York Dispatch, PNA host high school essay contests to combat distracted driving

The Pennsylvania News Media Association Foundation and The York Dispatch are hosting editorial contests giving teenagers the chance to win money by raising awareness about distracted driving.

LETTER: Local forecasters need to educate

I was surprised recently to feel how hot it was outside. On Sept. 11, I was watching the WGAL weather forecast and the meteorologist told us that day the Susquehanna Valley experienced its 30th day this year when temperatures reached over 90 degrees.

by Porter Hedge  | 4 days ago

OP-ED: Obstruction of Congress, live on TV

The House Judiciary Committee brought in President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Tuesday as part of what it’s now calling an impeachment investigation.

by Jonathan Bernstein  | 4 days ago

OP-ED: Swearing as a campaign strategy

Politicians have a long history of swearing. Surreptitious recordings of the White House during the Johnson and Nixon administrations in the 1960s and ‘70s document extensive presidential profanity. Andrew Jack

by Benjamin Bergen  | 5 days ago

EDITORIAL: Sheriff owes public answers

Keuerleber has clearly concluded that voters either don't deserve answers or they won't be too concerned by the increasing flow inappropriate behavior spewing from the Sheriff's Office.

by Dispatch Editorial Board  | 5 days ago

OP-ED: Worries that Democrats will go too far in primaries appear unfounded

At the outset of the presidential campaign, Democratic Party elders worried about an epidemic sweeping from one primary state to the next: a sudden plague of litmus tests.

by Doyle McManus  | 6 days ago

OP-ED: Standing with survivors in our community

In my nearly 20 years as a York County commissioner, I have come to deeply respect and care about this community. So, when a member of our community is egregiously harmed by a criminal act, I feel compelled to stand up for them.

by Chris Reilly  | 6 days ago

EDITORIAL: News that should outrage all of us

The number of uninsured folks in America rose by 1.9 million people in 2018. It was the first jump in nearly a decade.

by York Dispatch  | 6 days ago

GUEST EDITORIAL: Banning flavored vapes may cut teen use

The silver lining is that this mystery illness has lit a fire under the Food and Drug Administration, which had been moving at a glacial pace in deciding whether and how to regulate electronic cigarettes, even as their popularity exploded among teenagers.

OP-ED: Why a great spy for America is no longer spying

It’s scarcely over yet, this effort to grab President Donald Trump around the head for things that weren’t his fault, drag him through the mud and say, there, we’ve got him now. That seems pretty much what happened when a CNN reporter incorrectly told us Trump was responsible for our greatest spy in

OP-ED: Democrats’ latest debate exposed a depressing dynamic in the 2020 field

If 2016 was a lesson for America in what can finally happen after decades of letting bad deeds go unpunished, 2020 is reminding us, a year ahead of time, that learning that lesson doesn’t answer the question of how to avoid repeating it.

EDITORIAL: Court must act on Pa. death penalty

As state lawmakers continue to dawdle on much-needed reforms to Pennsylvania’s death penalty, the state’s Supreme Court has been asked to strike down capital punishment in its entirety.

OP-ED: PA Forward gives students opportunity for better future

As another school year begins, I am always encouraged to see so many students from around the nation pouring into our city. Higher education is an important industry for our region.

OP-ED: President Trump decides not to do something stupid on taxes

You’d think that as a baseline, we would expect the president of the United States not to do clearly stupid things.

Local obituaries for Saturday, Sept. 14

EDITORIAL: Make it easier for absentee voters

There are still too many hoops people have to go through to be able to vote without physically going to their designated polling place on Election Day.

OP-ED: Going native: The scent of racism

In late August, the chic French luxury brand Christian Dior debuted an ad campaign for its fragrance referencing Native Americans. A number of American Indians immediately decried the advertisement as racist.

OP-ED: Trump’s labor pick kept workers in pain

President Donald Trump has had poor luck with labor secretaries. His first nominee, fast-food mogul Andrew Puzder, came under fire for his own labor practices, including hiring an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper, and was forced to withdraw his nomination when it became clear the Senate woul

EDITORIAL: Off the rails just might work

If you find yourself hopping a “trolley” in downtown York City this fall, thank local entrepreneur Toni Calderone for the trip down memory lane.

OP-ED: With Bolton booted, so much for Trump’s ‘team of rivals’

It wasn’t news that President Trump and his national security adviser John R. Bolton often disagreed. The difference of opinion now extends to whether Trump accepted Bolton’s offer to resign (Bolton’s story) or Trump “asked John for his resignation” (as Trump tweeted).

