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Kudos to Direct Support Professionals

This week, Sept. 13-19, is observed nationally as Direct Support Professional Recognition Week, and for good reason. Direct Support Professionals, or “DSPs” as they’re often called, are the frontline workers at human services agencies that support people living with intellectual or developmental disabilities. DSPs assist people with disabilities in daily living activities like personal care, feeding, cooking, cleaning, and medication management. They help people manage their finances and appointments. They transport and accompany people in the community so they can ...

Kudos to Direct Support Professionals

Local Voices By Rebecca Aungst This week, Sept. 13-19, is observed nationally as Direct Support Professional Recognition Week, and for good reason. Direct Support Professionals, or “DSPs” as they’re often called, are the frontline workers at human services agencies that support people living with intellectual or developmental disabilities. DSPs assist people with disabilities in daily living activities like personal care, feeding, cooking, cleaning, and medication management. They help people manage their finances and appointments. They transport and accompany people ...

Legalizing pot would harm state

As executive director of The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association and as a former member of the Pennsylvania Department of Health Medical Marijuana Advisory Board, I would like to express my concerns, and those of many of our membership, about the legalization of marijuana and the relative effects on public safety in our communities. I believe that marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania will pose significant challenges for law enforcement, resulting from the unanticipated consequences it has on crime and public safety. In our meeting with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, we supported ...

Altoona needs ‘leaner’ government

The city of Altoona’s finances have made the news lately. Like many local governments, we’re facing the challenge of building a budget for 2021 without knowing where the economy is headed. Since January, the federal government has printed over $3 trillion and may print a few trillion more before the year ends. Much of the economy was shut down in response to COVID-19, increasing the national unemployment rate from 3.6 percent to nearly 15 percent in April. The second quarter drop in the U.S. economy was the largest ever recorded. Oil futures crashed below zero for the first ...

US must change China trade deal

It is well known that the Chinese Communist Party steals intellectual property of American businesses and forces the transfer of technology as a condition of doing business in China. These practices eliminate American competitive advantage and enable CCP companies to produce cheap knockoff products with their low-cost (and suspected slave) labor. American jobs are lost, and our children and grandchildren are robbed of them as well. We must take a strong stance against these behaviors — even if some short-term pain must be endured. However, the CCP is not the only entity ...

Schools can’t be blamed for opening

With just weeks to the start of a new school year, Pennsylvania’s public school districts find themselves under siege, facing extreme public pressure and scrutiny, as they furiously plan for how to safely reopen schools. It’s a fight they shouldn’t have to wage alone. They’re calling on the state’s leaders to support them and the 1.7 million students they educate as we move into the next phase of the pandemic. While the state has emphasized a need for local decision-making, school leaders have questioned time and again why decisions about public health have been placed in ...