A plan is needed for safer prisons

March 30, 2018

The Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association (PSCOA) has always made the safety and security of Corrections Officers our top priority. That’s why it was so heart wrenching to lose one of our own when a hero, Sgt. Mark Baserman, was murdered at SCI-Somerset by an inmate with a history of violence inside and outside of the institution. The killing of a hero made local, state and national headlines. It was a dark day. The pain and anger felt by so many of Sgt. Baserman’s brothers and sisters at SCI-Somerset is still very raw. But the violence didn’t end there, ...

Students show their resolve by walking out

March 24, 2018

They sure aren’t settling for thoughts and prayers. High schoolers who walked out of class around the country last Wednesday to protest gun violence were demanding action. Thousands of young people — because while it is tempting to see them as children, these were not the actions of children — organized and inspired each other to make a powerful statement to the older generations: You have failed us. You have not protected us. Many observers have noted in the month since a gunman killed 17 people at a Florida high school that this time things seem different. Unlike the ...

‘Together we can grow Pennsylvania’

March 23, 2018

For as long as I can remember, I have had a passion for the citizens of our Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I have had the real pleasure of spending time in every part of our state and have met and listened to the stories of countless Pennsylvanians. Through these conversations, this much became clear: the opportunities for our commonwealth in this century truly lie within its people. Yet, between 2010 and 2015, in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, population declined in 42 of them. Overall, Pennsylvania’s population increased just 0.7 percent — not surprisingly, mostly in ...

Puppy mill bill helps, but only part of solution

March 17, 2018

We realize that Pennsylvania lawmakers could and should be grappling with issues that many residents would deem more important than puppy mills — taxes, education, passing a budget on time for a change, to name a few. But for Pennsylvania, and Lancaster County in particular, this is an issue that needs addressing, and has for far too long. Lancaster County is notorious for its puppy mills, as LNP’s Tom Knapp reported. This bill — introduced by state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler and state Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republicans who represent Allegheny and Washington counties — would require ...

This day was made for ‘Billy Boys’

March 16, 2018

By James F. Burns Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and the Billy Boys. The first two Billys were evangelists, Graham well known, Sunday less so. But who were the Billy Boys? They were followers, admirers, virtually worshippers of “Good King Billy,” King William III whose victory over a Catholic king in 1690 kept the British Isles under a Protestant monarchy. This was particularly important to Scottish Lowlanders who had settled the north of Ireland in the 1600s but remained a minority on the island of Ireland. Descendants of these Ulster-Scots flocked to America in the ...

In finest hour, Trump stands for Pittsburgh

March 10, 2018

President Donald Trump’s affirmation last week that he will indeed attempt to place U.S. workers and industry first and that he does, in fact, believe in trade protection for American workers and their jobs, has caused near apoplexy within New York-Washington commentariat. We are told that tariffs would set off a trade war we would lose; that tariffs will destroy, not protect, American jobs (150,000 would be lost); and that tariffs will crash the current American economic boom. All this is nonsense. Tariffs have been advocated for years by a wide spectrum of politicians, from Chuck ...