Thinking outside box to survive

February 5, 2021

Americans are no strangers to hard economic times. Poverty still exists. Millions struggle with financial despair. The answers are not always easy but here are possibilities. Look into your local community college and see what training is offered. One- and two-year programs are typically taught in our public community colleges. You might learn a new trade in as little as a year. Community colleges are affordable. Often there is enough federal grant money to cover the entire cost of your study. In as little as a year or maybe two at the most you could be in a new career. ...

Nursing homes need answers, more protection

February 1, 2021

At The Gardens at Stevens, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Denver, Pennsylvania, 39 residents had died of COVID-19 as of the publication of LancasterOnline journalist Nicole C. Brambila’s investigative article published in the Jan. 17 edition. “The Gardens at Stevens is a troubling outlier in Pennsylvania,” Brambila reported. “The death toll is second only in Lancaster County to the 446-bed Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation in Lancaster Township, which is five times larger. Statewide, only about 20 of Pennsylvania’s nearly 700 nursing homes have had ...

State should meet duty on recovery homes

January 29, 2021

Even if the unfolding vaccination effort against COVID-19 has the desired effect of suppressing the pandemic, Pennsylvania still faces another public health emergency. The scope of the COVID-19 emergency has worsened the opioid addiction crisis. Pennsylvania is one of the states most heavily affected by the addiction crisis. To the state government’s credit, it had reacted aggressively to the challenge. The Wolf administration enacted a series of emergency measures to expand access to the lifesaving antidote nalaxone. It, the Legislature and the medical community, worked ...

Don’t forget horrors of Holocaust

January 28, 2021

“When evil darkens our world, let us be the bearers of light. When fists are clenched in self-righteous rage, let our hands be open for the sake of peace. When injustice slams doors on the ill, the poor, the old and the strangers, let us pry the doors open.” Spoken softly by a small crowd at a Misericordia University Holocaust Remembrance Service in 2019, that prayer befits our moments, our lives, and our world this week. Wednesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. At that service, Wyoming Valley’s own Rabbi Larry Kaplan began reading Holocaust victim names, but paused. He ...

Animal research playing vital role

January 26, 2021

By Matthew R. Bailey The race to vaccinate the country is on. People are beginning to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna. It’s the second vaccine to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, closely following the one from Pfizer and BioNTech. Creating a coronavirus vaccine in less than a year is an astounding scientific achievement. But a global shortage of research animals — particularly research monkeys — could prevent some of the world’s latest life-saving vaccines from ever leaving the lab. Prior to testing in ...

Don’t hate players; hate game

January 21, 2021

Many Americans are upset that President-elect Joe Biden has replaced President Donald Trump. For most of them, it’s not that they will miss Trump, it’s that they fear that the size and scope of government will grow so fast that it will permanently change the country they love. And this fear has intensified with the defeat of two Republican senators in the Georgia runoffs, resulting in Democrats regaining control of the Senate. At the margin, such a worry is justified. With 50 Democratic senators and control of both the House of Representatives and the White House, more policies ...