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PSU must reconsider fraternities

If found guilty of some or all of the serious charges filed against them, leaders of an alleged Penn State University drug ring should be shown no mercy by the judicial system unless … Unless they divulge identities of those in New York and Philadelphia who supplied the drugs that the ring peddled, apparently to hook as many PSU students as possible. Fearing their safety, going forward, though, it’s unlikely that they’ll reveal that information, but who can say for sure. Meanwhile, the university has some important decisions to make regarding the fraternities to which the ...

Healthcare cuts hurt Americans

One of the federal government’s great achievements this century was making health insurance affordable to millions more Americans. In 2010, nearly 18% of people under 65 lacked insurance. By 2024, the rate had fallen below 10%, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and later legislation that built on it. President Trump and congressional Republicans are working to dismantle that achievement. They have effectively cut subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, making it harder for people who do not receive insurance through work to afford a plan. This year, the subsidy cuts ...

Lawmakers must prioritize skill game regs

Stack up a controversial, somewhat complicated issue against a General Assembly whose claim to fame is neither courage nor expeditious decision-making and you have the recipe for who-knows-what. That’s the situation currently in place in Pennsylvania regarding the issue of skill games. For years, the usually cash-strapped state General Assembly has failed to take action regarding the gambling devices — devices that could bolster the commonwealth’s coffers by many millions of dollars, or much more, annually. And even though the state Supreme Court has ruled the skill games to ...

Digging for change in parking

In Hollidaysburg, the days of “digging” for change to insert into a parking meter are winding down. However, the new electronic meter system that is expected to be fully operational at the beginning of 2027 might not be welcomed by all motorists — at least not initially. Unhappiness won’t be surprising, if it evolves. Implementation of something new seldom receives unanimous approval. In terms of the electronic parking meters on the way in Blair County’s county seat municipality, the reason for less-than-unanimous approval is obvious; older people not yet “tuned in” ...

Legalized pot plan a reason for concern

There are destined to be many “consider this” calls in response to Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and more than a dozen of his Democratic colleagues’ calls for ending the federal ban on marijuana. The senators are supporting the reintroduction of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which, according to Fetterman, would remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances and, thus, empower states to prepare and pass their own marijuana-legalization measures, if they choose to do so. According to an article published in the Mirror’s July 24 ...

Being fiscally responsible is now costly

Saying that fiscal responsibility can “rear its ugly head” seems incongruous or nonsensical. In most cases that’s true. But Blair County taxpayers are being dealt evidence again that that statement is not as preposterous as it might seem. Those individuals too young to know, or those older taxpayers who have not allocated enough attention to county government business over the decades of their adult lives, might express puzzlement about how “fiscal responsibility” and “rearing its ugly head” can be used correctly in the same sentence. However, increasingly, that ...