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Home Run Derby is a spectacle

Local Columns

It was more than a Major League Baseball All-Star Game and other festivities when the spectacle came to Pittsburgh in 1994. I remember my stepbrother Dave Zook and I — along with a few of Babe Ruth players — driving out to Three Rivers Stadium for the Home-Run Derby and other contests the day before the All-Stars took the field. The game was a celebration of professional baseball in Pittsburgh. Just 21 months after winning the Pirates’ last division championship in 1992. The atmosphere was joyous and electric. Pittsburgh had a chance to shine, and it did. I remember sitting ...

Why scientists are helping hellbenders

Editorials

When I first heard about eastern hellbenders, I thought they sounded like a motorcycle gang, not large salamanders the color of river rocks. I also had no idea they were important ecosystem indicators for clean water. The story goes that the amphibian got its name from early settlers who thought the thing was so ugly it must be a creature from the underworld, “hell bent” on returning. But, as I stared at one in southern Indiana, I did not think it ugly. I watched it crawl around the bottom of a plastic transport container filled with water. It walked like an alligator and had long ...

Are black bears finally returning to woods of Ohio?

Editorials

Since the mid-19th century, Ohio has been a relatively bear-free state. Humans drove out the black bears 150 or so years ago, and they’ve been considered rare and an endangered species here ever since. That might be changing; however, as researchers are beginning to see black bears naturally expand their range back into the Buckeye State. Recently, a female black bear was captured and fitted with a GPS collar in Ashtabula County in northeast Ohio at the Pennsylvania border. It will be the first time such study is possible for a female, according to the Ohio Department of Natural ...

U.S. support for Israel remains strong

Editorials

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and first lady Sara Netanyahu hosted a high-profile diplomatic reception Wednesday evening at the historic Blair House in Washington, D.C. The event, titled “A Reception in Appreciation of the Enduring Bond Between the United States and Israel,” was convened to honor the strategic, moral and longstanding partnership between the United States and Israel. Before the prime minister spoke, I asked him whether he was concerned that the United States was heading in the same direction as Europe, where antisemitism has risen as a result of ...

State needs to resist efforts to increase spending

Editorials

In a perfect world — or even just a better world — Pennsylvania’s state budget would be both completed on time and would be a plan in which Pennsylvania’s taxpayers could place their faith. We unfortunately do not live in that perfect world, and yet again our state budget has missed its deadline. We appreciate that Williamsport’s legislator, state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, is declining his paychecks until the matter is resolved. Flick’s choice is an excellent example of leading by example. However, when contemplating our state budget, we do not want to ...

Religious freedoms are fragile

Editorials

As Christianity declines in the West, the faith is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, which is seeing the fastest growth in Christianity the world over. By 2060, more than 4 in 10 Christians worldwide are expected to live in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with just 1 in 10 in 1970, according to Pew Research. But this growth is coming at a cost. Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., African Christians increasingly risk violent death for their beliefs. Nigeria, home to one of Africa’s largest and fastest-growing Christian populations, has also become one of the world’s deadliest ...