I’m going to begin my first column of the year with my thoughts and prayers not only for those victimized by terror in New Orleans but for all dealing with the senseless violence seen across our Nation. This is a problem that will need all of us to come together to prevent future tragedies. We
READ MOREI generally attend the weekly Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting and sit in the back with my other local press colleagues. I truly appreciate how objectively honest these journalists are. Their columns are straight up and accurate. It seems like a lifetime ago when newspapers simply told what happened, and the editorial page would be the
READ MOREI was in Moscow in August 1991 with my wife and three children, and after a two-hour wait, we finally were able to get into McDonalds, which had just opened four months before, the first one in Russia. While we were enjoying our Big Macs, my oldest son, David, looked out the window and remarked
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The Williamsport City Jazz Orchestra presents their popular annual Holiday Jazz concert on Friday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Trachte Music Center at Lycoming College. Tickets are $20 available at the door, and students with ID are free. Back by popular demand, the WCJO returns to the Deane Center in Wellsboro on Saturday, December
READ MOREJames Buchanan Jr. was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. Historians and scholars generally rank Buchanan as the worst president in American history. Unfortunately, he was also the only president to come from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But I believe his rank will change as historians assess the full
READ MORETis the season, folks, and instead of sharing a story on sports, I’d like to chime in on something far more important. Yes, it’s time to talk about The Elf on the Shelf. For those of you without young children, this article might help explain that creepy little butthead now flooding your social media pages.
READ MOREOh, by gosh, by jingle; it’s time for carols and Kris Kringle… … plus car rides and complaining kids! Yes, it’s that time of year … when so many folks head over the river and through the woods … on very long trips to grandmother’s house. And as in 2023, Webb’s resident book-lover herewith suggests
READ MOREBy Joseph W. Smith III This year’s annual holiday concert by the Repasz Band features a sleigh-full of seasonal songs: old and new; traditional and modern; quiet and rambunctious; hymns, carols, medleys and pop tunes — with a little bit of Batman and a bit more Walt Disney. Now nearing its 200th anniversary in 2031
READ MOREAs I watched Channel 16 to begin my Friday morning after the election, there was a rock concert going on with Joe Snedeker in the backyard. This made possible by the fact they didn’t have to fill half the airtime with political commercials. Thank goodness this is finally over. I have Penn State blue and
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Special thanks to those who supported my efforts. I decided to throw my hat into the ring at the very last minute. I was tired of the division — all of the hatred. The plethora of television advertisements made me cry. Then came all of the phone calls, random texts, and spam. You seriously can’t
READ MOREI have been following politics since my teen years in the 1960s, and I thought it was crazy then. Nothing has been more crazy, weird, bizarre, and just plain stupid than this past presidential election. The Second Coming of Trump is certainly getting the attention, but there are casualties that are worth looking at. We
READ MOREWhen Donald Trump won back the Presidency in this past election, most people probably thought that this was the first time that this historic feat had been accomplished, but they would be wrong. This remarkable feat was accomplished one other time, 130 years ago, by Grover Cleveland, who became the 22nd and 24th President after
READ MOREAfter teaching leadership for education, business, and political officials in Europe and Asia for a number of years, I compiled my program into a book in 2006 entitled, Ideal Leadership: Time for a Change. Ironically, Barack Obama was running for president and used “Change” as his campaign focus. Many thought I was piggybacking on Obama,
READ MOREThis wasn’t how my column was to begin this week, but as I drove into work this past Friday, my Father and Chris Downs were on my mind. It was on October 25th — my dad left us 12 years ago, which is hard to believe in so many ways. A day doesn’t go by
READ MOREMercifully, the long, contentious Presidential election contest is winding down, but it might be interesting to look back and see how Lycoming County has voted in previous Presidential elections. Webb Weekly has researched how Lycoming County has voted in Presidential races since 1860. We have found that the Republican Presidential candidate carried this county in
READ MOREWhen a potential presidential candidate chooses a vice president as their running mate, they have to select one that they know has a good record, is articulate, especially on difficult issues, and has leadership characteristics that would be needed just in case something tragic happens and the vice president has to take over. Arguably, this
