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Lewistown’s progress deserves notice

As plans move forward to redevelop another prominent downtown property, Lewistown residents should pause to recognize something that can get lost in the debate. The community is changing. Not every decision has been easy. Not every project has been perfect. Concerns raised by residents, preservationists, and business owners shouldn’t be dismissed. The loss of historic buildings should never be treated lightly. A town’s older buildings carry its memory. They remind residents who came before what was built here and what kind of place Lewistown has been. Whenever possible, that ...

Feds own too much real estate

The federal government is the largest owner of U.S. real estate, including more than half a billion square feet of office space. That is far more than it needs, and the cost of maintaining it has ballooned to unsustainable levels. The Public Buildings Reform Board recently identified 26 buildings across 15 states — totaling more than 7.3 million square feet — as potential candidates for the government to dispose due to poor usage and high maintenance costs. It’s the third set of disposal recommendations since Congress created the board in 2016. That’s a great start, but the ...

The grand experiment is still working

America is often described as a grand experiment. That’s true. The hypothesis of the Founding Fathers was unlike anything found in the monarchies of Europe. It was new and exciting. It took British common law and bonded it to the Magna Carta’s liberties. It agitated the idea with John Locke’s social contract. It heated it all over the flame of French philosophy. Then it asked a question: Could a government derive its authority not from a crown but from the consent of the people? It was a daring idea, and that is where the experiment lies. It was in the creation of a ...

Why does Pa. have a budget deadline?

Here we are again. July. The annual observance is upon us. No. Not Independence Day. Less celebratory, possibly just as explosive. Pennsylvania once more has seen the yearly state budget deadline — and blown past it like a reckless driver. Did anyone expect anything else? Hoped, sure, but expected? Doubtful. This is the fifth consecutive budget to miss deadline and the 15th in the past 23 years. That means the state is consistently delinquent in its obligations: to its residents, to county and local governments and to its own agencies. In 2025, the budget was 135 days late. ...

Mamdani’s rent freeze threatens everyone who owns anything

Tenants' groups and leftwing activists are cheering New York City's newly announced multiyear rent freeze. But Mayor Zohran Mamdani's rent scheme is headed for a judicial smackdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2023 and twice in 2024, a hesitant Supreme Court declined to hear challenges by building owners to New York state's rent regulations. Lower courts had ruled that the regulations diminished the value of rental properties, but the state had good reasons to balance the rights of owners with the need to protect tenants. At that time, Justice Clarence Thomas said the ...

Vandalism at park can prove very Costly to community

Vandalism at Hollidaysburg’s Canal Basin Park was of a deeply troubling category and scope. Unfortunately, it was of a category witnessed too often at other locales across America — over many decades of this nation’s history, not just in the year 2026. One thing is certain about the Canal Basin Park vandalism, nevertheless: It demands a community soul-searching, as well as ongoing reflection about whether there are local elements that would take great pride and pleasure in continuing to undermine everything that’s good about the county seat community. Or, was what occurred ...