Columns
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And the Seasons, They Go Round and Round
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Such equinoctial exactitude. Autumn showed the airlines, our national railroad and lollygagging students how it’s done last Thursday, showing up right on time. That Sept. 22 morning, it was still summer. The rain was a summer rain. Then, whoosh, fall blew in on the wind, like Mary Poppins. Immediately, the ballet began: weakly attached leaves…
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Home, Sweet Home: Joe and Heidi’s Excellent Adventure Comes to an End (with Plenty of Help from Penn Staters)
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Joe and Heidi’s Excellent Wandering Adventure has finally come to an end. We had our official closing Thursday on our new home in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was a beautiful sunny day, albeit a 90-degree day, but it was well worth the wait after moving from our Happy Valley home on June 30. That’s 11 straight…
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The Middle Third Will Once Again Determine Penn State Football’s Fate
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Penn State football is hitting that treacherous part of its schedule where it really needs to make hay. And where James Franklin needs to earn his big bucks. The crux of the schedule. The meat of the order. The big boys. The gut check. They all are the same thing. Call it The Middle Third.…
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Fighting Inflation: Consider 5 Options to Stem the Rising Tide
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Inflation has risen to levels that many parts of the developed world haven’t seen for 40 years. In fact, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been higher than the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) 2% goal for over a year. That means most households are paying an extra $430 a month for the same goods and services…
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Stay the Course Amid Market Volatility
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The Standard & Poor’s 500 is an index that best gauges large capitalization U.S. equities that are publicly traded. The S&P 500 Index is capitalization weighted. This means companies are represented more heavily in the index where components with higher market caps carry a greater percentage weight in the index (more shares on the market…
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Opinion: Booze for Sale in Beaver Stadium? It’s About Time
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This past weekend the Penn State football team went down south and defeated an SEC team. Almost 40 years ago many of us witnessed a different Penn State football team go down south to play an SEC school and come away with a similar result. It was the early evening hours of Saturday, Jan. 1,…
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Penn State 41, Auburn 12: 20 Quick Hitters (But Not as Hard as the Hit on Sean Clifford)
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AUBURN, Ala. — Penn State’s 41-12 resounding victory over Auburn here in Jordan-Hare Stadium was the first appearance — and win — by a Big Ten Conference team. Ever. And, it could have both short- and long-term ramifications. Like the confidence gained that will help down the 2022 road against Michigan and Ohio State to impressing the…
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College Football: Massive Change Now Highlights Challenges for Universities
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Universities playing major college sports have rapidly hit the point where the numbers have become so big, the dollars so high, that schools need to admit that the current model is no longer representative of the old amateur athletics model. These universities are in the sports entertainment business. And the most important talents in that…
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Opinion: Nittany Mall Casino Is a Bad Bet for Our Community’s Future
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I’ve written something like 125 columns for StateCollege.com over the last six years. But never a “negative” piece. I’ve always felt it was my niche, even my calling, to lift up Happy Valley’s charitable organizations, groups like Strawberry Fields, Out of the Cold and Centre Volunteers in Medicine. And to salute unsung heroes in our…
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‘We Are All Overwhelmed and Exhausted by the War’
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It’s going to get cold soon in Ukraine. That’s particularly worrisome in the city of Nizhyn, whose central heating facility was knocked offline by a Russian rocket last March. Svitlana Budzhak-Jones is hoping State College can help. Budzhak-Jones is both Ukrainian and a longtime resident of the borough. When Russia invaded her native land last…