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Our opinion: Give more details on judges

We’re not sure impeachment is necessarily the answer when it comes to those critical of an Allegheny County magisterial district judge who has come under fire this year. But we do think the interesting case of Magisterial District Judge Xander Orenstein should be instructive for voters across the state as they go to the polls to vote for local judges. Pennsylvania is one of 32 states that doesn’t require its local judges to be lawyers. Here in Warren County, for example, only one of three local judges came to the bench as practicing lawyers, though one was a former police chief ...

Our opinion: Providing a necessary light in county

We can’t look to the government to solve all our problems, including the scourge of drug addiction. That’s why groups like Charcoal and Grey Inc. are so important. People like Herb Schaumann have an understanding of addiction that some in government can’t comprehend because they have never experienced the depths of addiction. Schaumann has. He started Charcoal and Grey as a way to honor his wife Jesse, who died from an overdose. Schaumann himself found himself in the ICU from an overdose shortly after his wife’s death, had a stroke while in the hospital and had to learn to ...

Our opinion: Vote to make the $1B pay off

Today is Election Day, the culmination of what feels like two years of campaigning by presidential candidates. More than $1 billion will have been spent by Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in an effort to secure your vote. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent across the state on statewide offices in Pennsylvania. Locally we have a contested race for the state House of Representatives between Democrat Erin Willman and incumbent Republican Kathy Rapp. So let’s make sure this is money well spent by heading out to the ...

Our opinion: Willman keeping Rapp accountable

The race for the 65th House district pits longtime incumbent Rep. Kathy Rapp against Erin Willman, a local business owner and advocate for the blind. Currently the Republican chair of the House Health Committee, Rapp will be seeking her 11th two-year term representing the 65th District, which includes all of Warren and Forest counties as well as part of Crawford County. Rapp was an outsized presence in the state House of Representatives on health care matters before the Democrats took control of the chamber after last year’s election. Democrat control of the chamber reduced ...

Our opinion: Rethinking family policies

It is difficult not to be pessimistic about the possibilities for success of efforts in countries around the world to encourage larger families — that is, if you yourself believe many more couples should be opting for more than a child or two in this increasingly busy, expensive, complicated, unsettled, helter-skelter world. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an Oct. 15 report, countries’ years-long efforts at reversing the decline in birthrates have been largely unsuccessful, and in some places have recorded zero success. The Journal’s report noted that many couples ...

Our opinion: Senate race is a test for Casey

The race for the presidency isn’t the only election in which Pennsylvania looms large. Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race between Dave McCormick and incumbent Democrat Bob Casey is one Republicans are eyeing as the party tries to flip control of the Senate from Democrat to Republican. Casey has been a semiregular visitor to Warren County over the years, including earlier this year when he followed up on Senate testimony by Warren businesswoman Erin Willman with a visit to White Cane Coffee. McCormick isn’t as familiar a face in Warren County but he has visited the area during ...