It took Oxford 40 years to catch up with Cambridge in appointing a woman vice-chancellor, but Louise Richardson — ex-St Andrews, Irish, Catholic, terrorism expert — is to take over from the chemist Andrew Hamilton. He is leaving early to head New York University for an eye-watering £950,000 a year. His successor will inherit a […]

There is ongoing debate in our commonwealth and nation about open and closed primaries. It always heats up as we near a presidential primary season. Pennsylvania is a closed-primary state, meaning only those voters registered as either Republicans or Democrats may vote to select their party’s nominees for the general election. In states with open […]

The other day, I was trying to persuade a political friend of the urgency of doing something to save Palmyra. To be fair to him he understood the horror of what could happen in the next few days. My friend had never been to the ancient city, so I tried to evoke the glory of […]

Yes, Pennsylvania, there is a pension crisis. No amount of political rhetoric can alter the fact that years of hefty benefit increases, fund losses and negligent underfunding have left the state’s two largest pension funds–covering both teachers and other state workers–in a huge budget hole. The $27 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System and $51.7 […]

In our form of democracy, good ideas are discussed over and over across the years with little evidence of progress. Over the last two legislative sessions, measures to reduce the size of the General Assembly passed the House but died due to inaction in the State Senate. Perhaps this will be the year that change […]

What Would Nixon Do? Think he’d for a moment allow a terrorist state to build a nuclear weapon? Your humble servant had the great privilege of being a speechwriter and lawyer for Richard Nixon in the last year of his presidency, 1973-74. I am well aware that he was forced from office and that the […]

You may read about them in the newspaper or see them along local roads, plowing snow in the winter or patching potholes in the spring. They’re your township supervisors and staff, and while you may not know them personally, these public servants show up each and every day with one goal in mind: to build […]

701 years ago, on March 18th, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was burned at the stake in France. As he died, Jacques de Molay cursed the French king who had betrayed him, and whose own dynasty collapsed fourteen years later. That didn’t help de Molay, whose order was exterminated as a road […]

America’s 44th president, Barack Obama, has asked Congress to authorize the use of force against the Islamic State—ISIS. The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is a distinctive variety of Islam with strong beliefs about mankind’s path to the Day of Judgment. In his State of the Union address, […]

A pipeline company has proposed to build a north-south natural gas pipeline through Lancaster County, and while opposition to the pipeline has been raised, it is important to realize how infrastructure investment in domestic sources of energy would help our nation by keeping energy prices low, reducing pollution, and ending a major cause of foreign […]