are coming. Why not in Warren County? We have lots of water for cooling and electricity and gas for power. If we could get a head of the ball and properly regulate the medium size one here we could benefit from the property taxes and jobs the centers would generate. How are we going to make up for the tax revenue we are losing as the appeals are being approved? There are many potential sites. How about the coal fly ash dump next to the former PennElec power plant in Starbrick? If a center was built on this site it would cap the dump and prevent further water pollution. ...

Other voices: Democracy doesn't require truth police

Our Opinion

It became fashionable a few years ago for people to blame “misinformation” for others holding views they find wrongheaded. Social media platforms, sometimes jawboned by the federal government, invoked this supposed crisis to justify censorship, especially during the pandemic. This insulted the intelligence of the American people, who can make up their own minds without being told what to think. A new study explores how exposure to “misinformation” on social media affected voters in 2020. The answer, drawn from a three-month experiment on nearly 16,000 users, is very ...

Bipartisan healthcare transparency bill would protect patients

Local Commentaries

Members of Congress have many legislative priorities to consider while back home in their districts during their summer legislative recess. One piece of legislation would have the biggest effect on Americans: A bipartisan effort to reduce crushing healthcare costs by requiring systemwide price transparency. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, which recently passed a Senate committee, requires hospitals and health insurers to publish their upfront prices, including their negotiated rates by health plan, for all services. Such meaningful price transparency can protect patients from ...

Our opinion: Dialing up a policy on cell phones

Our Opinion

Without a statewide edict regarding cell phone use in schools, Warren County district board members broached the topic last month. At the July meeting, members discussed several reasons driving the proposal, including classroom distractions, excessive screen time, the effects of social media on student mental health and the challenge teachers face in keeping students focused during instructional time. In Harrisburg, officials have the item on the radar, passing a bill on a bipartisan vote to restrict cell phone use in state schools in June. According to the bill, students would be ...