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Our opinion: Using caution as schools reopen

Students are heading back to our county’s schools starting today. With this yearly occasion, we remind the public to discuss traffic safety with youngsters and, for those who also are motorists, to be careful as children will be along our streets and roads on weekday mornings and afternoons. The website for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers some tips. "Your child should arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus arrives," the website advises. "Ahead of the new school year, visit the bus stop and show your child where to wait for the bus, ...

Our opinion: Can animal hoarding be slowed?

Legislation introduced recently in the state House of Representatives wouldn’t bring an automatic stop to incidents of animal cruelty that routinely pop up around the commonwealth. But we do think Rep. Eddie Pashinski’s House Bill 2279 could be a useful tool for local law enforcement and judges as they deal with animal neglect cases that happen with alarming regularity in both Warren County and the rest of Pennsylvania. While state law recognizes "neglect" and "cruelty" to animals, Pashinski wants state law to also include "animal hoarding" and provide for mental health ...

Other voices: Streamline FDA’s cumbersome regulatory process

Good news strikes from an unlikely source. On Thursday the Food and Drug Administration approved Replimune’s immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, a day after it green-lighted mFlusiva, Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine. The shame is that both might have been available sooner but for regulatory delays, which hurt both patients and American innovation. Replimune has been working on its RP1 immunotherapy for a decade but got caught in the FDA cross-hairs at the last stretch. FDA review staff recommended approval after its late-stage trial showed that a third of patients whose disease had ...

Our opinion: Tough choices with lower enrollments

Last month, the numbers were not promising. With classes starting on Tuesday for the Warren County School District, kindergarten enrollment seemed a bit disappointing. As of the July meeting, the district had about 150 kindergarten students registered. Enrollment by school included: -- Warren Area Elementary Center, 71 students. -- Eisenhower Elementary, 43 students. -- Sheffield Elementary, 21 students. -- Youngsville Elementary Middle School, 19 students. Administrators, at the time, noted the figures do not include every family currently in the registration process. ...

Our opinion: Adding insult to literal injury

Charges filed recently against four home care workers at a Conewango Township facility add insult to literal injury - and should be a reminder to home care workers throughout the state that the forms they fill out during each shift carry real weight. Two supervisors and two workers face varying degrees of charges related to signing time sheets that said the workers had provided care for a man who later passed away, in part, from an alleged lack of the same care the workers said they had provided. All four of the workers said the unnamed man refused help and treatment, but the state ...

Our opinion: Energy development still needed

“In any business, you need to understand the rules of the road and what is expected so you can develop a business plan," an industry leader told the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. We believe that James D. Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, is correct to be concerned about changes or revisions to the regulations that provide oversight to the natural gas industry fueling uncertainty and discouraging investment. We believe the United States and the world need energy development here in Pennsylvania -- including natural gas development. This is not to say there should not ...