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For Republicans, victory in Pennsylvania will require focus, unity — and turnout

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For Republicans, victory in Pennsylvania will require focus, unity — and turnout



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Recently, I attended my grade school reunion in South Philly — St. Monica, Class of …

A classmate, greeting me after decades of not seeing each other, said: “Hey Guy, do me a favor, please. Can you tell the Republicans to focus on winning?” (Nice to see you, too, Sal!)

If Donald Trump wins Pennsylvania, Joe Biden cannot be reelected. If Dave McCormick goes to the Senate, it’s no more Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. If Republicans can pick up just one more statehouse seat, they will recapture the majority in that body.

The threat of tripling taxes on small businesses will go away. Pennsylvania’s energy reserves will be put to the use of lowering prices, creating jobs, and reducing our dependence on foreign adversaries. More parents will get choices about where they can send their children to school.

So, yes, let’s focus on winning. The good news for the GOP is that most voters agree with us on most issues. The bad news: Democrats know how to change the subject, and they know how to play the election game. They’re better at getting their voters out to vote, especially by mail.

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Because you asked, Sal, and because this is such a crucial election, here’s a roadmap to winning.

Unity. We must have unity — unity of purpose. We must agree that regardless who your most favorite or least favorite Republican is, and no matter what your number one issue is, Republicans need to focus on unity and growth. Now is not the time to focus on who doesn’t belong or who should be kicked out, taken out or ridiculed.

We must commit to stopping the harm that Democrats have caused, undoing the damage, and putting policies in place to bring down inflation and allow our children to get back to learning, in schools chosen by their parents. All are welcome, and we should reach out to everyone, especially minorities who have been ignored or taken for granted.

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Mail-In Voting. Finally, GOP leaders across Pennsylvania — with support from those who helped Gov. Glen Youngkin in Virginia and donors across the nation — are committing to mail-in voting. The mailers are arriving. The ads are starting. Now it’s up to us.

Request your mail-in ballot. Vote by mail. Convince your friends to do the same. Unless we change our habits, we will probably lose. To say it again, if we carry Pennsylvania, the Biden damage to America and our communities ends, and good things can start happening again.

Republicans tried ignoring mail-in voting and complaining about it. The result: lots of L’s.

We should be guided by three principles: easy to vote; hard to cheat; and results we can trust. But we can’t make the necessary changes until we win.

Results We Can Trust. Yes, Republicans in each county should make sure that every county that has “drop boxes” has clear, publicized hours of operation, cameras and watchers on sight, and a written chain of custody for the collection, storage, and counting of ballots. Similarly, as Philadelphia and perhaps other counties open “satellite election offices,” citizens should demand that these de facto polling places have watchers present. And GOP “minority” commissioners must fulfill their duty as not only public servants, but also as watchdogs.

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Learn from the Pros. Democrats in Philadelphia and across the state are using all the tools at their disposal — and inventing new ones — to increase turnout. More and more drop boxes. Satellite election offices. Voter registration drives run by the government in targeted communities or with targeted voters. Driving to voters’ homes to help them fix mail-in ballots that need signatures or dating to be lawfully counted.

Republicans have majority control in 54 out the state’s 67 counties. It’s time to learn the voting “game” from the Democrats while following the law. Adapt to the changing tactics. And win.

Drop Boxes. Yes, drop boxes. Many counties in Pennsylvania are large, with limited population spread out across their region. County commissioners ought to consider putting drop boxes in Amish communities, community colleges, the local Grange, farming supply centers, outside of popular churches — and yes, at gun ranges.

Satellite offices. We should have at least one satellite office in any region of a county that is not near the county courthouse.

Voter Registration Drives. Philadelphia plans to use taxpayer money to register voters in an effort to drive up votes for the Democrats. Well, two can play that game. Aside from having forms at the courthouse and library, how about the commissioners hosting a drive at an Amish Farm, at a gun range, outside an ROTC center, or at a local volunteer fire hall?

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“Curing” Ballots. If Montgomery County Democratic commissioners follow through on their stated plans and let courthouse staff drive “flawed” mail-in ballots to voters’ homes so that they can fix them, then the 54 GOP-run counties should do the same.

Yes, elections are about winning the hearts and minds of voters. But they’re also about ballots.

Biden and his allies in D.C. and Harrisburg have brought us inflation, expensive gasoline, rising utility bills, increased violent crime in our cities reaching into the suburbs, an open and unsecured border, growing dependency on enemies for energy and weakness, death, and destruction around the world.

Republicans are winning the battle for hearts and minds. Now, let’s win the battle at the ballot box. Let’s unify — and use every legal tool at our disposal so that no GOP voter fails to vote.

Do it for Sal — and for all those who still believe the American Dream is worth fighting for.

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Guy Ciarrocchi is a writer for RealClearPennsylvania and Broad+Liberty. He is also a senior fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation. The views expressed may not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.



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Pennsylvania State Police investigating incident in Salisbury Township

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Pennsylvania State Police investigating incident in Salisbury Township


Pennsylvania State Police is investigating an incident in Salisbury Township on Saturday.

Lancaster County dispatch confirmed that troopers were called to the 4900 block of Strasburg Road for an incident that was reported around 11 a.m.

Fire and EMS was called to the area but have since been cleared, dispatch said.

