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Online safety for youth starts within the home

Every year around this time, parents are focusing on having their children ready for another day of school. This year, I hope families will spend a little time preparing for something else: The online world their children enter every day. For many students, social media is as much a part of life as it is the classroom. It allows them to stay connected with friends and share experiences, but it also creates opportunities for cyberbullying, exploitation, and abuse. Not only do smartphones and apps cause issues with attention and focus in the classroom, – which I seek to address with my ...

A day at Betts Industries: “Doing what’s best”

Betts Industries in Warren is celebrating 125 years of manufacturing. When I read that they were hosting an open house, I was intrigued. And boy, what a story they have to share. All I knew was that Betts made truck valves for tankers. Dear Richard and I decided to take the company ...

County failing Tidioute in water crisis

Warren County is a generous community. When disaster strikes another state or hardship affects people across the country or overseas, our residents collect supplies, donate money, and look for ways to help. Yet here at home, residents of Tidioute have been living without dependable potable water from their taps for months. The boil-water advisory began March 18 and has now been extended to Noc. 1. If it continues until then, Tidioute residents will have spent 228 days boiling water for drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth, and preparing food. Imagine living with that burden ...

Treasure today here, plan for next generations

There is something about Warren County that is easy to overlook when you live here long enough. The hills become familiar. The Allegheny River becomes part of the landscape we hardly notice. The farms, forests, old homes, small businesses, churches and back roads become ordinary. But perhaps ordinary is the wrong word. There is nothing ordinary about a place that has held generations of people's lives. People were born here, worked here, raised families here, worshiped here, struggled here, loved here and eventually were laid to rest here. We are not simply living in Warren County. ...

They came from away

A few years ago, I saw the Broadway production of “Come From Away.” The much-loved musical play tells the story of what happened in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland on that most tragic of days, September 11, 2001. Almost immediately after the tragedies, American airspace was ...

River plans can’t forget the fishermen

I’ve wondered for a long time about the difficulties of fishing from the bank in Warren County, compared to using a boat in the river. The Allegheny River is surely one of the best rivers in Pennsylvania for such a challenging sport. I would like to say here, I’m not writing to ...