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Ice safety is about more than thickness

Local Columns

Cold weather is here, and with it, the first ice of the season. I have already had anglers asking if the ice on a particular lake is thick enough to venture onto. While it will not be long before your favorite lake has ice that looks thick enough to support ice fishing, that is only one part of the puzzle. When it comes to ice fishing, there is one consideration more important than bait, lure, rod/reel or even whether you should wear your lucky hat. Successful ice fishing comes down to one thing: having safe ice. After all, what good is a full creel if it is lying next to you at the ...

PSU trustees still aren’t talking enough in public

Editorials

Penn State’s Board of Trustees deserves credit for spending more time in public discussion this year than it has in the recent past. After years in which outcomes often were treated as foregone conclusions, more conversation is a welcome change. But more is not the same as enough. The measure of a governing board is not whether discussion increases but whether it is robust, wide-ranging and focused on the decisions that matter most — because fiduciary duty needs more than transparency. It requires discussion. Penn State’s Board of Trustees has 39 members, including the ...

Two new year’s resolutions for state government

Editorials

The year 2026 is upon us, and our state lawmakers and state officials should offer Pennsylvanians two resolutions — to reform our state’s government in ways that encourage rather than punish development and job creation, and to reduce state spending. Our region’s own lawmakers have respectable records of understanding both points. Unfortunately many others in Harrisburg fail to recognize the imperative nature of ensuring that working-age Pennsylvanians have plentiful opportunities to work, live and build lives. Many of the same politicians in Harrisburg — and unfortunately, ...

It’s time to take political pay raises off autopilot

Editorials

Wouldn’t it be great if your income automatically increased based on the cost of living? Higher food, gas or electricity prices would sting less. Rent increases might still hurt, but not nearly as much if paychecks rose alongside them. That is the reality for some in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers and other elected officials see their salaries rise annually based on the Consumer Price Index. So do those elected in Westmoreland County. But Westmoreland officials might not see that continue. TribLive has been pushing for years to take elected officials’ pay raises off ...

Socialism vs. Capitalism: A closer look

Editorials

People criticize capitalism. A recent Axios-Generation poll says, “College students prefer socialism to capitalism.” Why? Because they believe absurd myths. Like the claim that the Soviet Union “wasn’t real socialism.” Socialism guru Noam Chomsky tells students that. He says the Soviet Union “was about as remote from socialism as you could imagine.” Give me a break. The Soviets made private business illegal. If that’s not socialism, I’m not sure what is. “Socialism means abolishing private property and ... replacing it with some form of collective ...

The common faith of Elise Stefanik and Erika Kirk

Editorials

Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican candidate running to unseat New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, announced she is pulling out of the race and will not seek reelection for her congressional seat, in which she is now serving her sixth term. It’s been a rough couple years for Stefanik. After President Donald Trump’s reelection, she was named to be the new U.S. ambassador to the U.N. However, this never happened because she returned to the House to alleviate the thin Republican majority to get the One Big Beautiful Bill passed. Last month she announced her bid for the ...