Breaking News

Local Columns

Equality Act slams door on religious freedom

The Supreme Court’s recent decision, Fulton v. Philadelphia, is justifiably getting mixed reviews. Catholic Social Services sued the city of Philadelphia, through the Philadelphia Archdiocese, for canceling its 50-year contract with the Catholic social services agency because it refuses to certify same-sex couples as foster families for the purpose of foster care. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of CSS, finding that Philadelphia violated its First Amendment protections. The criticism is that the decision was narrow and technical, skirting the core question of how we understand ...

Who benefits from immigration policy of Biden and Harris?

Let’s talk calmly and objectively about U.S. immigration policy, shall we? And let’s focus on what’s happened so far this year following our nation’s latest changes in strategy. Those changes have sparked an unprecedented flood of refugees across our southern border. The U.S. Border Patrol reports that during the month of May, agents grappled with more than 180,000 migrants. In April, the number was 178,000. A government estimate says we are on track to handle more than 2 million immigrants entering via the southern border by the end of this fiscal year. That doesn’t count ...

Who is really killing American democracy?

By a vote of 30-1 in the House, with unanimous support in the Senate, Juneteenth, June 19, which commemorates the day in 1865 when news of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, has been declared a federal holiday It is to be called Juneteenth Independence Day. Prediction: This will become yet another source of societal division as many Black folks celebrate their special Independence Day, and the rest of America continues to celebrate July 4 as Independence Day two weeks later. Why the pessimism? Consider. Days before Congress acted, the Randolph, New ...

The leftists writing your child’s social studies lessons

It’s hard to know what’s worse — brainwashing kids or lying about it. Parents worried their kids are being indoctrinated with critical race theory can’t get straight answers. Local school boards and principals lie to them, claiming children are merely being taught to be “critical thinkers.” Last Saturday, the truth came out. Teachers unions and activists held rallies in 22 cities to support critical race theory. What they said was eye-popping. They unabashedly declared that their goal is indoctrinating students in far-left causes. The Zinn Education Project, which ...

Election reform panel cuts through rhetoric, identifies meaningful solutions

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our republic. Unfortunately, numerous questions have been raised over the past year about our election system in Pennsylvania. This has created a crisis of confidence that threatens to plunge our Commonwealth into an even deeper political divide if we fail to take action to fix it. In my 22 years as a lawmaker, I have never seen an issue as divisive and politically charged as the handling of the 2020 general election. That is what makes the report this week from the Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform so remarkable and ...

Will Republicans step up to challenge on Christian values?

For sure, Democrats rejoiced as they watched Republicans painfully twist in the wind at the beginning of LGBTQ Pride Month, trying to figure out how to position their party on this issue. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel got flak from the right and from the left, as she essentially waved a white flag, declaring Republican Party neutrality on a key issue of our cultural conflicts. “We will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs,” she ...