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Dreams Go On with the help of community

Mention the words “horse racing” and the words “triple crown” almost automatically come to mind. Fans of horse racing, both in terms of the races themselves and the wagering that they inspire, know that the Triple Crown events are the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes and that Triple Crown-winning 3-year-old thoroughbreds generally have been few and far between, although there have been exceptions, such as during the 1970s. Those facts aside, perhaps the most memorable horse in the Triple Crown series was Secretariat — Big Red — who set records in all ...

While helpful, COLA hike isn’t enough

Blair County retirees will join about 53 million other senior citizens across America in welcoming the announced 2.8% average increase in their Social Security benefits, effective in January. The word “average” is important in this editorial because individual increases could be above or below the Social Security Administration’s announcement that the average monthly check next year will be $2,064, up $56 from this year. However, buried or absent among some of the increase announcements has been the fact that the standard Medicare Part B premium will be increasing by $21.50 a ...

Med usage troubling when misconstrued

A front-page headline in the Oct. 20 edition of the Wall Street Journal — and the lengthy article that followed it — evoked the troubling question of whether many people in this country who don’t really need to be taking antidepressants are becoming hooked on them. For people of the Southern Alleghenies region — Blair, Cambria, Bedford, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton counties — the obvious question needs to be whether such a scenario might be playing out here. “Out-in-the-open” dialogue dealing with the issue should be welcomed here. It might open many people’s eyes to ...

Insurance subsidy talks cannot wait

Sometimes if you just wait, a situation will change. Maybe the forest fire will burn itself out. Maybe the floodwaters will recede. Maybe the storm promised by the weatherman will veer off and unleash its fury elsewhere. That can happen. It does happen. But it doesn’t always happen. That’s part of why we have insurance. We need to protect ourselves from a raging fire or rising water or from the roof being ripped off by wind. And it’s why we rely on health insurance to allow us to seek medical care for something as catastrophic as a car crash or as disabling as diabetes — ...

Pa. stepping up animal protections

Over the years, television has provided an accurate perspective of the problem — “affliction” sometimes might be the better descriptive word — of hoarding. We’re referring to people who have, in essence, ruined their lives, homes and also, perhaps, relationships because of having collected and having remained hellbent on continuing to collect virtual “mountains” of household and other items “too good” to throw away, sell or give away. In many of the sad and otherwise troubling situations upon which television has focused, homes had become such a repository for the ...

Death penalty must be based on evidence

The death penalty is divisive. Support for and opposition to it is not as easy as political party or position. It is all over the map. There are people with firmly held convictions about crime and law enforcement who draw a line when it comes to capital punishment. There are very mild-­mannered, gentle people who believe vehemently in the biblical justice of an eye for an eye. Regardless of support or opposition, most people would probably agree that it is a complicated question. It is not as easy as checking a box. Capital punishment may be the most nuanced issue in criminal law. ...