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Easter week is for the Eggs-citement

Local Commentaries

Next week should be the big egg week, the week the chickens work overtime. But if I am to believe all the bird-flu news, these haggard hens have already been on time and a half – the struggling survivors of the national virus. They should probably create a hens’ union and demand to be paid for piecework. And if I were one of those hard-working hens, I’d be furious that all the credit for my Easter week output goes to a giant pink rabbit. I wonder how that started anyway – the holiday candy and eggs being delivered by the Easter Bunny? I guess it’s not practical to apply ...

Our opinion: Crisis needs funds, not position

Our Opinion

There aren’t many state legislators more engaged in the issues surrounding rural EMS services than Rep. Martin Causer. The Bradford-area Republican is frequently part of rural EMS task force meetings and is asking for support for legislation he is drafting that would create an independent Office of EMS Commissioner to operate within the state Health Department. The idea is one that Causer recently discussed during an EMS Task Force meeting he hosted in McKean County recently. Causer thinks creating the state office, which would require the state EMS commissioner to have a ...

Our opinion: More proof to let the status quo go

Our Opinion

After listening to the community plead for the status quo in high school education over the past couple of years, we decided to take a look at how our students have been doing under the status quo. The results were sobering, to be quite honest. Some were sobering despite not being surprising, like the decreasing number of high school juniors taking the Keystone Exams across the county. The county’s overall junior class has decreased from 347 students in 2014-15 to 255 in 2023-24, with none of the four high schools seeing a growth in the number of test-taking students. The ...

Our opinion: A wrong way to balance budget

Our Opinion

We knew there would be pain when President Donald Trump said he was going to right-size federal programs in an attempt to bring the federal budget under control. The only way to get control of federal spending is through spending cuts. Of course, now we’re finding out just how dependent on federal programs we really are - and some of these cuts come with real pain for people who are struggling to get by. Among them are the 189 Pennsylvania farmers and 14 Pennsylvania food banks that participated in the federally-backed Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program that gave money to ...

Our opinion: Tread carefully with lake renewables

Our Opinion

We understand why New York lawmakers are so desperate to put wind turbines in Lake Erie. We’re not so sure why some Pennsylvania lawmakers are so enthralled with the concept. New York lawmakers have set some incredibly aggressive targets for renewable energy use with their Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The only way to meet the state’s demand for power is to scour the landscape for places to put wind turbines and solar panels, though Gov. Kathy Hochul is beginning to consider nuclear power as an option to meet New York’s power demand. But even New York, with ...

Schools don’t consider lost revenues

Local Commentaries

With all of the other issues with the plan to close the Sheffield and Youngsville High Schools, is there the possibility of the district losing revenue due to this decision? Have they already lost revenue due to just the discussion of closing schools? What happens with yet another empty building? What happens when the district finally sells a building? Is there a gain? Is there any costs to the district by a vacant building? So how would the district lose revenue? Well considering that every resident in the attendance area of Youngsville will be losing a high school, which is huge ...