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How 1,800 local tradespeople are powering Pa.’s ultimate energy and data innovation campus

Columns

HOMER CITY, Pa. — Eighteen months ago, Shawn Steffee stood in a field in Indiana County and watched the smokestacks of Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant fold into a cloud of dust, then told anyone who would listen that the wreckage was not a funeral. “This isn’t the end, this is the beginning,” said the business agent for Boilermakers Local 154. That prediction is unfolding. Homer City Generation announced earlier this month that more than 1,800 direct-hire tradespeople and skilled contractors are currently working at the site of the largest natural ...

Gen Z and others

Letters to the editor

Arthur Keller Beavertown With today’s political atmosphere and the rhetoric in the papers, it is hard to know what to believe. But rest assured it is not as bad as you think. At 82 years of age, I have lived through many crises like the Polio Epidemic, the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, several president assassination attempts (some successful), can’t remember a time without a war going on somewhere, Y2K crisis and recently Climate Crisis predicting the polar ice cap completely ice-free in 2014 with our coastal cities flooded and the world destroyed which did not happen. I ...

An MRI is superior than a CT scan in the case of a neoplasm

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have a pacemaker that was installed in January 2024. This is a newer model that’s said to be safe for those who need an MRI. I have a neoplasm that was recently discovered in the parotid gland on the right side of my head. The doctors at a referral hospital attempted to do a biopsy on the mass in the center of the gland. But the biopsy failed as the tissue samples were only obtained from benign tissue surrounding the neoplasm, not from the mass. My doctor doesn’t want to attempt another biopsy, as the biopsy procedure that failed was very lengthy and lasted for ...

A prescription for pharmacy closures

Letters to the editor

Jennifer Riley Malvern, Pa. Mill Hall Pharmacy closed in July after decades of serving local families. It delivered medications and gave patients a familiar pharmacist to call with questions. For local families, losing that kind of care is more than an inconvenience. Clinton County had just seven licensed pharmacies as of May 2025, according to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. That count predates Mill Hall’s closure. Each loss raises the risk of a “pharmacy desert,” an area where residents no longer have reasonable access to a local pharmacy. Keeping the remaining ...

Early cancer screening saved my life

Letters to the editor

Joe Lahr Harrisburg The American Cancer Society now recommends that anyone 45 and up get screened for colorectal cancer, but when I turned 45, the recommended age to begin testing was still 50. However, with my family history of colorectal cancer, once I hit mid-forties, I asked my doctor about early screening. Looking back, that choice saved my life. During the colonoscopy, my doctor found pre-cancerous spots on my colon, but because of how early we found them, they were able to be removed right then and there. I left that appointment feeling like I’d been given a second ...

The revolt against tariffs

Columns

In 2016, Donald Trump’s support for tariffs helped propel him to a shocking electoral victory. In 2026, his tariff policy may help tank Republicans in the midterms. This turnabout counts as a surprise of Trump’s second term, and an unwelcome one for the president and his party. During his political ascent in 2015-2016, Trump exploited issues where there was a disconnect between popular and elite opinion, and trade was prominent among them. His protectionism — expressed in pungent and excoriating terms — poached traditional Democratic ideological territory and appealed to ...