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Let the sunshine in: Restore transparency to Pennsylvania government

National Sunshine Week, March 15-21, is a time to highlight the importance of open, transparent government and to call attention to actions that place those principles at risk. Pennsylvanians deserve to know what their elected school and township supervisor boards, borough councils and other agencies plan to discuss and vote on at public meetings. The Sunshine Act ensures that level of visibility. At least it did — until last year when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court opened the door for far more government business to occur without prior public notice. In a split ruling, the high ...

Our civilian-military bond is cracked

On Tuesday, TMZ published a story with a dramatic all-caps headline, “PETE HEGSETH BLEW BILLION$ ON FRUIT BASKETS, LOBSTER,” that was accompanied by a manufactured photo of the secretary of war surrounded by a bunch of plastic lobsters. The initial story was followed by several other “news” organizations repeating the claims. If you’ve never covered the military, or served in the military, or if you don’t have any family or friends in the military, this would appear to be a shocking story. But it’s not — not even remotely. It is a common practice for the Pentagon to ...

Trump’s Iran war not likely the jaunt he’s trying to sell

Here we go again. What else can one say to the stream of misinformation and disinformation flowing out of the White House and Pentagon since the war with Iran broke out? We have grown wearily familiar with President Trump’s cavalier relationship with the facts. Combine that with his tendency to snatch words out of the air, appropriately or not, and you come up with a jumble of head-scratchers. A leading example is his repeated oddball description of the Iran war as an “excursion,” which caused brows to furrow and eyeballs to roll in newsrooms around the planet. Excursion? ...

Dear Annie: Balancing respect in an interfaith relationship

Dear Annie: I never thought I would be writing to an advice column, but here I am, because my heart is full and my mind is spinning. I am a Catholic woman in my early 30s, and I have fallen deeply in love with a wonderful man who is Jewish. He is kind, thoughtful, funny and steady in a way that makes me feel safe. He remembers the little things, calls my mother “ma’am” and once drove two hours to help my brother when his car broke down. In every way that matters day to day, he is the kind of partner I always hoped to find. The problem is that what matters “day to day” is ...

Why the HPV vaccine isn’t indicated past the age of 45

DEAR DR. ROACH: In a recent column, you mentioned that the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine prevents neck and head cancer in men. I am 75 and do not recall ever getting an HPV vaccine. Should I get one now? — J.L.I. ANSWER: For many years, tobacco (smoking, snuff, chewing tobacco, etc.) was the biggest risk for head and neck cancer. But recently, HPV has become the leading cause of head and neck cancer, with 60% to 70% of all head and neck cancers being HPV-related. The HPV vaccine prevents several types of HPV from infecting a person and causing warts. Certain types of HPV ...

The ‘easy way out’ may not be so easy after all

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how it’s “taking the easy way out” to use GLP-1s to lose weight. That may be true. But then again, you might be able to say the same thing about virtually every medical advancement. When you boil it down, chemotherapy is “taking the easy way out” of testicular cancer. Penicillin is “taking the easy way out” of a bacterial infection. The MMR shot is “taking the easy way out” of getting the measles. You could be suffering and dying along with everyone else who’s had the problem since the beginning of time but, instead, you’re ...