‘Together we can grow Pennsylvania’

March 23, 2018

For as long as I can remember, I have had a passion for the citizens of our Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I have had the real pleasure of spending time in every part of our state and have met and listened to the stories of countless Pennsylvanians. Through these conversations, this much became clear: the opportunities for our commonwealth in this century truly lie within its people. Yet, between 2010 and 2015, in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, population declined in 42 of them. Overall, Pennsylvania’s population increased just 0.7 percent — not surprisingly, mostly in ...

Puppy mill bill helps, but only part of solution

March 17, 2018

We realize that Pennsylvania lawmakers could and should be grappling with issues that many residents would deem more important than puppy mills — taxes, education, passing a budget on time for a change, to name a few. But for Pennsylvania, and Lancaster County in particular, this is an issue that needs addressing, and has for far too long. Lancaster County is notorious for its puppy mills, as LNP’s Tom Knapp reported. This bill — introduced by state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler and state Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republicans who represent Allegheny and Washington counties — would require ...

This day was made for ‘Billy Boys’

March 16, 2018

By James F. Burns Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and the Billy Boys. The first two Billys were evangelists, Graham well known, Sunday less so. But who were the Billy Boys? They were followers, admirers, virtually worshippers of “Good King Billy,” King William III whose victory over a Catholic king in 1690 kept the British Isles under a Protestant monarchy. This was particularly important to Scottish Lowlanders who had settled the north of Ireland in the 1600s but remained a minority on the island of Ireland. Descendants of these Ulster-Scots flocked to America in the ...

In finest hour, Trump stands for Pittsburgh

March 10, 2018

President Donald Trump’s affirmation last week that he will indeed attempt to place U.S. workers and industry first and that he does, in fact, believe in trade protection for American workers and their jobs, has caused near apoplexy within New York-Washington commentariat. We are told that tariffs would set off a trade war we would lose; that tariffs will destroy, not protect, American jobs (150,000 would be lost); and that tariffs will crash the current American economic boom. All this is nonsense. Tariffs have been advocated for years by a wide spectrum of politicians, from Chuck ...

Trump is right to impose tariffs

March 9, 2018

Washington is certainly a contentious place these days, and President Donald Trump has undoubtedly been a lighting rod for partisan squabbling. But despite the rough ride in the nation’s capital, the American people may find reasons to agree with at least one effort undertaken by the Trump Administration, since it could help to grow good jobs and boost the overall economy. And that’s in the president’s decision to impose safeguard tariffs on a flood of foreign steel currently being “dumped” into the U.S. market. Steel is uniquely important in successful economies since ...

Tougher state lobbyist law ups tranparency

March 5, 2018

Here’s something we wish we could say much more often: Score one for transparency and accountability in Harrisburg — thanks to a new measure that stiffens Pennsylvania’s lobbyist-disclosure law. House Bill 1175 was passed in bipartisan fashion, with overwhelming House and Senate majorities, and signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf. It immediately doubles the state Ethics Commission’s maximum penalty for lobbyists who violate the disclosure law, from $2,000 to $4,000. It also increases the flat $50-per-day maximum penalty lobbyists had been paying for late disclosure filings. ...