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Criminal caper reminiscent of comedy films

In a “plucky” caper reminiscent of the comedy, “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” featuring Tim Conway and Don Knotts as two bumbling outlaws, four people were charged in a failed attempt to fire a drug-filled crossbow arrow into the Fayette County jail. The caper was foiled after the “sharpshooter” missed the target – a window covered with titanium mesh – and landed on the ground below. Jail staff discovered the arrow June 6 near the southeast wall of the building. Police cut open the arrow to find cocaine-stuffed rubber gloves inside the shaft. It would appear the ...

What’s next for closing Penn State campus sites?

In two years, there will be no Nittany Lions on the Penn State campuses in New Kensington or Fayette County. What will be there remains to be seen. In May, Penn State trustees voted to follow the recommendations of President Neeli Bendapudi’s administration and close seven Commonwealth campuses at the end of Spring semester 2027. The announcement that some campuses might close was made in late February. The final vote came three months later with DuBois, Mont Alto, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York rounding out the list. It has now been more than two months since the campuses ...

Another mass shooting, another bogus rationale

I have a pet peeve about news coverage of mass murder. When the story breaks, cable news anchors report, as they first did last week in Midtown Manhattan, that the killer’s motives were unknown. What do mass shooters’ motives matter? When killers leave notes to explain their brutality, they leave self-aggrandizing excuses for snuffing out the lives of good people who deserved to go home to their families. The victims’ untimely deaths are set aside, while the killer’s twisted grievances get oxygen. So what do we know about shooter Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, who took his own ...

Starvation in Gaza: Whom to blame?

In the Middle East, war is conducted not only with bullets and missiles, but also with pictures. The latest are pictures of allegedly starving children in Gaza distributed by Hamas and its enablers with the intention of blaming Israel for delaying, even denying entry of food trucks into the strip. Such pictures are gobbled up and distributed to the world without question by media that are always critical of Israel and hardly critical at all of forces that seek to destroy the Jewish state. Perhaps no nation in history has cared about preserving human life more than modern Israel. It ...

Main Street Matters brings opportunity to Lewistown

When a town finds its second wind, it doesn’t come with fireworks or grand pronouncements. Sometimes, it arrives in the form of a letter from Harrisburg, or the hopeful shake of a neighbor’s hand. This week, Lewistown has been chosen as a Main Street Matters community, and while the paperwork may seem routine, the opportunity it brings is anything but. Lewistown’s new designation isn’t a government gift—it’s an act of faith in the people who call this place home. The Main Street Matters program offers money, yes, but more than that, it offers a chance to prove what a ...

Rapp’s right, budget bill is lacking

On the surface it would seem the state House of Representatives’ passing a state budget proposal and moving the process to the state Senate is a step forward. But we have to agree with state Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, who disagreed with both the amount of time Republicans were given to review the proposal as well as undecided issues that make the House plan essentially useless. Rapp’s first criticism is purely political. The party in the minority often gets short-shrift in the budget-making process. Republicans in the New York state Legislature levy the same complaint year ...