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Address crime, violence through smart justice

Rising crime rates, led by spikes in violent crime, have been ravaging Pennsylvania’s major cities and is now spilling over into suburban and rural communities. As we have continued to witness tragic news story after tragic news story of young lives ended too soon or businesses being forced to close or relocate due to preventable incidents of crime, the members of the House Republican Caucus have been working to respond with smart legislation designed to marshal state and local resources to keep Pennsylvanians safe and ensure criminals are off our streets. Our efforts began in ...

Fall reading includes classics

For the fall, I’m planning on reading The Classics. Just what The Classics are depends on who you ask. According to Penguin Publishers UK. who have a list of the 100 Must-Read classics, the No. 1 Must-Read classic is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (published in 1813). Some of the books on the list, like I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (published in 1948), I’ve never heard of. But The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis (published in 1950) is No. 16 and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (published in 1964) is No. 47. However, the Classic that I want ...

What does it mean when a book is banned from a library?

You may have recently read or heard about books being banned from libraries across the United States of America. It’s important to know the basic facts regarding this topic. A book ban is when a person or group requests a specific book at a specific library, such as at a school or public library, be removed altogether from that library’s collection. Books can also be “challenged,” resulting in the book remaining in the library’s collection but moved to another section of the library. If, for example, a book is banned or challenged at a specific library in Idaho, the outcome ...

With a little help from our friends

Those words, recorded by the Beatles, lead vocals provided by drummer Ringo Starr, from the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, have been a recurring theme in my life this week. The Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce and Mifflin County Industrial Development Corporation have partnered to host bi-monthly entrepreneurial meetups over the last few years. They were designed to be a safe place where local entrepreneurs of all ages and levels of expertise can come together to talk about common issues. We have consistently seen groups of 20 or 30 individuals. This ...

The curious case of Lehigh County’s voter drop boxes

Like a lot of Pennsylvanians, I have been following the situation concerning drop boxes in Lehigh County. As the drama there continues to play out, one thing we have learned is that observers at drop boxes do keep voters honest by ensuring they comply with the law, which states a person can only return his or her own ballot. Oddly enough, this aspect of the election law is often overlooked, even by the Commonwealth’s top executive, Gov. Tom Wolf, when he admitted his wife returned his mail-in ballot during a recent election. Sure, it was probably an honest mistake that many ...

Be proud of your pearls

I had the amazing privilege of hosting a women’s G.R.I.T. conference this week through the Chamber. The acronym G.R.I.T. standing for guts, resilience, initiative and tenacity. Little did we know when we chose that theme in 2020, not long before the pandemic arrived in the United States, just how prophetic that theme would turn out to be. None of us realized just how deep we would soon have to dig to find the courage to develop these much-needed traits. As I stood to give my opening address which I titled, “Be Proud of Your Pearls,” I talked about how our pandemic ...