The new map is here! And it’s probably doomed
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Those of you old enough to remember Steve Martin’s film tour de force (yes, tongue in cheek), The Jerk, may remember the scene when his character runs about shouting “The new phonebook is here! The new phonebook is here!” might find the Pennsylvania GOP’s dump of a new Congressional map Friday night a bit of deja vu.
Those of you too young to remember The Jerk...
Op/Ed: The wrong people are in jail
By Kathi Cozzone, Chester County Commissioner
Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone
If your child or spouse or parent had a mental illness, addiction or developmental disability, would you want them in jail or somewhere that could help them get better?
County jails and taxpayers dollars are increasingly being used to detain pre-trial offenders and house inmates who suffer from such issues; the...
Students questioning mascot should learn their history
To The Editor,
The Unionville-Chadds Ford students who are advocating the removal of our Indian Mascot are showing their historic ignorance and possibly their bigotry. The Lenape Indians lived in our region long before European immigrants arrived and slowly, mainly peacefully, push their Indian neighbors to the west. The last Lenape Indian, Indian Hannah, in the region died in 1802.
...
Sometimes real life means more than politics
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Hello from the Coastal Bend of Southeast Texas — which hopefully will be the home of the new Times’ Texas bureau — where folks are bit more concerned about real life and less about politics and the political silliness that comes from places such as Washington or Harrisburg or Austin.
Here, folks are about one thing: recovery. When Hurricane...
Unionville mascot discussion a worthy topic
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Let me be the first to say, good for the students of Unionville High School.
Let me also say, some of the adults need to cool it, too.
The students created and led an Identity Council to start to have discussions about the school’s Indian name and mascot. As I’ve noted to school officials over the years, it is inevitable that at some point, the name and iconography...
Happy New Year! Surf’s up, baby!
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Happy 2018! Who’s got their surfboards ready?
Because, yeah, it is becoming increasingly likely that our friends in the Republican Party might not just be facing a wave, but rather a tsunami.
But before you rush out and scream “that dirty so-and-so Trump” (as apparently so many West Wing staffers seem to do daily, per Michael Wolff’s controversial new book),...
Russians and Americans
By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times
Governments and their people are not the same thing. That’s what Americans spending time abroad were saying to French friends in the 1960s, when the US was taking the disastrous step of picking up France’s colonial wars in the former Indochina. And it’s still true today. Let’s hope Europeans, including Russians, realize our government...
An, um, interesting year comes to a close
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
To say that 2017 has been an interesting year is something of an understatement.
From that standpoint, it has been one of the most amazing years to be in journalism — a dynamic year with no shortage of compelling stories and subject matter.
It has also been one of the most challenging — probably the most challenging year in the 34 years I have been in the business.
...
Op/Ed: Sen. Leach is missing the point
By Kathi Cozzone, Chester County Commissioner
Kathi Cozzone
Once again, courageous women have come forward to describe their painful experiences at the hand of a man in power and once again they are re-victimized by his response. After an extensively investigated article in the Philadelphia Inquirer shares the stories of the women who were victims of unwanted advances, State Senator Daylin Leach...
EDITORIAL: Leach should withdraw, but not resign, yet
State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17).
We live in a time of reckoning for men (and some women) who have refused to see the appropriate boundaries of personal and professional behavior — and now state Sen. (and would-be Congresman) Daylin Leach (D-17) has been implicated in a deeply reported, multi-sourced story in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
The allegations — from 11 people — range from inappropriate...
