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Bills helps small shops Dear Editor, Since my appointment as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator at The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in April this year, I have traveled the Mid-Atlantic Region meeting small business owners in all facets of industries – from a hair salon in Denton, Md., to ship repair and maintenance provider in Suffolk, Virginia, to a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. Whether I’m in a rural area in West Virginia or an urban area in Delaware, one thing remains the same – taxes are one of the top issues for small businesses. The One Big Beautiful ...

Trump’s tariffs serve a purpose

Local Commentaries

Local commentators recently claimed that President Donald Trump’s general 10% tariff constituted a sales tax on consumers. That would be true if tariffs directly affected consumers, but the point of a tariff is to affect the behavior of producers and governments, not consumers. Trump’s retaliatory tariffs are bargaining chips to level the playing field for Middle America after years of being sold-out and de-industrialized by politicians who “fine-tuned” the tariff structure to benefit Wall Street Billionaires. Some commentators hilariously claim Trump’s tariffs are ...

Lifelong blessings from an early career

Local Commentaries

Barbara, my friend of 60 years, came to visit over the weekend. We keep in touch occasionally, but it was time to catch up on our lives and our families. We always fall easily into fond memories, laughter, and enjoyment. We met through her brother, John, a TWA captain who lived next door to me in the Big Apple back in the 60s. After college, Barbara also joined TWA as a tall, willowy flight hostess. She even met her husband at my wedding 58 years ago. Although I knew we would chitchat non-stop, I couldn’t allow her visit to pass without meeting Alice, a lovely local friend. ...

Our opinion: Conewango email mess avoidable

Our Opinion

Felony charges filed last week against the former Conewango Township clerk should provide a lesson for area governments as they work to join the 21st century. The clerk set up the township’s email address that was used for township purposes like logging into Quickbooks to handle the township’s financial records and for communication with constituents. When the clerk was fired, for undisclosed reasons, she asked for and was given access to read the emails in the town Google mail account because she was using the address for personal reasons, too. The first mistake Conewango ...

Our opinion: Quick sale best for district, area

Our Opinion

Some members of the Warren County School District Board are pushing for a quick sale of the Youngsville Middle/High School building. In our opinion it’s the right move. Board member John Wortman’s suggestion to pursue a quick sale of the Youngsville building came after a school board committee approved the sale of the former Sugar Grove Elementary School for $75,252 to Jay Groves and Brian Horner. Gary Weber, district superintendent, said the bid is 30% more than the highest bid received the last time bids were solicited to sell the building. The last thing either the school ...

Our opinion: A new hunting debate begins

Our Opinion

Now that the great Sunday hunting debate appears to have been solved, some state lawmakers are ready to begin a new debate over the use of semiautomatic weapons to hunt big game in Pennsylvania. The state has long had a prohibition on the use of semi-automatic weapons for big game, with a similar ban for small game lifted less than a decade ago. It didn’t take long for a pair of lawmakers to introduce differing proposals for semiautomatic weapons for big game for opposition to quickly form against it. We can’t disagree with some of those reactions. We don’t think allowing the ...