Letter: thanks Pitts for recommending Healthcare.gov

To The Editor, Thank you, Congressman Pitts, for recommending HealthCare.gov! Our Congressman Joe Pitts has been an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and so I was wondering what he would advise a constituent who did not have health insurance. So I emailed him through his website and asked this question: ‘I do not have health insurance and I want to get it. I do not want...

Ellison is out and so is the Tea Party

One — the former Democratic power-broker — knows he’s done, the other is oblivious By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times As we head into the holiday season — and hopefully, a couple of weeks of relative quiet — a few notes and thoughts on local political stuff and other news items. Maybe the topline item this morning is that James Ellison is out at Rhoads & Sinon — meaning he will...

Roundtable on poverty a start, but more is needed

Until there is a collective will to really address poverty, things won’t get better By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times COATESVILLE — With wealth bordering on abundance at times in Chester County, it can be difficult to confront the truth that for many here — arguably far too many — poverty remains a stark reality and a reality that in recent years has gotten worse. This past week, six...

Letter: Supports anti-human trafficking bill

To The Editor: Human trafficking doesn’t happen only “somewhere else.” “You don’t mean here, right?” I hear that question more than 100 hundred times per year in conversations about human trafficking, modern slavery and sex trafficking in southeastern Pennsylvania—especially in the beautiful, well-off suburbs and countryside surrounding Philadelphia. My answer is always the same....

Letter: concerns about link between pollution and cancer

To The Editor, I have four daughters, all young adults now. But I still worry about their health and well-being as much as I did when they were living at home with me.  Lately I have heard much about an alarming increase in the number of women diagnosed with lung disease.  According to the American Lung Association, the rate of newly diagnosed lung cancer cases over the past 33 years has dropped...

Op/Ed: The Joe Pitts government shutdown

By Tom Houghton, Special to The Times Tom Houghton As a parent, husband, self-employed attorney, former township supervisor and state representative, I watched with dismay as our Washington representative, Joe Pitts, was the only representative in southeastern Pennsylvania, who supported the recent government shutdown. Whatever you think about the new healthcare law (ACA or “Obamacare”), shutting...

Op/Ed: Radon – is your home raising your lung cancer risk?

By Harold P. Wimmer, American Lung Association Harold P. Wimmer Mention radon to most people, and you’ll get a blank stare.  But mention lung cancer, and you’ve got their attention! Most people don’t know that exposure to radon, an invisible odorless gas, is the leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Pennsylvania is recognized as having a very high risk of radon, so we at the American...

Op/Ed: Supportive service for Veterans’ families

  “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”                                                                                                                                                                               ...

Political news and notes: 2014 legislative races kicking off

Final write-in results show poor turnout, participation in 2013 By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times The political news cycle never seems to end these days, on the heels of the final write-in election results being posted Friday, we have a batch of new candidate announcements or pending announcements in 2014 state legislative races — and even, it seems — an early hint about a 2016 race. First...

Letter: Join the fight for clean air

To The Editor, The World Health Organization recently labeled outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic, thereby confirming something I’ve always believed… air pollution contributes to lung disease. Now as I watch my children play outside, I have to wonder… How clean is the air they are breathing?  And, as scary as it is, I’m afraid I know the answer… not very. My mother suffers from COPD,...