The loss of journalism hurts us all, but this one was personal
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
I was going to write a column for this week about how bad the state legislature is and how lousy the May referendum question is on the governor’s emergency powers, but to be honest, those are topics I could write about any time.
I’m a bit in a rush to get this done this week because I have to be out of town this weekend: a college friend and fellow...
Letter: Avondale Council needs to offer virtual option for meetings
To The Editor
We’ve all just been through a year that we never imagined possible. In addition to the pandemic, citizen participation in democracy and voter turnout are at record levels. The message is loud and clear: We, The People, want to be heard.
Unfortunately, most of the current Avondale Borough Council is not allowing that to happen.
Who among us has someone in our household...
Get over it: COVID passports are going to happen
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
On this Easter Sunday — one that feels a whole lot different than the one a year ago — there is both hope and fear.
We’re close. More than a third of the adult population of Pennsylvania, as of Saturday, has had at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, with thousands more happening daily. Just short of 2 million have had both shots. Supply, while...
Wolf, DOH rightly under fire for botched, unfair vaccine rollout
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
Depending on who you talk to, Pennsylvania’s vaccine program is either going swimmingly, or it is a bungled mess, with lower than the national average per capita of vaccine in arms, while the state Department of Health (DOH) is intentionally shortchanging the collar counties — the same counties that did the best job in containing the COVID-19 virus...
Better days are coming, hang in there
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
It’s not hard to see that the majority of frustration of folks around Chester County right now is difficulty in scheduling to get a COVID-19 vaccine — if you read social media, it’s everywhere and it is understandable. We’re hitting a wall, annoyed and tired of the pandemic and everything required to keep people safe.
It’s been a long year since...
A tale of two political parties
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
With apologies to Charles Dickens, it is a tale of two political parties.
In one party, a long-serving U.S. Senator is under attack for voting his conscience — the party rejecting the idea that said senator can hold a former President responsible for sparking an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The local county committee draws up a resolution condemning...
Taming the robber barons of the Internet: Facebook and Google
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
Let’s take a week off from politics and talk about….The Internet! (foreboding music plays).
Well, actually not the whole Internet (do not ask me about being a cat on Zoom, I have no clue — I consider Zoom to be an insecure platform and only use it very reluctantly to watch county commission meetings), just Facebook and Google, who are the two worst...
Wolf’s budget proposal is great…and dead on arrival
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
Gov. Tom Wolf introduced his 2021-22 budget, and I have to say it is audacious, ambitious and goes a long way to solve the root problems of much of what has plagued Pennsylvania for more than three decades.
It is also, sadly, deader than Elvis.
That says more about Pennsylvania and Republicans in the General Assembly than it does about Wolf. Not that...
Op/Ed: Candles and balloons
By Donna Bullock, State Representative, 195th District
State Rep. Donna Bullock
My older son celebrated his 13th birthday in January. We shared this moment virtually with family and friends. As I decorated his backdrop with balloons and he blew out candles on a cake, it hit me.
Something so innocent and joyful has been redefined by the growing number of gun deaths. A week before, a 9-year-old girl...
It’s time to stand up against GOP’s abusive relationship with America
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
If you grew up in an abusive household, as I did, the last four years probably seemed a lot like an echo of days gone past, but writ large.
The denial of truth, the gaslighting, the abusive behavior and the cruelty for the sake of cruelty are staples of an abusive relationship and, it seems to be mainstream Republican politics now. For years, I was told...
