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Dear Annie: The gift — and challenge — of having two cultures

Columns

Dear Annie: My mother is German, and my father is American. Growing up, I was raised with traditions from both cultures, but I have never felt fully part of either one. Last Christmas, my mother made a traditional German dinner and invited several relatives. I tried to join the conversation, but my German is not fluent, and everyone kept switching to English for my sake. They were being kind, but I felt embarrassed and strangely separate from my own family. A few weeks later, I brought homemade German cookies to an American friend’s party. Everyone loved them, but they treated the ...

AI can make life easier. But it can’t build character.

Columns

This summer, my son learned to tread water in the deep end, worked through awkward guitar chords and chased pickleballs that sailed just beyond his reach. Watching him fail, grapple with frustration, try again and improve made me realize something. Technology still can’t build character; you need lived experience for that. As artificial intelligence grows more capable of writing, researching, calculating and creating, the question parents should be asking is: What experiences still require my child to struggle, adapt and grow? It’s the learning spaces that matter. Sure, I have ...

Time for new representatives

Letters to the editor

Tim Mannello Williamsport It’s time for Representatives Meuser and Thompson to go, and here’s why. In Regime Change, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan show how loyalty inside Donald Trump’s second term orbit narrowed to one test: insisting the 2020 election was stolen. This claim became a requirement for influence in Trump’s circle, even though courts, audits and bipartisan reviews found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the result. Despite these findings, the stolen election narrative continued shaping Republican politics in Pennsylvania. Representatives ...

Trumppublicans

Letters to the editor

Robert Workman Lock Haven You read that correctly. They don't deserve the acronym of MAGA. They are doing the exact opposite. A war he can't get out of. A war that was unnecessary. High cost of living for all. Day one he was going to lower costs for everything. He was running on this and that. He was a president that doesn't want any war. Going to end the war with Ukraine and Russia on day one. Turning time backwards and making a laughing stock of our once great country. Excerpts from the New York Time's: “Over the weekend, President Trump rejected a return to full-scale ...

Sixty-five-year old gets hospitalized due to hypercalcemia

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: A few years ago, at the age of 65, I was hospitalized and in critical condition with a calcium score of 14 mg/dL. After many tests, the diagnosis was hypercalcemia. After a 10-day hospital stay, I was discharged, and every test in the book was done to find the cause. All tests came back negative as to the cause, and still to this day, it isn’t known what could have caused this. Any ideas? — G.V. ANSWER: “Hypercalcemia” just means a high calcium level, and there are many causes — some of which are quite serious, including several cancers. A level of 14 mg/dL ...

Affordability today

Letters to the editor

Arthur Keller Beavertown We continue to hear about the Trump administration’s affordability issues but are they as serious as reported? U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics April 29. 2026 price comparison Biden vs Trump — Bacon $6.84 vs $6.80, butter $4.79 vs $4.26, dozen eggs $3.65 vs $2.35 ( I just paid $1.20 for 1 1/2 dozen eggs), milk $4.14 vs $4.07, pasta $1.37 vs $1.31, potatoes $0.96 vs $0.85, … new homes $397,600 vs $400,500, inflation 4.9% vs 2.7%, 30-year fixed rate mortgage 6.8% vs 6.3%, average gas price $3.56 vs $3.26, average diesel $4.10 vs $3.77… (Even with the ...