The coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of many traditional July 4th community fireworks displays, so there may be a greater temptation over the next few days to light up some at home.

Leaders at the Midd-West School District are taking the smart, proactive approach to reopening schools in some capacity next month and parents, educators and taxpayers should take full advantage of the opportunities the district has put in front of them.

Citizen rights, enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, were on full display Sunday afternoon on Main Street in Watsontown.

To many people, it seems as if the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

America has a listening problem. Over the next five days The Daily Item wants to change that.

George Floyd’s murder and the unrest that has followed have caused many to think about ways they could be more inclusive in both their organizations and personal lives.

Two police reform bills — one that would ban police from using chokeholds to restrain suspects and another requiring all municipal law enforcement departments to adopt policies outlining use of force — received unanimous approval Wednesday in the state Senate and are now poised for a vote in…

Dairy farmers — our neighbors who are on the job before the sun rises each morning and working late into the evening each night to ensure we all have adequate supplies of milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products — need our attention and support.

During the recent Flag Day ceremony at the Danville Elks, Brad Becker, Danville American Legion Honor Guard chaplain, noted military people are not the only ones who should be honored as heroes this year.

Finding a path to safely reopening schools this fall will be the next great challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

So many questions without any real answers. So many issues that leave us scratching our heads in embarrassment, or even breaking down in tears.

Social media commenters who read about the anti-racism protests in the region appear to be in denial about a problem we have here in the Central Susquehanna Valley.

Extending reliable broadband internet service to rural portions of Pennsylvania remains a vital effort, especially in recent months when the coronavirus has isolated families in homes where children have little or no access to online educational and social resources and businesses with unrel…

When did facial masks — you know, the cloth or disposal ones we wear in the age of COVID-19 ­— become political?

For the past three months, we have battled our way through the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. By staying home, following social distancing guidelines and wearing facial masks, we have, by all estimates, reduced the number of people who could have become ill or died as a result of this dange…

There should be a comprehensive and independent evaluation focusing on the actions Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration took — or did not take — to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in nursing and personal care homes.

In the wake of the horrifying, infuriating and senseless killing of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, it’s clear that all citizens should know much more about the training and standards for use of force by any person serving in law enforcement.

Government, business and economic development officials can do one of two things following the announcement that the former Sunbury Textile Mills plant will close down in August.

Well, you’ve done it. You’ve made it through high school.

The announcement late Thursday night that Penn State would bring 75 football players back to campus on Monday to lead its phased-in reopening of campus was undoubtedly met with cheers.

School administrators across Pennsylvania now have the guidance they need to move forward with plans to reopen schools in the fall.

A growing number of township, borough, city, county and state officials are joining a chorus, pleading with Gov. Tom Wolf to move Northumberland and Union counties from the yellow to the green phase of the state’s coronavirus reopening and recovery plan, a move that did not occur when Snyder…

At a time when the nation needs a calming voice to stem the growing tide, President Donald Trump provides the opposite at nearly every turn.

The death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes last week while three other officers watched and did nothing, has understandably and justifiably sparked outrage and anger across the country.

Annual Memorial Day parades and observances were canceled in most places one week ago. The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world, killing more than 300,000 people worldwide — about 100,000 of those in our country alone as well as shutting down the economy and forcing people into isolation.

As Americans, including those living in the Valley, continue to emerge from quarantine, we do so under new “rules,” including masking when entering businesses or spending time in crowds of any real size.

State lawmakers who have pushed for the reopening of Pennsylvania’s businesses, arguing owners are smart enough to know how to mitigate COVID-19 in their own shops, better be right because clearly some state legislators don’t know how to manage the novel coronavirus.

A sad and infuriating story emerged this week in Northumberland County — the report of criminals stealing money from an elderly couple from Coal Township.

Colleges and universities are beginning to roll out plans for fall semesters, a signal that portions of the United States are emerging from pandemic mitigation that shut down the nation for more than two months. 

One of the most refreshing local photos we have seen since the world went into the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown more than two months ago was an image of Robert Pappas of Mount Carmel preparing to launch his boat from the Shikellamy Marina near Sunbury.

Memorial Day always has been a mishmash of emotions.

There’s a line in the theme song from the old television show “Green Acres” that goes, “Keep Manhattan just gimme that countryside.”

Sometime over the next few weeks and in some new way, shape, or form, Valley restaurants will open back up. Many have been partially open during as permitted during Gov. Tom Wolf’s two-month shutdown, but clearly their business models are drastically different.

Not to be lost in the shuffle of the 100 mph COVID-19 news cycle is a primary election 10 days away. We wish there was more to draw voters to the polls, but once again, ballots will be filled with as many empty slots as names.

For county officials and those who oversee and operate the polling stations in their local municipalities, election days are marathons.

Gov. Tom Wolf has come under increasing fire for a continued lack of transparency and willingness to open some portions of Pennsylvania business and industry.

Slowly and surely — and, we hope, safely — things across the Valley are beginning to open. 

State lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate are moving a series of bills that would expand the number of leaders engaged in decisions and policy tied to the coronavirus outbreak to include officials from all three branches of government and suggest pathways that differ from th…

We’re about a week away from Memorial Day and many of the summer events we look forward to in the Valley are already gone.

When picking winners and losers — as state officials have done during its business waiver debacle over the past two months — transparency matters more than just about anything.

On Tuesday — 67 days after the first coronavirus cases started to appear in Pennsylvania — state officials announced that they would test every resident and employee in Pennsylvania nursing homes.

Working hard every day — often miles from the nearest town — those who operate small or family farms are among the hidden victims of the coronavirus pandemic, and they are not receiving much economic help.