What is a hero? Maya Angelou famously said, “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” In our leadership roles within the Conemaugh Health System, we have the privilege of working with an incredible team of health care heroes who work ...
On Tuesday, April 20, the Mirror published a letter from an individual representing the PA Advocate National Motorists Association requesting Pennsylvania citizens contact their local state representatives and request they vote “no” on House Bill 606, which would allow local municipal ...
Advocates for fair school funding in Pennsylvania are watching the calendar, but the anticipated date isn’t on the docket of the state legislature. A lawsuit filed seven years ago by parents and school districts against state government has been given a tentative trial date in September ...
After four long years, and at a time Philadelphia needs it most, there is an occupant in the White House who understands the value of gun control. The White House has announced initial actions the administration is taking to address gun violence. Unable to impose gun control requirements ...
Rising rates of vaccinations against COVID-19 across Pennsylvania and the country are certainly cause for celebrating — and bring much-needed hope for the return of the kind of summer activities and gatherings that we’ve all longed for. But as our own data show, some vaccinated people ...
Now a nation that was holding its breath for justice can exhale. In one of the most significant racial justice cases in U.S. history, a white Minneapolis police officer has been convicted of murdering an unarmed, handcuffed Black man. A diverse 12-member jury of Minnesotans found former ...
Pennsylvania’s public and private educational institutions have spent 2020-21 stuck between the rock of health officials’ guidance and the hard place of parents who want normalcy restored at their kids’ schools. But we believe what happened this spring at Beaver County Christian School ...
You may read about them in the newspaper or see them along local roads, plowing snow in the winter or patching potholes in the spring. They’re your township supervisors and staff, and while you may not know them personally, these public servants show up each and every day with one goal in ...
For more years than we want to remember, it has seemed as if salvation for the historic downtown Wilkes-Barre train station was always just out of reach. After interminable legal delays over development of surrounding parcels, and then a stalemate with the previous mayor over reprogramming an ...
Nearly three centuries ago, the Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift wrote an essay, “A Modest Proposal,” in which he advocated that Ireland’s poor families sell their infants to the rich as food. The point of his straight-faced advocacy for infanticide and cannibalism was inequality, ...
Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA reported two stories recently that detailed how Pennsylvania state lawmakers, led by House Democrats, “banked hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxpayer money for meals and lodging while on official business” in 2020 by availing themselves of a ...
Some people were surprised when President Joe Biden invited me to the Oval Office for a meeting — although I was not. From the campaign trail to the halls of Congress, the president and I have been vocal about our conflicting ideological convictions. We share little in common, least of all ...
As advocates for unborn children, we are proud to jointly introduce legislation to protect unborn babies with beating hearts. Similar to heartbeat legislation passed in 11 states, under Senate Bill 378 and House Bill 904, detection of an unborn baby’s beating heart would prevent an abortion ...
After months of COVID-19-related restrictions, a sunny day in spring should be viewed as an embraceable reminder of better days ahead. So with the arrival of Sunshine Week 2021, a national observation in support of open government, we would similarly embrace improved attitudes from all ...
Could they be watching? It’s hard to get away from cameras these days. Doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, surveillance at businesses, we’re all walking and driving in and out of view constantly. And now York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow wants to make that video network ...
As the COVID-19 pandemic threat to our health and economy still rages on, no one is more on the frontlines of the pandemic than seniors and caregivers. As executive director of the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association, I have witnessed the response of our personal care and assisted ...
By Dan Manka A park ranger is your friend. He is the embodiment of the law in the park. His presence keeps me safe. He enforces the rules and sees to it that others keep the rules, too. Our park is a better place, because he and his fellow rangers are there. A ranger treats everyone ...
Of all the systemic weaknesses that the pandemic has revealed — in the economy, education, and housing and health — the failure of government is a tragedy unto itself. For the past year, the focus has centered on the failures at the federal level to respond effectively to the pandemic ...
How were the kids able to access a gun? That is one of the first questions that comes to mind after hearing about last month’s tragic death of Nyssa Davis — a 9-year-old girl who was shot in the head in her North Philadelphia home while playing unsupervised with her 12-year-old brother ...
The collection, counting and certification of votes has usually generated little rancor or controversy in Luzerne County. Then came the epochal year of 2020, with a handful of mail-in ballots mistakenly discarded by the county Bureau of Elections, dueling demonstrations outside the bureau’s ...