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Our opinion: Keep National Guard in state

We would never be so myopic as to suggest what happens at the southern border doesn’t have an effect on Pennsylvania. A 2023 report indicates at least 251,000 illegal immigrants reside in Pennsylvania with an annual burden of more than $1.6 billion on taxpayers. That equates to a cost of approximately $318 per Pennsylvania household annually, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Just under 103,000 migrants have been sent to sanctuary cities across the country, including 3,400 to Philadelphia since November 2022, according to a recent report by The Center ...

Our opinion: Find middle ground with rentals

City officials aren’t wrong to think there should be some local guidelines governing short-term rentals. We’ve all heard the horror stories of short-term rentals creating havoc for people who have owned their homes for decades when rentals go wrong with loud parties or tons of additional traffic at all hours of the day that didn’t previously exist in the neighborhood. It’s important to find a way to address the concerns of neighbors while also finding a way to allow a growing segment of the tourism economy to flourish in both the city and the rest of Warren County. And ...

Our opinion: Rural health care in tough cycle

Sometimes it seems like rural communities are caught in a vicious cycle — jobs and amenities are not available that would keep young people there, and as the population declines, the remaining jobs and amenities shrivel, which makes a revival even harder to pull off. A recent story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered a case in point. It reported how a six-county region in the northern part of Pennsylvania will no longer have a hospital that offers maternity care because Elk Hospital in St. Marys plans on shuttering its obstetrics unit in the next two months. It’s an issue that ...

Our opinion: Giving back in Youngsville

What can you buy with a penny? Not much, especially these days. But if you get a bunch of pennies together, you can do quite a bit. In Youngsville, 22,000 pennies collected by Youngsville Elementary School students will help the Youngsville Public Library purchase summer program enrichment materials, new books for the library’s children and youth collections and additional manipulatives for the library’s monthly sensory story program. The library certainly could have made good use of the $2,200 donation. But, library officials, not to be outdone by the students, decided ...

Our opinion: Keeping assessments current

What good is a once-in-30-years countywide property reassessment if it quickly falls out of date? The answer, obviously, is not much. That’s why an idea discussed recently by the Warren County Council of Governments makes a lot of sense and deserves consideration as the reassessment progresses. Brian Bull, chief assessor, told council members information from townships and boroughs isn’t flowing to county assessors - which means new properties aren’t being added to the tax rolls so they can pay county taxes. Demolitions are similarly going unreported - meaning county taxes ...

Our opinion: Don’t wait for next train mishap

In Lower Saucon Township, Pa., residents are awaiting the results of an investigation into yet another Norfolk Southern train derailment March 2. This one involved three trains and scattered rail cars along a riverbank. At least one was partially in the Lehigh River. So far, the National Transportation Safety Board seems confident no hazardous materials were involved when an eastbound Norfolk Southern train struck a stopped Norfolk Southern train, sending wreckage onto an adjacent track that was hit by a westbound Norfolk Southern train. There was a small diesel fuel spill and ...