There were big winners and losers this week, but perhaps the most important victory goes to the alternative media outlets who do not succumb to being the mouthpiece for a particular political party. Even the mainstream media outlets are acknowledging they have a problem. Brian Stetler of CNN wrote the […]
Christine Flowers: My new best friends
Like most Pennsylvanians with a cell phone, I was surprised at how popular I’d become over the past few months. It’s not that I’m a hermit. I have a healthy circle of friends. But in August, my phone started getting messages from people I must have met in the past, […]
Guy Ciarrocchi: McCormick is the leader Pennsylvania needs
The first time I met Dave McCormick was at a picnic in Downingtown in 2022. He arrived with his wife, Dina, and they were dressed in campaign casual attire. After some handshakes and smiles, he worked his way over to the food set up on picnic tables. He quickly grabbed […]
Thom Nickels: Philadelphia’s grande dame of the essay
In the heart of Center City Philadelphia there is a small graveyard alongside the church of Saint John the Evangelist. A careful reading of the headstones there will reveal the tomb of the Repplier family. How many Repplier family members are buried in this vault is a mystery because on […]
Kyle Sammin: Dave McCormick won. Bob Casey should not drag the state through a pointless recount.
The race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania was tight. The race between Dave McCormick and Bob Casey was even tighter. But at the end of the day, both Republicans were leading by an amount unlikely to be overturned. By this afternoon, that “unlikely” is becoming “impossible.” Casey’s […]
Jeff Hurvitz: Philadelphia’s bike path to obstruction
In 1682, when William Penn contracted with Surveyor General Thomas Holme to lay out Philadelphia’s grid streets, there was no clue that motorized vehicles would one day traverse those thoroughfares. For the 1,200 acre plot between the Delaware and Schuykill rivers, today’s center city area, the-then numbered and lettered streets were […]
Guy Ciarrocchi: Columns unwritten and ongoing issues for 2025
In this fast-paced, ever-changing election, with switching candidates, changing themes, fact-checkers who don’t really fact-check, world-events, rallies, fake news and fake transcripts, McDonald’s and garbage trucks…there are understandably columns that I didn’t get to finish. Notes on paper and my iPad, scribbled on the back on fliers, pizza boxes, and […]
John E. Coffey: Sorry, friend. I can’t come along on Tuesday.
I have the great opportunity and burden of being a Pennsylvania voter. But I am no longer a reliably partisan one. So old friends now assign me monikers like, “baffling” and “Devil’s middleman” in their correspondence. Some ask for an explanation. Here it is. Objections to my drift from the […]
David P. Hardy: Philadelphia teachers — like their students — want educational choice
Philadelphia schools recently adopted a new multimillion-dollar curriculum — and district teachers sound mad as hell about it. The School District of Philadelphia recently rolled out its $25 million English Language Arts (ELA) program for the 2024–25 school year. According to a recent article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, teachers have […]
Christine Flowers: Opinions — everybody has one
An opinion is like an appendix: everyone has one, it serves no particular purpose, most of the time it’s completely ignored and you only notice it when it’s removed. This is exactly what occurred to me when I observed the manufactured controversy involving Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post editorial […]