County conventions leave May questions
Few primary battles were settled at either county convention
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
There was a little high drama at the two county party conventions, and in many ways the status quo was largely maintained.
There were just a handful of endorsement battles at the meetings — and maybe only one vote there changes the landscape for May.
We’ll get to the Democratic endorsements, which amount...
Letter: Fracking ruling restores power to locals
To The Editor,
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected Tom Corbett’s request to reverse the Act 13 decision, which struck down key provisions in the natural gas drilling laws as unconstitutional.
Locally, Newlin Township, the little township that could, stood up, fought back and won in 2012 when these provisions of Act 13 were first struck down. Now all of Pennsylvania has won because of the...
Letter: Bullying must stop in Unionville-Chadds Ford
To The Editor:
The public meeting of the UCF School Board last Tuesday started with a wonderful announcement that 12 of our students had qualified as National Merit finalists.
This joy quickly faded to disgust when a father of a sixth grade student legally attending Patton Middle School rose to address the Board about the bullying his son has experienced for sometime with no corrective action being...
Pennsylvania deserves better than Kick-The-Can
To The Editor,
We have a pension crisis in Pennsylvania. It was created by Governor Ridge and the legislature, when the passed Act 9 of 2001, then kicked down the road by Governor Rendell and the legislature for the 8 years that he was in office. In 2011 the pension crisis was addressed by Act 120, a balanced bipartisan solution to a long-term problem that moves the state toward paying off the bill.
...
Op/Ed: Commissioners praise county workers for storm efforts
By Ryan Costello, Kathi Cozzone, & Terence Farrell, Chester County Commissioners
Chester County Commissioners (from left) Kathi Cozzone, Terence Farrell and Ryan Costello.
Chester County’s winter weather certainly qualified as an extreme emergency this year. Residents endured multiple huge snow storms and devastating ice storms that made county roads dangerous. Schools and businesses were closed...
Plot thickens in 6th District race
Can populism change the math in the 16th District race?
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
The race for the Sixth Congressional District got more interesting this week on a couple of fronts.
First, Manan Trivedi, who ran unsuccessfully against Jim Gerlach in 2010 and 2012, announced he would run again. Then, Mike Parrish, the other Democrat in the race, got the endorsement of U.S. Rep. (and Philly political...
Letter: UCF board members naive
To The Editor:
I was astonished with the lack of knowledge of some Board members on what is happening in the district as demonstrated in their criticism of my letter dated Jan. 19, 2014. As always I did my homework and the letter of the 19th is based on fact I never consider rumors.
There are at least two students illegally attending our schools from outside our district. Rumors abound that there are...
Ice storm aftermath: the good, the bad and the unacceptable
Chester County Emergency Services stands out for praise, PECO gets hit on many fronts
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
For most of us, the worst is over. As of Monday morning, just about 10,000 Chester County homes and businesses were still without power, according to PECO, down from about 200,000 Wednesday — while others wait for restoration of phone and Internet service from Verizon and Comcast.
Schools...
Op/Ed: New citizens embrace the spirit of United States citizenship
By Terence Farrell, Chester County Commissioner
Terence Farrell, Chester County Commissioner with U. S. District Court Judge Juan Sanchez, a former Chester County Court of Common Pleas judge.
The Chester County Commissioners’ meetings always begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge was composed in 1892 by Francis Bellamy and adopted by Congress in 1942, the dark days of World War II.
We take...
Op/Ed: CVS creates public health game-changer