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Our opinion: Repeal Sunday hunting ban

The only ones who should be unhappy if the state ends its prohibition on Sunday hunting are deer. The state Legislature recently passed House Bill 1431 - a measure that was far more contentious than it really should have been. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office said in a news release Monday said he will sign the bill soon. It makes sense. The ban on Sunday hunting may have made sense decades ago, but it makes little sense now. Sunday has long been viewed as a day of rest - and state Rep. Robert Leadbeter, R-Catawissa, said that the institution of Sunday hunting would create “another ...

Our opinion: State must resist more spending

In a perfect world — or even just a better world — Pennsylvania’s state budget would be both completed on time and would be a plan in which Pennsylvania’s taxpayers could place their faith. We unfortunately do not live in that perfect world, and yet again our state budget has missed its deadline. We appreciate that Williamsport’s legislator, state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, is declining his paychecks until the matter is resolved. Flick’s choice is an excellent example of leading by example. However, when contemplating our state budget, we do not want to ...

Our opinion: Restoring boat launch is a win-win

For years the area behind the Dairy Delite at Routes 6 and 59 has been used to launch kayaks and canoes into Brown Run, which provides easy access to the Allegheny River. But over the years the streambank had eroded, making it more difficult to use the area as a launch site. That problem has been corrected thanks to the Warren County Conservation District and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy - with a lot of help from Mark Keyes, who purchased Dairy Delite in 2020. It was a match made in kayaking heaven. Access to state funding and the expertise of the Warren County Conservation ...

Our opinion: Future now for consolidation

Now that a judge has ruled the Warren County School District acted legally when it closed the Youngsville and Sheffield high schools, it’s time to stop looking toward the past and start looking toward the future. The judge’s decision should be more than a legal formality that concludes a case on a judicial docket. It needs to be the end of the debate over whether or not to close Sheffield and Youngsville and the start of a public realization that the Warren County School District is changing - and now is the time to make sure those changes work as well as possible for the students ...

Our opinion: Our nation is more than its politics

On this Independence Day, America’s politicians on both sides of the political aisle ought to be thinking more about this country as a whole - what is best for this wonderful free land - than mostly about their party, their party’s agenda or the friction they might harbor and encourage against those with whom they disagree. But can they muster such a spirit of patriotism - what in a different time might seem inevitable? This year, probably not, amid the rampant divisiveness that haunts the halls of their governmental responsibilities. The nation’s founders, if they today were ...

Our opinion: Bill undermines accountability

We are concerned legislation sponsored by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Fayetteville, erodes our state’s commitment to transparency and accountability. “Resurrected from stalled legislative efforts in previous sessions, the bill would allow public notices to go on municipal, school district and county websites” as an alternative to newspapers, an email from the Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association warns its members. We agree with our industry’s trade association that allowing government bodies to police their own transparency lacks the independent oversight necessary for ...