The Starbrick community has stepped up to save its volunteer fire department. It’s an incredible turn of events from just a month ago when there was legitimate fear that the department could be forced to close because there weren’t enough people to handle the department’s office work ...

A lot of attention is being paid to what our children are reading nowadays, turning once sedate classrooms and libraries into battlefields in our country’s never-ending culture wars. Some overzealous parents and community members have gone on book-banning benders, even though restricting ...

A first blush of a county short-term rental ordinance did not go well. Those attending a recent Planning Commission meeting gave the ordinance a frosty reception, with Arthur Stewart calling the proposed law “draconian.” We’re not sure we’d go that far. There are issues with ...

County officials are doing the right thing looking for ways to determine if drivers are impaired by marijuana. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has noted marijuana is the illicit drug most frequently found in the blood of drivers who have been involved in vehicle crashes, ...

Many states, including Ohio, have taken notice of an energy drink that allegedly has opioid-like effects. Pennsylvania should take notice as well Rep. Andrew Kuzma, R-Allegheny/Washington, is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation that would prohibit tianeptine, an ...

A new tool created by the county Farmland Protection Board could help assuage concerns about good farmland being used for solar and wind energy projects. Jim Joy, a member of the board and a grape farmer in the north county, worked with Lauren Sharpe, a junior planner with the Department of ...