OP-ED: Bipartisan tax incentive opens door to opportunity in York

The passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Action created 8,700 “Opportunity Zones” across the country and ever since then no economic development tool has received more attention than these federal tax incentives aimed at driving private capital to struggling communities.

EDITORIAL: Penn State-Pitt rivalry in limbo

After Saturday's game, there are no plans to renew the football rivalry between Penn State and Pitt.

OP-ED: Continuing to help those with the disease of addiction

We know there isn’t a city, town or borough in the commonwealth, or in the nation, left untouched by the opioid epidemic. We know that this epidemic is an equal opportunity disease — there is no gender, race, ethnicity, income bracket or education level left untouched by this disease. In the process

OP-ED: Ebola is raging again — and the U.S. is not ready

Five years ago, the Ebola virus broke through inadequate public health systems in West Africa and spread throughout the world. America was lucky. Only a few cases traveled here, but the U.S. government also did not respond as we had reason to expect.

OP-ED: The ongoing tragedy of Sept. 11

Sept. 11, 2001, will always be recognized as a day of tribulation in the United States. Some 3,000 people lost their lives in multiple terrorist attacks, the largest one being the fall of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City. Thousands of first responders and civilians risked their

OP-ED: Slave labor in the modern era

The prospect is appealing: work your own hours, be your own boss, choose your assignments. Who wouldn’t want that? But reports from Uber and Lyft drivers suggest that the glittering prospect is deceptive and that many drivers make roughly what fast-food workers make.

OP-ED: When talking to your doctor about care, cost should be part of conversation

For three decades I’ve worked with people who are aging or chronically ill, helping them figure out how the heck they are going to pay for old age or serious illness. One of the issues that’s gotten markedly worse during this time is financial toxicity.

OP-ED: What would you have done?

As a former history major, I often reference our past to explain the importance of our founding principles.  At times, I’ve been criticized for this by those who use 21st Century values to judge — and sometimes condemn — the 18th Century morality of our Founding Fathers.

EDITORIAL: GOP targeting its own voters

It's not just left-leaning voters that Republicans are willing to disenfranchise to maintain power. Now that challengers to President Donald Trump have begun to emerge from within his own party, at least four states are taking steps to cancel their 2020 GOP primaries and caucuses.

EDITORIAL: Measles makes a comeback

This is getting close to home.

OP-ED: U.S.-China trade war damage could last decades

When it comes to international trade, China hasn’t always played by the rules. So the question begs: How do you change that behavior? Engaging in a trade war by imposing tariffs isn’t ideal. To save face, Chinese President Xi Jinping must appear strong and that means responding to U.S. tariff increa

OP-ED: Treat the fentanyl crisis like a poisoning outbreak

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released drug overdose statistics for 2018, and they are shocking. Of the estimated 47,000 deaths from opioids last year, roughly two-thirds involved potent synthetic opioids, most of them fentanyl.

EDITORIAL: What is a good citizen?

If the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision bestowed personhood on corporations, it’s also fair to say these so-called fellow citizens are psychopathic, focused on making money but not at all concerned with how their greed affects others.

LETTER: ‘Frustrated, angry’ with REAL ID process

I think it's about time someone informs drivers in Pennsylvania about the "reality" of the REAL ID.

OP-ED: What we keep getting wrong about mass shootings

There is a special kind of stupidity that approaches terrible and repeating problems with an obstinate assurance of what the answer will or won’t be.

EDITORIAL: PSU must be transparent during suit

A former football team doctor filed a lawsuit against Penn State and head coach James Franklin. The doctor had safety concerns for the players.

OP-ED: Enact Phillip’s Law to save lives

In a Pennsylvania where our children have the mental health resources they need, Phillip Spruill Jr. would be entering sixth grade this school year.

OP-ED: Hurricanes: Times have changed

As I write, Dorian, a formidable Category 5 hurricane, is slowly approaching Florida’s east coast; by the time you read this, you will probably know whether Dorian hit Florida or whether it skewed north for a l

OP-ED: Making York County safer by collaborating on complex issues in criminal justice

Last month on the floor of the House of Representatives, Congressman Lloyd Smucker recognized York County as one of the leading counties in the nation for boldly addressing the heroin epidemic on all fronts.

EDITORIAL: Latest Trump salvo targets fair housing

If corporations, as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney famously insisted, really are people, they’re about the only people the Trump administration is interested in assisting.