Ignore the anti maskers — masks are the best way to keep kids safe in school
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
All around the county local school boards have had to wrestle with the topic of requiring masks for students and staff.
Honestly, with the Delta variant of COVID-19, it really shouldn’t have been a tough decision.
Enter willfully misinformed (or just flat out lying) residents making any number of false claims about masks: they cut oxygen (they don’t...
Op/Ed: Gerrymandering cheats voters
By Mike Hays, Special to The Times
Mike Hays
One of the most abhorrent and undemocratic things about gerrymandering is how it stifles competition. As a new teacher in Pennsylvania, I have been thinking about how I might explain gerrymandering to my 8th grade class.
Full disclosure: I am not an innocent bystander, having run for the PA House 26th District in 2012 as an underfunded, yet determined, 32-year-old...
The lies that kill
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
The lies are killing people.
Thankfully, the open deception about COVID-19 has been of limited impact here in Chester County, save the odd spittle-flecked angry email or comment claiming the virus is fake, masking is a plot against freedom, the election was rigged and that Donald Trump would be reinstated on Aug. 13.
None of that is true, of course, but...
As the Big Lie unravels, the PA GOP looks pretty bad
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
We might just be at a tipping point when it comes to The Big Lie.
Never mind the facts that Donald Trump lost the national race by somewhere around seven million votes and lost a solid margin in the Electoral College. And forget for a second, that Trump lost Pennsylvania to Joe Biden by about 80,000 votes in an election that has had multiple checks and...
Rage machine wants to use ‘CRT’ to whitewash local, national history
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting for the Downingtown Area School District was a bit different than usual — the Fox News-driven Critical Race Theory (CRT) had parents with varying positions expressing their opinion deep into the evening.
The problem is this: in Downingtown and every other school district in Chester County, not one teacher...
Letter: RGGI- It’s not too late
To The Editor,
Climate change is one of the greatest threats we face. We‘re already seeing the effects here in Pennsylvania, like stronger storms and more flooding. I personally have seen severe flooding in the Upper East Branch Brandywine Creek last year, when fifty refrigerator-size Styrofoam blocks floated down the creek from a go-kart track, and again last month when the blocks had to be...
Mastriano’s ‘fraudit’ attempt is nothing more than an expensive embarrassment
By Mike McGann, Editor, the Times @mikemcgannpa
State Sen. Doug Mastriano is a lot of things.
An honest elected official trying to protect the vote is not one of them, however.
As proven by his stunt this week to “audit” three counties, Tioga, York and Philadelphia Mastriano is trying to claim there was some sort of voter fraud in 2020 that caused Joe Biden to win Pennsylvania in the presidential...
Op/Ed: Defunding public schools is the goal
By Lisa Longo, Special To The Times
Lisa Longo
I’ve been following the hysteria being created by right-wing media over “Critical Race Theory” and how it has now devolved into the Republican Party calling for an army of the uninformed, or misinformed, to show up at school board meetings to protest a curriculum that doesn’t exist.
Now they have told people that “CRT,” as it is being called,...
Op/Ed: More progress needed From a Delaware Valley neighbor powering our lives
By Danielle Friel Otten, Special To The Times
State Rep. Danielle Friel Otten
When summer heat waves hit, you want to know that the power for your air conditioning will be there when you need it. The folks in charge of making that happen — for us in Chester County and for households as far away as Illinois and North Carolina — work right nearby at PJM Interconnection, headquartered in Valley...
Rabid GOP now feeding on their own