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State budget delay brings worry, chaos

Pennsylvania lawmakers argue about many things, oftentimes ad nauseam, especially about the state budget that seldom is finished on time, or even rendered close to being completed by what is supposed to be the June 30 deadline. Every year this same commonwealth question “bubbles to the top” of public comment and discussion regarding the commonwealth’s annual spending plan: “When is it going to be finished this year and how much will playing petty politics stymie a timely completion of this vital legislative duty that affects so much of what will happen in the state, going ...

Pa. Turnpike Commission fails in transparency

There are certain things we can depend upon in Pennsylvania. As certain as the sun will rise, there will be potholes, there will be football rivalries and the state Legislature will lock horns over something that should be an easy compromise. But hey, sometimes the potholes get paved (except at the Pittsburgh Mills). Sometimes your rivals have a year when they don’t play each other. Sometimes — albeit rarely —the General Assembly will find common ground on something the lawmakers all care about. However, one thing we know to be as reliable as gravity is the increase in tolls on ...

In modern age, breaking up still hard to do

When pop singer Neil Sedaka released “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” in June 1962, it quickly became apparent that the song was destined to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and a short time later it did just that. Most of today’s young people probably never have heard of Neil Sedaka, but if they have heard of him, it is likely that only a small fraction of them can recite the title of even one of his hits. But he was a well-known, well-regarded singer “back in the day.” However, what he was singing about back then is as real today as it was in June 1962, although ...

HASD missing a key point: Transparency

Hollidaysburg Area School District officials are now paying the price for their lack of initial transparency regarding the proposal to house an Alternative Education for Disruptive Youth program. That lack of transparency — or the minimum amount of it — has spawned concerns and fears on the part of parents of students of the district’s regular student body — the students who show up for classes to receive a good education, not to disrupt educational proceedings. Parents and other well-meaning district taxpayers have a right to question, and express opposition to, how the issue ...

Kennedy Center renaming would tarnish jewel

Arose by any other name would smell as sweet, said Shakespeare, but the Orwellian name games played by our current president and his congressional lackeys truly stink. The latest: A Missouri congressman has filed legislation to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after Dear Leader, er, President Donald Trump. The Kennedy Center, long a jewel of Washington, D.C., culture, has become an odd obsession of Trump’s lately. After breaking with tradition by refusing during his first term to even attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony, Trump in this term ...

Casino workers set to lose big in spending bill

Thousands of casino workers across the United States thought they would be winners when Donald Trump was victorious for a second term. Candidate Trump, while on the campaign trail, told workers who rely on tips as part of their income that, if he were elected to a second term, after his four-year absence from the Oval Office, workers would no longer have that tip income taxed. Initially, many workers were skeptical about that ever happening, but then came the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that, thanks to Congress, seemed to make good on Trump’s campaign promise. But what a terrible ...