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135 days

After 135 days, Pennsylvania finally has a budget. 135 days. 20 weeks. Four and a half months. Nine-and-change fortnights. Whatever unit of measurement you prefer, it’s too much. And make no mistake: it will happen again. There’s no reason for it not to. The Pennsylvania budget has been late repeatedly since 2003 — the first “budget impasse” as we think of them in today’s terms. “Been late.” The very concept is repugnant. The state budget isn’t an overdue library book or a past-date school essay. Our political leaders aren’t careless children — or, ...

This Veterans Day, learn our past from those who were there

There are few opportunities quite like Veterans Day when it comes to learning about our history. History, as is commonly said, is written by the winners. And while that may be true for the history books, operating on the scale of generations, we prefer to say that history is written by the writers — those men and women who had boots on the ground during whatever historical event the scribes of the future will wax poetic about. If you want to learn, then the best thing to do is to talk to those people. Many veterans from the 20th century’s “major conflicts,” historically ...

Like Trump, Mamdani shows up — and promises the impossible

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve likely heard about the surprising rise of Zohran Mamdani, a New York state legislator who rose to prominence in the spring and won the seat of New York City Mayor in the general election this week. While NYC’s mayor does wield an outside impact on national politics for “just” a mayor, we still found his rapid rise and subsequent electoral conquest to be an interesting storyline, if nothing else. It also, we feel, reveals some lessons in what voters are looking for from their politicians these days, and those lessons are applicable at ...

Vote in local elections today — and bring a friend

Much can be — and has been — said of the importance of voting, especially in off-years where both major parties struggle to drive any kind of interest in their voters. While the “main show” years, if you will — being the presidential election and the midterms halfway between those — are certainly more dramatic, the off-years tend to be more important on a local scale. Off-year elections tend to see more councilmembers, township supervisors, school board members and other roles that have direct impact on our area. Putting aside your partisan bias for a moment (just for a ...

Don’t let your neighbors starve

Much has been written about the impending suspension of SNAP, WIC and other benefits that the nation is collectively staring down — set to begin on Nov. 1, as of this writing. We aren’t going to assign blame. We could — but we don’t see that as beneficial. Blaming our various political critters, party agnostic, doesn’t put food in peoples’ bellies. Instead, we want to highlight that, even a week out, members of the community are beginning to mobilize to do something about it. Tonight, a come-as-you-can community assembly will be held at Avenue 209 Coffee House, ...

Pass out the candy, pass on the memories

For many of us, Halloween is a time of parties, scary movies and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that come wandering by our front stoops. It can also be a time of reflection — both on death and our relationship with it, as the Conversation piece also in today’s edition delves into, but also on our own chilly childhood nights spent going door to door while dressed up as our favorite characters, professions, fairy tales or ghosts. Not everyone gets the chance to have these great memories. For some, Halloween — and the whole spooky season built up around it — is ...