Cyber attacks bring yet more pain for consumers

June 3, 2021

It’s just a few weeks since we saw gasoline prices spike and rationing due to a cyber attack of a leading underground gasoline pipeline in the United States that shut the system down for about a week. Now we’re talking about one of the country’s leading meat producers being hit by hackers. No doubt we’ll now see meat prices go even higher following a reported 20% increase just in the last 6 weeks due to worker shortages. What’s next? What critical part of our lives will be seriously impacted by internet criminals? Let’s get up to date: This week JBS USA, part of JBS ...

Please make time today to remember

May 31, 2021

It’s Memorial Day 2021. And after this past year of sacrifice and loss, paying respect at the burial place of those we’ve lost in war, our family members and friends takes on even more meaning. Will you visit the burial place of your passed family members and friends today? Will you take time to thank, remember or just think about the Americans who serve or have served our military, including those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice? Will you truly observe Memorial Day today? Too many of us are too busy in today’s world. Too many of us neglect the grave sites of our ...

Resume in-person meetings

May 25, 2021

As COVID-19 restrictions continue easing, we encourage local governments and school boards to resume meeting in person, with their doors open to the public and the media. Many of our local governments, during the pandemic, justifiably relied on telephone and video connections to convene public meetings. After more than a year of covering such meetings, our reporters will tell you that these arrangements are OK ... but not preferred. We suspect many residents came to the same conclusion when directed to render public comment by telephone, especially when school boards discussed the ...

We’re just a cyber attack away from chaos and panic

May 19, 2021

Three challenges facing the United States and other right-thinking nations in the wake of the cyberattack targeting Colonial Pipeline’s 5,500-mile system in the U.S. are as follows: 5 Learn the identities of the people responsible for the attack. 5 Use whatever means are necessary to neutralize the hackers’ ability to conduct more attacks. 5 Ascertain beyond reasonable doubt whether the hackers were working under the direction of some foreign power seeking to damage this country. Even if all that were to be accomplished — and there is cause for great skepticism about the ...

Make your voice heard: Vote, please!

May 18, 2021

Today is Election Day in Pennsylvania, and while the spring primary is normally reserved for only Republicans and Democrats to formally nominate candidates for the general election in November, this year it’s a bit different. On the ballot at your precinct you likely will find nominations for township supervisors, city councils, borough councils, magisterial district judges, county judges, statewide judges and more. Plus, there are four ballot questions important to the future of Pennsylvania that deal with emergency disaster declarations, social justice and helping fire ...

Employers are competing with federal gov’t for ‘workers’

May 17, 2021

Policymakers at the state and federal level have a conundrum on their hands. While trillions of dollars are being handed out to boost our economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, some are beginning to wonder if all that stimulus hasn’t reached the point of doing more harm than good — to the job market, anyway. U.S. employers posted a record number of available jobs in March. Job gains are weak not because there is not potential, but because employers can’t find people to fill the jobs they already have. Job openings rose nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in March, the most ...