Fireworks are part of the Fourth of July. They are more available than ever in most areas. And this year, for obvious reasons, even some people who did not buy and set off their own pyrotechnics in the past may be tempted to use them to blow off some steam — just so no one blows off a ...
It will take some time for us all to get used to the “new normal” after the COVID-19 epidemic. One aspect of our lives that should not change — but could — is the variety of museums that educate and entertain us. Throughout the world, most museums had to close during the height of the ...
Many people beset with high — and increasing — health-insurance premiums have little sympathy for the business challenges faced by insurance companies. That’s human nature, and that attitude/viewpoint is not likely to change. But a coronavirus-testing billing situation uncovered by ...
Charity begins at home, especially in safeguarding Americans from COVID-19. But we have a long, praiseworthy record of having big hearts, and now should be no exception to that. Efforts to develop new medicines to treat the symptoms of COVID-19 and to develop vaccines against it have proceeded ...
Members of Congress were wise to pause their campaign of priming the economic pump to counter the effects of the coronavirus epidemic. Nearly $3 trillion in aid to individuals, families, businesses and local and state governments needed to be given time to work before more federal spending ...
From nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, it was clear the disease has a racial component. Black Americans have been affected far more severely than whites. Exactly why that is so has not been learned yet. Obviously, getting answers is critical. But Blacks ...
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board should accept the defeat it was handed in Commonwealth Court on Tuesday, discard any thoughts of filing a costly appeal with the state Supreme Court and avoid any delay regarding full compliance with what the judges decided. Any Pennsylvania resident who ...
billions of dollars in aid to businesses without having at least some idea of where our money is going. That seems obvious. However, demanding such transparency puts the U.S. Treasury Department — and some of the businesses being assisted — in a tough position. Treasury Secretary ...
It was disappointing that a Confederate flag — a flag whose existence is rooted in hatred, division and national upheaval — was allowed to undermine the spirit, meaning and purpose of this year’s Ebensburg Memorial Day Parade. The flag should have been ordered from the line of parade ...
The Wall Street Journal printed a front-page article on June 2 containing the ominous projection that America’s economic setback stemming from the coronavirus pandemic could take a decade to heal. Unfortunately, that is not difficult to fathom, all considered, and the disastrous situation ...
No one knows with certainty how many human beings — men, women and children — were forced to stand on the 800-pound stone that remained planted in the ground on a street corner in Fredericksburg, Virginia for 176 years. What we do know is that each and every one of them was treated like ...
About 156.5 million Americans are categorized as members of the civilian labor force. At least 41 million people who can work and, by definition, want to, are unemployed. In other words, approximately one of every four people able to work is not employed — and is being supported by the ...
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is cutting U.S. funding for the World Health Organization has been condemned throughout the world. Critics insist that a healthy WHO is essential especially now, as the COVID-19 pandemic rages. But the question is whether the WHO, a United ...
The debut of Pennsylvania’s new vote-by-mail law on Tuesday offered hope that the Nov. 3 general election will not be chaotic or have credible grounds for suspicions of voter fraud or other irregularities. Of course, likely for at least the next several election cycles, many people will ...
Sometimes we wish we could rewind something we have just seen, because we can’t believe our eyes. What we thought we saw can’t be what really happened, we reason. Dozens of times during the past week or so, the media has permitted us to take another look at what occurred March 25 in ...
Once the grim tally of deaths from COVID-19 is finalized — sometime later this year, we hope — there is little doubt it will be clear that nursing homes are the coronavirus’ favored killing grounds. To most public health leaders, that already is obvious. In some states, most of the ...
Each year in Pennsylvania, as May gives way to June, news reports are abundant about how Keystone State lawmakers are dealing with the challenge of assembling a spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1. As the past has demonstrated, that process sometimes also includes ...
Many school districts and individual teachers have contingency plans for classes to be interrupted for a few days. We doubt more than a handful had strategies for the current situation, in which the last couple of months of school for millions of students was canceled. There is evidence ...
Although many traditional Memorial Day activities have been canceled or become limited in scope due to the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 has not defeated the important meaning of today’s national holiday. Memorial Day remembers the men and women who died while serving in this country’s ...
This is the weekend every year that most Americans regard as the Gateway to Summer, even though summer won’t begin officially until June 20. This “beginning of summer” weekend is much too often met by damp, colder-than-normal weather conditions that throw the proverbial monkey wrench ...