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Just one more Memorial Day remembrance

Editor’s note: Marcy O’Brien is in New England with family graduation festivities. Parts of this column have appeared previously. Memorial Day was a particularly important day of remembrance for my mother. Every year, she made sure we wore commemorative red poppies to honor her youngest brother, the family hero. Kenneth Arthur MacMillan was the youngest of four children. When their mother died, my mother, Alberta, was 6 and the siblings were 4, 2 and baby Kenny was months old. He never knew his mother who spent the last months of her life in a tuberculosis sanitorium. Alberta ...

Our opinion: Data centers spark concerns

Across Pennsylvania, data center developers are increasingly targeting agricultural land for new projects, and residents in affected communities are mounting opposition, concerned about the industrialization of their farmland. Last week, timesobserver.com posed the question: Are you concerned about data centers in Warren County? Respondents are fairly worried with 145 saying “yes” and 128 voting “no.” This region, however, is much different than national findings. Seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, ...

Families in state still waiting for paid leave

Another Mother’s Day has come and gone, and once again too many Pennsylvania families marked it with gratitude for the mothers in their lives—and frustration at what our state still fails to provide. As the sponsors of the Pennsylvania Family Care Act, we introduced this legislation because we have seen firsthand what it means when a family life collides with a paycheck. In our districts, we hear from workers who are doing everything “right” and still facing impossible choices when illness, childbirth, or caregiving needs arise. These are families trying to hold it all together, ...

Honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice

As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding, on this Memorial Day, let’s remember and honor the men and women whose sacrifice made this country possible by finding ways to serve and give back. Memorial Day gives us a chance to acknowledge the shared values that hold us together amid our different backgrounds, beliefs and experiences. It’s a time to express gratitude for what has been given so that we might have the freedoms we treasure. At its core, it’s a day that honors service. This Memorial Day, let’s renew our commitment to service, in ...

Piles and piles of paper piles

Are you drowning in paper like I am? If the computer age was supposed to eliminate paper piles, it’s doing a lousy job. Yes, I know I am supposed to convert all my accounts to paperless – and for the most part, I have. My credit card statements are electronic. The insurance, the bank, gas bill, water bill and township sewer bill all arrive to my inbox monthly. Despite many tries, I have been unable to convince the Pennelec people that this is a convenient idea. When the mail comes each afternoon, a new pile arrives in our mailbox. Occasionally it’s just the newspaper and ...

Eyes bigger than stomach? Take a pill

The Dyson Airwrap is $749.99. The Netflix you want, without ads, with all of the content recorded in Ultra HD, costs $26.99. SKIMS just collab’d with Nike, and the collection just dropped, and it’s hot, and it’ll run you $129 (plus shipping and handling) for a pair of leggings with a 29-inch inseam.  It’s not required that you buy any of these things (even though everyone has it/that/them, from your circle of real-life friends to the one in your phone), but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Overconsumption doesn’t stop at ...