As we clear the Thanksgiving leftovers out of our refrigerators and head toward Christmas, the American mood right now is probably more “bah, humbug,” than “goodwill to men!”

For months, but what to most Americans might seem like years, the word “infrastructure” has been running a close second to “COVID-19” and its horrible toll of sickness and death.

Jeers: When Richard Bower Jr., the son of Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower Sr., was in a wrong-way crash in August and DUI charges were filed, the elder Bower appointed a special prosecutor to handle the case. But after DUI charges were withdrawn against the younger Bower last …

Many families here and in most other parts of the United States are returning to their traditional Thanksgiving celebrations today, buoyed by vaccine-based cautious optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is over.

South Fayette and Collier townships and Bridgeville have filed suit against PennDOT to stop the tolling of the I-79 bridge at the Bridgeville exchange. They have a solid case.

Respect and decency were in short supply during an Oct. 28 game between the Armstrong River Hawks and Mars Fightin’ Planets at the Armstrong team’s Belmont Ice Arena near Kittanning. And, that short supply was not due to animosities between players on the two teams, but instead the “audacity” of the Mars team to have a female goalie.

Cheers: CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Greene County and Loved Again Charities, are partnering again for their second annual Children’s Winter Coat and Gear Drive. Representatives from both agencies are asking residents to donate new and gently used coats, boots, gloves, hats an…

Scranton Times-Tribune

Cheers: The Tri-County Leathernecks Association in Greene County is once again gearing up for its 41st annual Christmas toy drive. The initiative, which consists of collecting and distributing toys to area children during the holiday season, has been a major success for many years, enabling …

This year’s round of redistricting – the work of shaping the political maps that help to determine the lawmakers who represent us in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. – once again “falls to a small group of legislative insiders who work behind closed doors,” Spotlight PA’s Kate Huangpu reported recently. This comes despite the fact that this year’s redrawing of the maps “was preceded by an intense push for more public input, as well as a failed effort to take the power out of lawmakers’ hands and give it to an independent citizens commission,” Huangpu wrote. And it comes at a moment when state lawmakers have promised, but are not ultimately bound to, greater transparency. Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

York Daily Record

A proposal by Gov. Tom Wolf to offer state employees time off if they get fully vaccinated is unlikely to work if recent studies are any indication. 

Cheers: Brownsville’s Jolena Quarzo and Ringgold’s Ryan Pajak won individual titles last week at the WPIAL Class AA Cross Country Championship. The gold was Quarzo’s second and Pajak’s first. Cheers also to Uniontown’s Hope Trimmer for winning bronze in the same classification. Kudos also go…

Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice

Scranton Times-Tribune

Cheers: The Laurel Highlands football team clinched a winning record for the first time in 25 years, qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2015 after defeating Trinity, 39-34, at Hiller Field last Friday night. Rodney Gallagher ran for 283 yards and five touchdowns and c…

Some days the world’s problems feel so big that we fixate on surviving them instead of solving them. No judgment. We’ve all been there.