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Our opinion: State parks a vital resource

As warmer weather approaches, state officials are reporting a surge in reservations for campsites in state parks and forests. According to an article in Tuesday’s Sun-Gazette, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is seeing a nearly 30% increase compared to last year. We can’t say that we find the increase surprising — Pennsylvania’s state parks and forests are some of its under-appreciated gems. Pennsylvania offers residents and visitors 124 state parks, encompassing more than 300,000 acres. The parks offer a wide variety of recreational opportunities ...

Our opinion: State Police security lapses are inexcusable

There’s a lot to unpack in the days after an arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion. We should all be able to agree that security around Gov. Josh Shapiro was inexcusably lax given that one of the most notorious recent acts of political violence had taken place in Butler, Pa., during last year’s presidential campaign. It’s hard to fathom how Cody Balmer was able to climb a fence, smash a window, enter the governor’s mansion, use a Molotov cocktail to start a fire and then escape. Police didn’t catch Balmer - he turned himself in. It’s worth mentioning the ...

Our opinion: Increasing timber production a responsible decision

A recent executive order by President Donald Trump to streamline regulations and allow more timber to be harvested from U.S. Forest Service lands invites what possibly could be a trivia question: Under which U.S. department’s jurisdiction does the U.S. Forest Service fall? If you answered the U.S. Department of the Interior, which supervises national parks and fulfills a mission of preserving natural areas and sites of note, you would be wrong. If you answered the Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces environmental regulations to curtail pollution and limit environmental ...

Our opinion: Take time to get REAL ID

Gotten your REAL ID yet? No? Don’t worry, you are not alone. In fact, the majority of Pennsylvanians haven’t. According to the latest statistics released by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), only 26 percent of Pennsylvanians have applied for a REAL ID. That’s certainly more than a bit concerning, considering the May 7 deadline is approaching quickly. On Tuesday, PennDOT announced that it will hold special REAL ID Days across the Keystone State to help residents prepare for the deadline when federal enforcement begins. The REAL ID Act was passed by ...

Our opinion: State is about to get serious about distracted driving

A recent analysis of state court data shows Warren County, and its rural neighbors, haven’t been writing many tickets for distracted driving over the past four years. According to data released recently by the state court system, there were 10,291 tickets for distracted driving written from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2024. Only 21 (.21%) of those tickets were written in Warren County. Rural counties in the region followed suit. Forest County had only 13 distracted driving tickets written over four years. The numbers were slightly higher in Bradford County (45 distracted driving ...

Our opinion: State must improve energy affordability

For as much time as state lawmakers spend bloviating about the state’s energy policy, you’d think energy would at least be affordable in Pennsylvania. You’d be thinking incorrectly. A state sitting atop a vast natural gas reservoir finds itself the 32nd ranked state in energy affordability in the Energy Affordability 2025 report from the American Legislative Exchange Council. Wyoming has the lowest average energy price in the country at 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour while California is the highest at more than 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Pennsylvanians are paying 11.86 cents ...