EDITORIAL: How could a 6-year-old gain access to a firearm?

Our institutions of higher education are not exactly stepping up during this moment of generational change. At a minimum, these institutions are not keeping up and, at worst, they are failing us altogether.

It’s great news that the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin survived after suffering a near-death experience from cardiac arrest, but the NFL injury report from any given Sunday underscores the violence that consumes football and can leave players with a lifetime of debilitating injuries.

Let’s fast forward to this past fall.

Cause and effect can be a real mystery.

Naturalization ceremonies are inherently patriotic. People enter the courtroom, convention center or stadium as noncitizens and leave with a certificate of naturalization declaring them citizens of the United States of America. Many bring their entire families to share with them the honor of…

For decades, a report from the nation’s top doctor — the U.S. surgeon general — has been an influential call to action.

Shutting down the border or stopping all asylum claims is ludicrous, immoral and illegal. But so is accepting chaos and official inaction It’s up to the federal government to effectively manage the population movement, ensuring an asylum evaluation process that is both complete and efficient.

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The one part of Speaker Vote Week that received rave reviews was C-SPAN’s wall-to-wall coverage, with cameras showing live scenes of lawmakers interacting on the House floor.

Perhaps not since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have the spacious skies over America been as empty as they were earlier this month when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all domestic flights grounded over a computer malfunction.

No one was expecting a buddy moment when Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott met President Joe Biden at the tarmac for the Democrat’s high-stakes border visit. Yet, it’s sad and telling that a hostile letter that Abbott delivered to Biden after shaking hands is seemingly the bulk of their comm…

The U.S. can be a quite self-centered nation. Americans witnessed it during the multiday saga on the floor of the House of Representatives, as Republican lawmakers fought among themselves over who deserved the speakership. Kevin McCarthy eventually claimed the gavel on the 15th vote .

If the border always looked like it did when President Joe Biden visited, he wouldn’t have needed to make the trip.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently called the challenge the city is facing in serving an influx of migrants a crisis created by the Republican governor of Texas.

Editor,

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission takes a lot of flak, especially at this time of year.

One of the many problems with having former President Donald Trump around is that it becomes extremely difficult to assess normal misbehavior. It’s a significant reminder of how Trump continues to corrupt the nation’s politics.

After months of bashing the Department of Justice for going after the former president, Republicans are welcoming an investigation into the current one.

Shock. Anger. Sorrow. Outrage.

Pennsylvania’s 500 school boards regularly prove that it’s overly optimistic to take nine people off the street, put them in a room, and expect them to run enterprises that spend more than $33 billion a year in local, state and federal money.

One of the assets that we have here in Venango County is our name. Venango is a mis-transcription of an old Native American word, so it’s impossible for the name to turn up anywhere without some connection to northwestern Pennsylvania.

Through a phenomenon called “linked fate,” small or marginalized groups tend to vote more as a unit rather than as individuals, assuming that without doing so they might not have a loud enough voice in the political system.

Members of the state House of Representatives accomplished something that, as of this writing, has eluded their federal counterparts: electing a leader for their chamber.

Another Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday has just passed, and our nation has much to celebrate as we strive toward MLK’s dream of a colorblind society.

Editor,

Speeches never matter much, except when they do.

“Government” and “ineptitude” are two words forever joined at the hip. The latest example is a doozy.

Streaming’s latest hit show, “McCarthy Agonistes,” ended its five-day run, but the protracted vote for speaker of the House highlighted one unexpected, yet welcome, facet of the Republican Party: actual diversity — and not just of the ideological variety.

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In the fiscal year that ended in September, people from around the world chose the United States. At about 970,000 naturalizations, it was the third highest year on record for immigrants becoming American citizens.

The various “political correctness” scandals on college campuses, such as a group at Stanford University recommending against the use of the words “American” and “immigrant,” get a lot of headlines. But there are more gradual, less visible changes that also contribute to the declining status…

We have not known anyone who publicly attacked a loved one while in their 30s to still think that was their finest hour many years later. But we know plenty who rue that day.

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Editor,

Gov. Tom Wolf is about to close out his two-term tenure. It’s been quite a ride.

Last month, nuclear fusion topped headlines around the world when scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced an essential milestone in developing this nascent technology.

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It is “still decades and hundreds of billions of dollars away.”

All too many former inmates end up breaking the law after they are released from prison, and many end up being locked up again.