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Remember who builds this country

Labor Day is a celebration of the people who build America. They are the workers who wake before dawn, put on a hard hat and steel-toed boots, and head to a job site. They build the roads we drive on, the buildings where we work, the power plants that keep the lights on and the pipelines that deliver the energy that makes modern life possible. But workers need something to build. Right now, America has a tremendous opportunity to put both its resources and its workers to work. After years of delays and uncertainty surrounding critical infrastructure, the country is confronting the ...

Data center opposition is bipartisan

Two things can be true at once. Foreign entities have seeded the opposition to data center growth in the United States. China, in particular, through its control of TikTok and other influence outlets, has relentlessly worked to stop the American AI advantage against China. Also, at this point, much of the opposition is organic, bipartisan and growing. Americans are deeply opposed to data centers. They are wrong and shortsighted, but my view is the minority view. We should start by understanding the problem. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic and Sam Altman, the proprietor of OpenAI, ...

No one can deliver on affordability

The time was 2025. A young, charismatic democratic socialist candidate for New York City mayor named Zohran Mamdani became a viral sensation. His secret? “Affordability.” Ask him about almost anything and he’d turn the conversation to affordability. When a reporter asked Mamdani to respond to President Trump’s claim that he was the better-looking politician, Mamdani responded, “My focus is on the cost-of-living crisis, bro.” Queried about whether Hamas, the terrorist organization, should disarm, he began with “I believe that any future here in New York City is one that we ...

Sup? and contributions to literature

During my 25 years as a professor at Saint Francis, I read countless student essays and research papers — some good, some bad, and some surprisingly funny. And though I’ve forgotten many of those papers (and sadly some of the students), one student’s “contribution to the literature,” as professors say, sticks with me 15 years after I retired. The paper began with one word: “Sup?” Having no idea what this word meant, I asked a young secretary — not much older than the students and accustomed to questions from clueless professors. “It means ‘What’s up?’” ...

Safety first before sharing kids’ photos

As families across our area prepare for a new school year, the Center for Child Justice, Blair County's Children's Advocacy Center, is encouraging parents and caregivers to think carefully about the personal information they share in first-day-of-school photos. For years, the CAC has educated families about online safety, digital privacy and the ways offenders use publicly available information to target children. While first-day-of-school photos are a cherished tradition, many of the signs used in these posts can unintentionally reveal details that put children at risk. "We ...

Encouraging children to read is crucial

As we approach the forthcoming college fall semester, much discussion has centered on the difficulties a lot of Gen Z students are having with reading and critical thinking. One Chronicle of Higher Education article that many of my colleagues at Ohio State University’s Lima campus recently read delves into students’ struggles with literacy. This review essay, “My Students Can’t Read,” was written by Tyler Jagt, an adjunct professor of liberal studies at Mercer University. Jagt discusses what I now like to call the “usual tech suspects” when it comes to students being ...