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Space is final frontier for law and order

In 2015, a rare moment of U.S. congressional unity passed the Space Act — to mine asteroids as if they were open seams of ore and harvest planets like unclaimed farmland. Quietly signed by President Barack Obama, it now reads as a premature act of enclosure: staking titles in a realm we scarcely understand. Though some expressed concerns at the time, it was justified by the idea of inevitable progress. Such naivety evaporated with Donald Trump. Space had been humanity’s last commons, shielded by a 1967 Outer Space treaty. Trump declared it dead in 2020, signing the Artemis ...

Hunters should be more involved in policies

State Rep. Daniel Maloney, R-Pike Township, made several good points during a recent visit to Lycoming County. Maloney was invited to speak at a sportsmen’s listening tour by state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township. As reported in the outdoors section of Tuesday’s Sun-Gazette, he shared concerns about the pace at which the state is learning about chronic wasting disease and about oversight on how grant money connected to game and wildlands management is spent. His concerns on those two issues, perhaps, can be solidly connected to a third question the lawmaker raised: Is ...

What other papers are saying: Monitoring kids’ online activities necessary

A U.S. District Court judge’s decision to strike down Ohio’s requirement that children under age 16 must have parental consent to use social media and some gaming apps is being viewed as a victory by trade group NetChoice, which represents TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other companies, and some First Amendment advocates. But it is important to read all of what Judge Algenon Marbley had to say on the matter. Marbley did not say the intent of the law was not commendable. He said it went too far. Marbley said the law “resides at the intersection of two unquestionable rights: the ...

Take out Iran’s nuclear facilities now

Before basketball's 24-second rule, there was a tactic called freezing the ball. The team that was ahead would attempt to run out the clock by holding onto the ball as long as it could to deny the opposing team an opportunity to score. That looks like what Iran is again doing – "freezing" negotiations while finishing the final stages of nuclear enrichment on the way to building a deliverable nuclear weapon. It is important for the U.S. to take Iranian leaders at their word. Failing to do so and believing the regime will pull back on what some of their leaders have said is a ...

Education freedom meets religious freedom

Two important developments in education occurred over the last week. One was a sign of the problem we have. The other was a sign of the solution. The sign of the problem, to which hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will provide the correct answer, falls under the headline of sex education. The court has just heard Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which families from a variety of faiths — Muslims, Jews, Christians — are fighting imposition by the Board of Education in Montgomery County, Md., requirements that children learn material about gender ideology. Per the Becket Fund, which is ...

Finally, it’s time to play ball at Mifflin County’s new digs

As new digs go, the Mifflin County Huskies are digging their new homes as both the baseball and softball teams are settling into their new confines — First Quality Field for softball and Capouillez Field for baseball. They are certainly a vast improvement over the previous facilities and are the first to be completed and unveiled at the Husky Multi-Sports Facilities Complex. The only spring sports that didn’t get to enjoy the comforts of their new home were the girls lacrosse and boys and girls track and field teams. Delays with the construction of Marcal Paper Field forced those ...