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Our opinion: Health crisis needs help of state

Our Opinion

In March 2025, we reported that Warren General Hospital was happy to open its doors to nearby expecting mothers affected by the closure of UPMC Cole’s labor and delivery unit. At the time, we said in this space that the closure of the UPMC Cole labor and delivery center in Coudersport is part of a statewide trend of labor and delivery unit closures in rural counties across Pennsylvania. UPMC officials cited difficulties in recruiting an OB/GYN physician and a shortage of labor and delivery nurses as the primary reasons for the closure. UPMC Cole was the latest of 38 hospitals to ...

Our opinion: Funding for health care a big boost

Our Opinion

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s major announcement for rural health care last week cannot be ignored. Last week, Shapiro noted that Pennsylvania has been awarded $193 million in federal funding for the first year of its approved five-year Rural Health Transformation Plan, to foster innovation and improve access to essential health services in rural communities that will be most impacted by federal spending cuts to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program. This funding is renewable over five years, and states will have the opportunity to secure additional redistributed funding based on program ...

Rounding Third: Challenges with 24 legs in house at holidays

Local Commentaries

Today, the second of January, a working day, really begins the New Year. Fuggedaboudit. I’m hoping people have today off to go along with the holiday. Two long weekends in a row? Now THAT would make for a happy Christmas. Despite housing six additional 2-legged residents and two 4-legged critters for the fun of Christmas week, our house is now back to its boring everyday quiet. Every bed was full including a new twin inflatable. Each seat at the dining room table was occupied. And the matriarch’s heart was full of comfort and joy I noticed the noise level that normally arrives ...

Our opinion: Embracing possibilities for 2026

Our Opinion

We’ve done it. We’ve reached the end of 2025 and are looking ahead to all the possibilities 2026 holds. Some may be planning to put 2025 firmly behind them and not look back, others may have much upon which to build from one year to the next. Whatever the case — whether our dreams include making a national project of the year or just working harder on being the best we can be for ourselves and those around us — most of us can agree we are hoping for a year in which we are able to lift up one another and work toward the good of all. On a personal level, there may be ...

Our opinion: Be wary of more requirements

Our Opinion

State lawmakers should be wary of turning Pennsylvania into New York, whose legislature is continually adding new requirements for health insurance providers in the Empire State. It’s something to keep in mind after Rep. Joe Hogan, R-Feasterville, introduced a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation he is drafting that will require insurers cover ovarian cancer screening tests for women over the age of 40. We aren’t saying Hogan’s bill is a bad idea, and we know that making insurance companies cover the cost of the tests will help protect women from ovarian cancer. The ...

Our opinion: We have to ring county bell

Our Opinion

There are two equally important takeaways from the oversight regarding Warren County’s entry into the 250PA Bells Across America program. The first is the incredible wherewithal we have here in Warren County to accomplish things we put our mind to. The combination of Lisa Card, Kim Slocum and Leann Waterhouse came together to accomplish in a scant few days what other counties and their artists had weeks to finish. We’re not sure exactly how Warren County was forgotten for the Bells Across America program, but were it not for Card, Warren County may not have been included in the ...