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State should eye incentives for service roles

Powerful winds sometimes accompany storms passing through the Southern Alleghenies region comprising Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton counties. However, this region is blessed in not having to endure windy onslaughts such as the hurricane-like Santa Ana winds that are responsible for the devastating, fast-spreading blazes that are wreaking havoc and causing mass destruction in California’s Los Angeles area. The recovery there, when all of the blazes finally are extinguished and a full assessment of the devastation is completed, is going to be long, costly, ...

Residents should follow prison plans

The month of March will mark five years since Blair County officials appeared to get serious about addressing the need for a new prison. Unfortunately, county residents are justified in questioning the less-than-aggressive degree of urgency that, from the beginning, seemed to be attached to the effort. That flawed sense of urgency remains evident from the fact that the county still is years away from even starting new prison construction. It is anyone’s guess what the eventual timetable will be for completing construction and putting the new incarceration facility into full ...

Public should be consulted on wage hike

Pennsylvania residents have heard the same argument many times about why the Keystone State’s minimum wage should not be increased. Raising the $7.25 minimum wage could cost as many as 5,000 jobs, even if the increase were only to $12 an hour, opponents of the increase say. Thus, proposals for an increase in this state since 2009 — the year of the last federally mandated increase — have died. Meanwhile, along has come 2025 and, across the United States, 21 states have approved increases. Pennsylvania is not one of them, of course, sticking by the old jobs fear-mongering ...

The word “transparency” is now big among Americans. Especially on the governmental front — local, state as well as national — anger pours forth when the public learns about secrecy having prevailed, especially regarding an important, controversial issue that impacts them directly, such as one that causes an increase in certain fees or their taxes. Sometimes the lowest levels of government end up sparking the biggest, noisiest outcrys and furors, as a result of people not having been accorded an early heads-up regarding relevant goings-on about which they deserved expeditious ...

Show some love; license your dog

One of the best ways to demonstrate that you love your dog is by having it licensed properly every year. Besides complying with the state dog law, you’ll be helping to protect it if it escapes from your property and becomes lost. If found by someone unfamiliar with it, that person will have a tag number to provide to authorities to locate you as its owner. That will make possible a happy reunion. In addition, having a license will enable you to avoid the fine associated with owning an unlicensed dog, plus court fees tied to the violation. The fine itself can total up to $500 ...

Decision about weight loss drugs not easy

Americans elect their leaders on the premise that those individuals will be capable of making the right decisions on difficult, as well as easy, issues. An issue on which members of Congress might have to render a decision, possibly in the early weeks of the new legislative session, is the kind of topic that could generate opposition and trigger anger, no matter how the decision making shakes out. The issue is whether Medicare and Medicaid should pay for popular anti-obesity drugs for many more Americans than those already eligible for that benefit. The Biden administration ...