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Another self-inflicted wound

Letters to the editor

Tim Mannello Williamsport Donald J. Trump’s war with Iran has already hurt ordinary Americans. Now his administration is floating another idea that would deliver yet another self-inflicted wound on all of us: shutting down customs inspections at sanctuary city airports. That move would hit even harder, and regular people would feel the impact first. The economic hit would slam everyday life. Local economies would slow almost overnight. Medicine, electronics, auto parts and fresh food would sit in warehouses instead of reaching stores. Hospitals would wait for supplies that ...

How Pa. towns are protecting themselves from the noise, heat and utility costs of data centers

Columns

Pennsylvania has become a hot spot for data center proposals and public backlash about where to build them. I’m a law professor and executive director of Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy. I’m also a native of Archbald, a borough of 7,500 residents in the Lackawanna Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania. My hometown has drawn national attention because of proposals for multiple data centers that would cover 14% of its area. Because of my professional and personal interest in data centers, I have been researching local responses to data center proposals across ...

Dear Annie: Six-year estrangement is hurting whole family

Columns

Dear Annie: I don’t know where to start. It has been six years since our youngest daughter, “Emily,” has been close to us. The problem started when our oldest daughter and her cousin were in the kitchen talking about Emily when Emily walked by. She obviously was concerned that they were talking about her. We were just getting ready to eat our holiday meal, and I asked where Emily was, and they said she had left. I called her to ask why, and she said her sister and cousin were staring at her and talking. Mind you, they were all in their 40s. After I talked to Emily, my husband ...

Making Big Tech help PA’s seniors stay in their homes

Columns

Pennsylvania has a problem. Our outdated tax system is costing working people billions of dollars. They are watching their neighborhood schools close, their bus lines get cut, and their health care costs skyrocket while big corporations make billions — without paying their fair share to our state. That’s not right. There is a simple solution: lawmakers can boldly face corporate greed and require multinational corporations and billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes and use that money to fund schools, mass transit, healthcare, and more. Our bill, HB1678, would ...

Woman enters manic pyschotic break that takes a toll on family

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My daughter’s going through a manic psychotic break. Her reality is skewed, and she thinks that she’s right and that the rest of us are out of touch. It’s taking a toll on our family. How can I get through to her to seek professional help? — B.C. ANSWER: Unfortunately, this is a common situation that often doesn’t have an easy answer. Mania is a specific psychiatric state when a person has a sustained period of very high energy. People in a manic state often don’t sleep much at all and have high energy, which they often use to make risky decisions that can ...

Gordon Wood and the historians who told the real story of the founders

Columns

The sudden death of the historian Gordon Wood, just weeks before the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, is one more mark of the closure of a golden age of the historiography of the Revolutionary era. It’s an occasion to reflect on the uniqueness, indeed the idiosyncrasy, of the emergence of the primacy of this United States among the nations of the world. As the historian Walter McDougall has pointed out, a catalog of world civilizations in the year 1600 looks, with one exception, much like the world today. There is a prosperous and populous ...