READ MOREWith just a few more weeks to go, the every-four-year, mind-numbing marathon known as the United States presidential campaign will (hopefully) reach its conclusion. American presidential election campaigns are much longer than in other countries. Many nations have laws on the books that strictly curtail how long campaigns can be conducted. But in the good
READ MOREFor those of you who might skip my column this week because I’m writing about sports, there’s a message in here for most everybody. Actually, there may be more than one when it comes to those who want to use athletic competition as a hot button to divide the American people. As I was watching
READ MOREAs I noted in this column two weeks ago, polls are about as reliable as palm readers. One thing that appears to be true, however, is that the Keystone State will be the key to whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump becomes president of the United States. The popular vote is interesting, but it has
READ MOREThe history of polling in national elections has a troubled history. Presidential polling started back in 1936 with the Literary Digest, a national magazine of the time, which sent out to their 10 million patrons a “straw” ballot asking them who they planned on voting for in the 1936 presidential election. Some two and half
READ MOREAs the cover date reads 9/11, I want to begin this week with my thoughts and prayers for the families and all those affected by the tragic events of 9/11. The number of Americans lost that day continues to climb as a result of the toxic dust breathed in on-site. The 9/11 Memorial Ride, my
READ MOREGiven that the Kennedy assassination has been deeply debated and discussed for 61 years now, we should not expect that after just seven weeks, we would know how and why on July 13th, at an open-air campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year young man named Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Republican candidate for
READ MOREThe exciting “Vibe Campaign” of Vice President Kamala Harris was best outed by the popular author and columnist Mark Steyn when he identified it as the “Vibe as Veil Campaign” because it did not seem to have anything behind it. All of her speeches centered around the dangerous, no-good, very bad former President Donald Trump.
READ MOREWell, the only thing hotter than the month of July was the madness we witnessed in the world. I left off last week talking about common sense; I’m going to pick back up right there. Please remember, if you missed my column or just enjoy reading online, every issue of our publication can be found
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A few weeks ago, we had just come home from the river, unpacked our things, and were grabbing showers before our Sunday night tradition of nachos, cheese, and ice cream in the living room while watching our favorite shows. Kenzy came running inside, all excited. “Mommmmmmaaaaa!! Look what I found!” she exclaimed. She had this
READ MOREIn our time, there have been several transformational elections: John F. Kennedy over Richard Nixon in 1960, Ronald Reagan’s victory over President Jimmy Carter in 1980, Barack Obama’s triumph in 2008, and Donald Trump’s shocking victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. These were the ones in our era that significantly changed the direction of the
READ MOREAfter the events I witnessed last week, I felt compelled to focus on a couple of things that were discussed everywhere. Topics that I feel strongly about and try to provide each week within our pages. First up, we are all on God’s time. The expression that we are all day-to-day is one I commonly
READ MOREThe picture of Donald Trump’s fist in the air and the blood on his face moments after the assassination attempt on him has already become an iconic symbol that will be seen for generations to come. Some have even gone so far as to believe that it may go down in history, like the raising
READ MOREPresident Biden may have tipped his hand with some of his comments last week. The President, under increasing pressure from his own party and those who support the democratic effort, has been blatantly defiant that he will remain in the race. Before I get to my thoughts on where that’s heading, I’d like to give
READ MOREBefore I get to another issue involving age, I have a joyous occasion to begin this week: Happy 80th birthday to my stepmother, Carol. This from Billy, Jodi, Brian, Morgan, and our entire families. Wow, that is hard to believe. As is so often said, it seems like only yesterday. We all wish you great
READ MOREIn my entire life of following political matters, I do not believe I have ever seen a period of time where federal, state, and local government entities each encountered historical events at the same time. At the federal level, it has been in two areas: the presidential race and Supreme Court decisions. In state government,
READ MOREJersey Shore band, The Cadillac Cats, and solo artist Shippensburg resident, Nick Andrew Staver have been selected the winners of the BBA’s Annual Audition Concert. Both winners will appear on Saturday June 22nd. Both winners are now eligible to participate in the International Blues Challenge in early January 2025 in Memphis TN. The 34th Annual
READ MOREDecades from now, researchers will be trying to figure out how the United States went so far off the rails in the mid-2020s. Without any doubt, we are living in historic times. Never in two and a half centuries of our democracy has one party denigrated an opposing person from the opposite party as the
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