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Biden work policies not working

Earlier this month, the Biden administration received just the latest slap in the face from cruel reality: An economic report showing just 194,000 jobs added in the month of September, short of the 500,000 jobs forecast by most economists. The unemployment rate dived to 4.8% from 5.2% — not as a result of job gains, but as a result of more and more Americans dumping out of the work force. Meanwhile, inflation continued to pick up steam, with domestic labor shortages exacerbating supply-chain bottlenecks. How should we explain the bizarre spectacle of a nation that should be booming ...

Preserving our past is making an investment in our future

As you may have noticed, The Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce, The Juniata River Valley Visitors Bureau, The Mifflin County Historical Society, the Lewistown Borough, and a dedicated committee of community volunteers, have been working the last few months to preserve the local history found in our cemeteries. We have specifically focused on the restoration and improvement of the African American Memorial Cemetery located near the entrance to Victory Park in Lewistown. I just wanted to talk a few moments today about the “why” of this project. Why are we spending countless ...

Biden’s weak leadership creating crises both at home and abroad

Editor’s note: This op-ed was originally published in the Washington Examiner and is reprinted here with permission. Fewer than nine months into his term, President Joe Biden has created economic, border and national security crises that have undermined America’s strength at home and abroad. First, there is the economic crisis. Inflation is rising across the board, forcing people to pay more for everything from gas to groceries. This problem is driven by staffing shortages worsened by Democratic policies that incentivize eligible workers to stay out of the workforce. Today, ...

New victim of cancel culture: science

Cancel culture has reared its ugly head once again, and this time in a new and unprecedented way. A lecture by a physicist was canceled at one of America’s premier institutions of science, MIT, for reasons having nothing to do with the subject of the lecture. The lecture was canceled not because of its scientific content but because of the politically incorrect views on diversity of the scientist scheduled to give the lecture. Dorian Abbot is a professor in the department of the geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from ...

Let’s get it together on pot laws

Quick. Do you know whether marijuana is legal in your state? Is it approved for medical or even recreational use? If you don’t know, that is completely understandable. We are a collection of 50 different states with a wide-ranging patchwork of laws regulating cannabis, nearly all of which are in direct opposition to federal law. It’s difficult to generalize on the state-by-state tally because the laws are so different. One state’s medical marijuana law may be limited to products containing cannabidiol, abbreviated to CBD, a chemical extracted from cannabis and sold in oils, ...

Are China’s threats to Taiwan a bluff?

Monday, four dozen Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone, climaxing a weekend of provocations that saw nearly 150 sorties of China-based fighters and bombers. The U.S. State Department countered by issuing a stern statement warning Beijing about the adverse effect on regional “stability” of such “provocative military activity.” Yet even as the waves of Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense zone, President Joe Biden was reassuring Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that the U.S. would defend the Senkakus from any Chinese ...