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Other Voices: We have a democracy, if we can keep it

"A republic, if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin famously responded when asked by a Philadelphia socialite what it was that he and the other Founders had wrought. Her question, and his answer, in the 1787 conversation framed the choice for the emerging new country as being between republic and monarchy. Today, in some quarters, the choice is presented differently: We’re a republic, not a democracy, goes a politically fashionable trope that happens to be both factually inaccurate and philosophically ominous. America’s 250th birthday is as good a time as any to remind ourselves ...

Our opinion: What to do with city building?

When it comes to the future of the historic building at 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave. West, there is not much of a debate online. According to our weekly poll at timesobserver.com, the sentiment is overwhelming. Our question, “Do you think the building at 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave. West should be demolished?” found that 82% of the respondents said “yes” while only 18% believe otherwise. That is very different from public comment at recent meetings. Last month, Sandra Blum and Ron Peterson, both of the Warren County Heritage Alliance, pitched a plan to the Redevelopment Authority ...

Our opinion: Spending more isn’t improving education

Enrollment in the state’s public schools is dropping, as are test scores for state public school students, while spending on public schools increases. There are 1.5 million students in Pennsylvania’s public schools, 7% fewer than there were in 2019, according to a recent Commonwealth Foundation report. Since 2019, proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments has dropped 18.8%, while proficiency on the Keystone Exams, given in high school, has declined 21.6%. The policy group, focused on fiscal conservancy in state government, concludes that increasing support for ...

Our opinion: Clock ticking on Shapiro’s plan for SNAP errors

The clock is ticking for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plan to decrease SNAP payment errors in Pennsylvania to start working. The commonwealth’s 2025 SNAP error rate was 9.21% in 2025, with 8.03% of errors coming as overpayments and 1.18% being underpayment errors, according to recently released federal data. The error rate refers to the percentage of SNAP benefits paid either above or below what people should have received, primarily because of mistakes. While low-error states are guaranteed to owe nothing when the annual cost-sharing requirement begins in October 2027, others will have ...

Our opinion: Lawmaker finds an acceptable compromise

The state Supreme Court was, in our opinion, correct when it ruled earlier this year that the state’s mandatory life sentence for second-degree murder convictions was unconstitutional. The court found that automatic life terms violate the state constitution's ban on cruel punishments by failing to consider individual culpability after a 2014 incident in which Derek Lee participated in a Pittsburgh robbery with an accomplice. While Lee was upstairs, his accomplice shot and killed a person in the basement. Under Pennsylvania's felony murder rule, Lee was convicted of second-degree ...

Our opinion: Celebrating 250 years of independence

Today, we Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Our focus is what the document meant — creation of a new nation, a new set of ideals to form a more perfect union. But what the document itself says about the Founders and about what they intended for us is just as important, in many ways. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …” That single sentence is familiar to ...