By Laura Burke Back in February, Gov. Josh Shapiro gave his annual budget address. His proposal includes bold ideas for a brighter future for Pennsylvania’s families and economy. Yet, from our Republican state legislators, I heard initial criticism and then crickets. I have to ...

The heckler’s veto has become a powerful force in American public education. Don’t like a book in your child’s school curriculum? Stand up at a board of education meeting, shout your condemnation and get the book banned from the school library. It has happened, again and again, ...

By Frank Noonan No doubt exists that Pennsylvania is home to tens of thousands of illegal gambling machines. These are the games you find in mini-casinos, gambling dens, and other locations that attract crime. They are ruining our neighborhoods and downtowns in record numbers and none of us ...

What is most troubling is the biases on display with the Altoona Mirror editorial on April 18 (“Overdoses at prison troubling.”) It reinforces common but erroneous beliefs about substance abuse. It lays the burden of this terrible occurrence at the feet of those who suffered because of ...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission comes under scrutiny for many decisions. The simple truth is their Board of Commissioners are unpaid political appointees devoting their time to managing hunting and wildlife resources. The decisions they make can be thankless and not without scrutiny by all ...

When I became Secretary of the Commonwealth, I vowed to visit all 67 county election offices to hear firsthand about the challenges they face when running elections. Although I ran elections in Philadelphia for 10 years as a city commissioner, I knew that other counties face far different ...