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Opinion

Will this be an unhappy birthday?

Opinion

In less than a month, the United States will observe its 250th birthday. It is shaping up more like a memorial service for a lost loved one than a party to celebrate something special. Rather than anticipating a happy occasion, America at 250 is increasingly characterized by anger, name-calling and scandals. Performers are withdrawing from President Trump’s Freedom 250 Great American State Fair in Washington, claiming organizers lied to them about its partisanship. Trump, who has contributed mightily to the growing divisions among us, is threatening to make a “major speech,” ...

GOOD Act should be on Trump’s desk

Editorials

The Las Vegas Review-Journal The Trump administration has made strides in chopping away at the corpulent federal administrative state. Nevertheless, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates government regulations still pile $2 trillion in annual costs on American consumers, or nearly $16,000 per household. “Businesses and citizens spend too much time and money trying to comply with rules and edicts imposed by Washington,” Wayne Crews, the institute’s Fred L. Smith Jr. fellow in regulatory studies, noted last month, “and those costs mean higher prices, lost jobs and ...

UPMC portal switch frustrating

Letters to the Editor

There is a frustrating and possibly harmful tech glitch between UPMC-Altoona and UPMC-Pittsburgh that has been going on for too many months. Last year, Altoona switched their patient portal from MyUPMC to MyChart, a nationwide portal used by over 250 medical groups. UPMC-Pittsburgh has not yet made the switch. Twenty-two days ago, I had tests, ordered by a UPMC-Pittsburgh physician, done at a Florida medical provider. Additional tests were done last week at UPMC Station Medical in Altoona. All results are available on MyChart. They can be viewed by UPMC-Altoona physicians, but not ...

Pharmacists integral to life in rural Pa.

Opinion

I began my career at Patton Pharmacy, my family’s pharmacy in Northern Cambria County, which my father started from scratch in 1974 — one of the few independents left in that part of the state. For more than 30 years, I have practiced almost entirely in rural Pennsylvania, including years at Mission Pharmacy in Armstrong County and Klingensmith’s Drug Stores across Armstrong and Clarion counties. In each community, I watched the same pattern: hospitals struggle to stay open, physicians retire without replacements, specialists move to urban centers , and the community pharmacy ...

Billing abuse for autism aid unconscionable

Editorials

Most people cannot imagine the challenges autism poses to families caring for someone afflicted with the developmental disorder. But when those challenges are exacerbated by unscrupulous individuals and companies, people need to take notice and not be shy about projecting their disgust and calls for remedial legal action and stiff penalties, criminal as well as civil. Those who would try to take advantage of the families in question — and, in the process, the victims of the disorder themselves — don’t deserve any leniency in any court of law. Meanwhile, there should be no ...

Too much PDA over president hard to take

Letters to the Editor

Perhaps nowhere was the blind spot of the Right toward President Donald Trump on such full display as it was at the religious gathering in D.C. on May 17 where a MAGA radio host said the man was “raised by God” to construct a new White House ballroom. If you believe in God, how can you believe He would “raise” such a vile human being to do anything? This is the epitome of blind love, a real and dangerous condition that cripples the brain’s critical thinking and social judgment centers. Sufferers can’t see or they choose to ignore flaws and negative traits, no matter how ...