Breaking News

Opinion

Ceasefire and peace are not the same

Other Commentaries

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a quick study in the art of laying it on thick, announced that he was teaming up with Israel’s Knesset speaker to invite parliamentary leaders from around the world to jointly nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — and for nothing less than inaugurating “a new golden age.” Though refraining from that level of MAGA-fication, Democrats have not stinted on the praise due to Trump for achieving the ceasefire and hostage agreement. Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Joe ...

Insurance subsidy talks cannot wait

Editorials

Sometimes if you just wait, a situation will change. Maybe the forest fire will burn itself out. Maybe the floodwaters will recede. Maybe the storm promised by the weatherman will veer off and unleash its fury elsewhere. That can happen. It does happen. But it doesn’t always happen. That’s part of why we have insurance. We need to protect ourselves from a raging fire or rising water or from the roof being ripped off by wind. And it’s why we rely on health insurance to allow us to seek medical care for something as catastrophic as a car crash or as disabling as diabetes — ...

Qatar air base on US soil is a bad idea

Letters to the Editor

I am writing to express my profound alarm over the proposal to let Qatar build and operate an air force base on American soil. This isn’t a simple diplomatic arrangement; it’s an unprecedented erosion of our national sovereignty and security. Permitting a foreign nation to establish its own military installation on our soil is a radical departure from policy. An independent foreign base is a sovereign foothold, not a joint training facility under U.S. command. It raises critical questions of legal authority and creates an unacceptable risk to American military technology and ...

A surefire way to stop shutdowns

Letters to the Editor

There is a way to stop all these shutdowns by these kindergarten antics by our elected officials. What needs to be done is for “We the people” to demand a new article added to the Constitution stating that at any time the elected officials fail to keep the federal government fully funded or cause a shutdown as is happening at present shall lose the right to run for office in the next election at any federal level. There would be no exceptions for any party or person. I believe that the very thought of losing their position of both power and all the benefits that go along with ...

Pa. stepping up animal protections

Editorials

Over the years, television has provided an accurate perspective of the problem — “affliction” sometimes might be the better descriptive word — of hoarding. We’re referring to people who have, in essence, ruined their lives, homes and also, perhaps, relationships because of having collected and having remained hellbent on continuing to collect virtual “mountains” of household and other items “too good” to throw away, sell or give away. In many of the sad and otherwise troubling situations upon which television has focused, homes had become such a repository for the ...

Gopher tortoises, ecosystem intertwined

Other Commentaries

A rescued gopher tortoise arrived at the Nokuse Nature Preserve in Florida’s Panhandle while my sister Erica and I were there. It didn’t know how lucky it was. Across Florida, builders are required to obtain permits from the state to capture and relocate gopher tortoises found on development sites. It’s a system meant to save them — but does it? Without federal protection for the species across its range, conservationists might be only moving the problem, not solving it. Gopher tortoises’ only federal protections exist in small parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and western ...