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Road salt issue should be simple

Editorials

Pennsylvania residents who watched as the just-concluded 2025-26 state budget-preparation debacle played out might be thinking that the Legislature surely might now be able to find an issue that it can handle more quickly and more efficiently. But, in fact, will it? There’s an issue “out there” involving road salt, but state lawmakers have found a way to make it more difficult than it ought to be. Some state lawmakers — and presumably some non-elected officials — believe that road salt’s use ought to be curbed in order to reduce environmental damage stemming from ...

Put that smile to work, Mr. Mayor

Editorials

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s smile carried him a long way toward being elected. And he used his affability again on Friday, turning the meeting he had requested with President Donald Trump into an Oval Office lovefest. Now it’s time for the mayor-elect to employ the power of smiling to make day-to-day life better for New Yorkers when they are compelled to interact with city employees. Mamdani needs to call on the 300,000 city employees to show warmth, respect and courtesy to the public. The spirit of a smile. Walk into a city agency or court building seeking help, ...

Thankfulness can be an abstract concept

Editorials

In 2006, a few days before Christmas, doctors announced my wife had six months to live. She had, they said, a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs. There was really nothing that could be done. We had a one-year-old and I had been told my job was coming to an end the same day of the diagnosis. Thankfully, it was a misdiagnosis. Not only did I keep my job, but I kept my wife. Ten years later, doctors informed my wife they suspected she had a genetic form of lung cancer. Had my wife not been misdiagnosed in 2006, they would not have known about her lung cancer in 2016. My wife ...

School funding a state-created problem

Editorials

Education is built on the basics. ABCs become words, then sentences, then books. Counting becomes adding, then long division, then algebra. If you don’t get a good grounding at the primary level, everything gets harder until the learning process falls apart with the advanced material. That might be the issue with school districts and cyber charter schools. They are facing off over money as well as accountability and test scores. But this isn’t a fight they started. It’s a battleground the state controls. The latest example is a lawsuit from four regional schools: Leechburg ...

Discover new traditions in a season of gratitude

Local Columns

Holiday traditions continue to turn, like pages in a book, and I have learned that we must be prepared for what is found on the next, unseen page. We have a choice in how we react to what we find on the other side. There may be surprising plot twists, new characters introduced, love, loss, or even mysteries to solve. We can choose to respond with wide-eyed wonder and anticipation, or with dread and apprehension. This truth became abundantly clear to me as my family and I recently celebrated Thanksgiving. This year was different in many ways, yet beautifully the same in all the ways ...

How to stay safe on Central Pennsylvania’s winter roads

Editorials

Snow fell again across the area this week. The season’s first coating of white has a way of reminding us how quickly a routine drive can turn risky. And most of us will still head out to work, to school, etc., because staying home isn’t always an option. That might be a mistake. Last winter, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) logged 8,329 crashes on snowy, icy or slushy roads. That stretch of misfortune included 29 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries for people statewide. We know what winter driving looks like around here. We’ve seen cars fishtailing or unable ...