Op/Ed: Time to deliver justice

By Susan Rzucidlo, Candidate, State Representative, 158th District Susan Rzucidlo I am disappointed that the Republican House leadership in Harrisburg continues to fail to help victims of abuse. HB 832 and HB 878 as well as SB 1392, all bills focused on helping victims of past abuse find justice; all were left to die in committee. Recently, state Sen. Anthony Williams brought forward SB 46, a bill...

Op/Ed: An irresponsible budget

By Kathi Cozzone, Chester County Commissioner Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone I worked in the private sector at large and small companies, in various financial management roles, for about two decades before becoming a Chester County Commissioner.  During the Corbett administration, I have watched from afar as legislators and the Governor concocted one bad budget after another.  Previous...

Op/ED: SE GOP leaders back Corbett on pension fight

Editors Note: This op-ed was submitted by Patricia Poprik, Chair of the Bucks County Republican Committee; Valentino DiGiorgio, Chair of the Republican Committee of Chester County; Andrew Reilly, Chair of the Delaware County Republican Committee; Mike Vereb, Chair of the Montgomery County Republican Committee; and John Taylor, Chair of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee; Michael Meehan,...

Corbett faces trouble from his own party

Legislators annoyed by, but not scared by, Gov.’s budget line-item veto By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Yogi Berra, the baseball legend and armchair philosopher once said, “when you get to a fork in the road, take it.” Based on his action last week, Gov. Tom Corbett appears not to have taken this sage advice — and crashed right into the Burma Shave billboard located at the fork in...

Will Corbett stand up to the legislature on pensions?

How the governor plays this issue could decide the Nov. elections By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times A wise attorney once told me, “never ask a question in court if you don’t know what the answer will be.” It appears that Gov. Tom Corbett failed to adhere to that maxim when he hinted he would not sign the new $29.1 billion state budget passed by both houses of the legislature — unless the...

Bad state budget could wipe out Corbett and local legislators

If House plan is the final budget, GOP could face electoral doom in November By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times It looks like Gov. Tom Corbett could be winning his budget battle, but could be losing the war — and maybe a handful of state legislative seats in Chester County. We may have a better sense how bad the mess will be once a state budget is passed, maybe even by Monday. The House of Representatives...

Unionville says feds are out to lunch. Good.

It’s high time local government and school boards pushed back on state and federal overreach By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times There’s a little bit of revolution brewing in Unionville. And it’s a good thing. In case you missed it, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Board of Education voted last week to withdraw Unionville High School from the National School Lunch Program. While...

Op/Ed: Time to fix Special Ed. funding

It’s time for a funding system based on actual needs By Lisa Lightner, Special to The Times Lisa Lightner, as seen with her special needs son at The White House, recently. The time is now to reform Pennsylvania’s special education funding Based on broad, bi-partisan support, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has introduced companion special education funding reform bills: HB 2138 and...

Primary aftermath: Dinniman comes out the big winner

The state senator was not on the ballots, but he emerged as county’s top Democrat By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times While most primary elections in non-presidential years are kind of ho-hum events, Tuesday’s elections turned out to be more revealing than expected, and at minimum give us some hint of what is to come in November. Not shockingly, turnout was lousy, especially on the Republican...

Coatesville resident addresses state lawmakers

Debbie Willett (second from left) is joined in Harrisburg by Karen Brenneman (from left), former director of the Family Outreach Program at Child and Family Focus, Inc., a nonprofit advocacy agency; Rep. Tim Hennessey, who invited Willett to speak; and Deb McKinley, a grandparent from the support group. Debbie Willett, who runs a GrandFamilies support group in Chester County, spoke in Harrisburg...