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Our opinion: Remember boaters, anglers and hunters

The state Fish and Boat Commission and the state Game Commission should absolutely consolidate as many of their functions as they can. In our opinion, these are moves that should have happened years ago - especially considering that both commissions have costs increasing faster than expenses and will operate at a deficit within the next 10 years. On the current path, the Game Commission would lose roughly 95% of its Game Fund balance by 2034 while the Fish and Boat Commission would exhaust its combined reserves by about 2034. A study by the Wildlife Management Institute recommends ...

Our opinion: Time to find common ground on Youngsville school

After a year of planning, Warren County officials have a plan for the former Youngsville High School building. The first phase of the project will move the county's Department of Human Services, Children and Youth Services and Penn State Extension office into the building. County officials are also reaching out to other potential nonprofit organizations to gauge interest in using space in the former school. It’s a good start to keeping people coming in and out of the building - which was always the preferred outcome rather than the former school building sitting dark and simply ...

Our opinion: State needs option for rural hospitals

Let us say up front that we hope the day never comes when Warren General Hospital leadership would need to consider a transition to becoming a Rural Emergency Hospital. Such a move would say a lot about efforts to reverse our region’s longtime trend of population loss and struggles to secure high enough reimbursement rates from the federal government. Pennsylvania currently has no Rural Emergency Hospitals, with legislation introduced recently by Sen. Lisa Baker creating a new state license category for Rural Emergency Hospitals. The designation would allow a Critical Access ...

Our opinion: Voters have options for Election Day

How did the first Tuesday of November become the traditional Election Day? According to a Campaign Legal Center online article from 2021, Congress in 1845 selected the most convenient day to hold a vote for the greatest number of voters at the time -- farmers. Saturdays and Sundays were religious days and Wednesdays were market days. Since farmers may have needed Monday to travel to a polling location, the first Tuesday after the fall harvest proved to be the most convenient day for most voters. Now, in many states across the nation, early voting is offered. It allows those ...

Our opinion: Loss of skill games is a legislative failure

We’ve beaten this topic like a drum in recent weeks, but we don’t feel bad for state legislators whose hail mary attempt to keep skill games operating throughout the state was batted down by the state Supreme Court. State lawmakers had more than enough time to drive skill game legislation into the end zone before today’s court-imposed deadline to come up with regulations that comply with a June decision declaring the skill games as casino gaming that should be regulated and taxed by the state. Not only could the legislature not get on the same page to get the regulations ...

Our opinion: Lawmakers stumble on e-bike regulations

The Pennsylvania General Assembly, too often slow to react and slow to act, is again living up to that dubious, unflattering reputation, this time regarding e-bikes and e-scooters. Rather than already having properly addressed those topics with the best interests of the Keystone State and its residents in mind, the General Assembly continues to stumble along as the injury, death and damage totals tied to the bikes and scooters escalate. But, hey, as a CapitolWire article noted recently, the legislature has delivered the message that it is racing to update the commonwealth's e-bike ...