We tend to think of “federal workers” as those in Washington, D.C., making big money, having too many paid holidays and otherwise living the good life off our tax dollars.

Workers are simply not valued in this country. As a society, we place the corporate CEO on a pedestal while overlooking the contributions of those who work to ensure that company succeeds. It is workers who have executed the industrial and technology revolutions, built our infrastructure, te…

When it comes to abortion, leftists refuse to confront and address the ugly and brutal truth of their sordid convictions. In their callousness, they dismiss the innocent unborn American lives that are aborted as predestined.

Last month, President Trump signed into the law the First Step Act, federal prison reform legislation that was hailed on both sides of the political aisle as the most significant in a generation.

There wasn’t a lot of fanfare to go with it, but Pennsylvania took an important step this week toward reducing recidivism and driving down the amount that taxpayers spend on keeping their fellow citizens behind bars.

A little communication can go a long way.

Free access to naloxone has drawn the lion’s share of attention recently in the fight against heroin and opioid abuse in Pennsylvania, but there are many other developments that are having a positive influence in reversing this epidemic.

Now that he’s entering the US Senate as part of the majority party, Mitt Romney has real power. He also has some real problems with Donald Trump, which the former Massachusetts governor laid out in a buzzy op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday that trashed Trump’s handling of the preside…

James “Mad Dog” Mattis was a distinguished U.S. Marine Corps general, who was an exceptional choice by President Trump as Secretary of Defense. When it was announced that Mattis would be resigning in January, the news was met with initial consternation by many conservatives, and understandably so.

I like football and this is the week I get my fill of it. I like the long pass and the big plunge. I like the tactics and the coaching strategies. I like the diversions: the quarterback’s eye to the left before he passes to the right, “flooding the zone,” the double shift.

Are you still looking for a resolution to keep in the new year, something more meaningful than visiting the gym regularly or avoiding saturated fats? Here’s a suggestion. Take a trip down to the Lincoln Memorial, if you’re in the Washington area. At last report it was still open to the publi…

The debate triggered by the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was exceptional in part because, by some measures, his case was not unusual. The Washington Post contributing columnist, who was assaulted, suffocated and dismembered by a hit squad in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on …

As the book closes on 2018, there were some particulars along the way that deserved a second look and even perhaps an accolade.

The News-Item will present its annual top 10 news stories of the year in Monday and Tuesday’s editions. You might guess that many are of a tragic or controversial nature.

“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” — Then-candidate for president Donald Trump.

Marty Reigel, Coal Township Fire Department chaplain, was addressing the “big boots to fill” for his fallen volunteer firefighter colleague, Scott W. Dannheimer, at his funeral on Thursday when he said, “We ask that somewhere along the line someone will stand up and say, ‘I am willing to do …