This is a developing story. CBS 21 is working to learn more.

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What’s old is new again in Pennsylvania as the Penguins and Flyers renew a long-simmering rivalry

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What’s old is new again in Pennsylvania as the Penguins and Flyers renew a long-simmering rivalry


PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Sidney Crosby would not take the bait, even though the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye hinted that maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins captain kind of wanted to.

Told that Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet – an assistant with the Penguins when Pittsburgh won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – knew his current team was going to have to “get after” Crosby and longtime running mates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang when the cross-state rivals open their first-round series on Saturday night, Crosby just grinned.

“I mean, to be expected, what else can you expect me to say?” the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer said with a small laugh. “We’re all out there competing. We all are after the same thing. That’s how it works.”

Technically, that’s how it always seems to work whenever the Flyers and Penguins get together, regardless of circumstance. Things only figure to be ramped up considerably during the eighth – and perhaps most unlikely – playoff meeting between two teams separated by 300 miles geographically and considerably more in terms of postseason success.

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The three Cups that Crosby has won during his 21-year career are one more than the Flyers have in the franchise’s nearly six-decade history, and yes some are still keeping track of Philadelphia’s long nuclear winter since its last championships.

The chances of either club being the last one standing when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands the Cup to the victors in early June are slim. Oddsmakers put the resurgent Penguins in the middle of the pack to win it all, while the Flyers – who needed a 14-4-1 sprint to the finish to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 – are among the longest shots in the 16-team field.

Not that any of that will matter when the puck is dropped and the venom that has long defined the contentious relationship between the clubs bubbles back up to the surface.

That venom on Philadelphia’s side has long been targeted at Crosby, who has beaten the Flyers three times in four playoff meetings, with the one loss coming during a frantic six-game series in 2012. Almost all the faces from those teams are gone.

Except, of course, for perhaps the most important one. Crosby, the only player in NHL history to average a point a game in 21 straight years, remains a threat and highly motivated by the return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.

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“We have a ton of respect for Sid,” Tocchet said. “He’s an unbelievable person and player. But we’ve got to get him in the ditches right? We’ve got to make it hard on him.”

A long-awaited debut

Rasmus Ristolainen’s agonizing wait to feel the vibe of playoff hockey is over.

The Flyers defenseman will make the first postseason appearance of his 13-year, 820-game career when he hops over the boards at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.

Ristolainen’s wait before his playoff debut is the third-longest in NHL history. The 31-year-old even played in the Olympics before a postseason game. He won a bronze medal in February while playing for Team Finland at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

“Just really excited to play meaningful games this time of year,” said Ristolainen, who played in just 44 games this season while battling elbow injuries. “It’s been a really, really fun last month or so.”

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Skinner or Silovs?

First-year Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse has flip-flopped between goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs since the Penguins acquired Skinner in a trade with Edmonton in December.

Whether that will continue in the postseason is anybody’s guess. Skinner has a decided advantage over Silovs in playoff experience, having backstopped Edmonton to consecutive Cup appearances in 2024 and 2025.

Yet Muse has kept his thoughts close to the vest, and statistically speaking, Silovs and Skinner posted nearly identical numbers, none of them particularly great. Silovs finished the year with a .887 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average while Skinner had a slightly worse save percentage (.885) and a slightly better goals against (2.99).

“We’re looking at all factors,” Muse said. “As I’ve said multiple times, I think both guys have been great for us. Both guys are a big part of why we’re here today preparing for Game 1.”

What’s old is new again

Philadelphia forward Sean Couturier has played for the Flyers for so long that he was actually teammates with his boss, general manager Danny Briere.

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Couturier was once a key cog during a previous rebuilding phase in Philadelphia, back when he was the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Couturier made his debut that season and has largely remained a steady presence in the lineup – save for back injuries that cost him the 2022-2023 season – and is the only Flyer still around from the franchise’s last home playoff series victory against, yes, the Penguins in 2012.

Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny are the only three Flyers on the roster to have played in a home playoff game, back in 2018.

“We were for a lot of years kind of in the middle, competing hard,” said Courtier, who had 12 goals and 24 assists this season. “We had some good teams. Just always missing a little something to get to the next step. I think it was maybe time to take a step back and rebuild. I’m just glad with how everything’s gone, honestly.”

___

AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.



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Western Pennsylvania man takes Terrible Towel to Mount Everest as tribute to late friend

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Western Pennsylvania man takes Terrible Towel to Mount Everest as tribute to late friend



The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Terrible Towel is a symbol of celebration known around the world, but it was recently taken to new heights.

Allen Dean, a Steelers fan from Sewickley, recently took a Terrible Towel with him as he climbed Mt. Everest.

“I had to show myself that I can do whatever I set my mind to,” says Dean, who spoke with KDKA-TV’s Barry Pintar after his climb from Pokhara, Nepal, near Mt. Everest. “By doing that, I was an example to my kids that, through all the hardships our family has gone through, if you put your mind to something, you can do it, and if it is something as big as Everest, whatever it is, that if you put your mind to it, you can do it.”

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Allen says a man called “Big Mike” was a long-time father figure who died a few months ago. His window gave Allen Big Mike’s Terrible Towel. It was then, by way of tribute, that an idea was born.

“She asked me, ‘Allen, would you be able to take the terrible towel to Everest if you make it?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, for Big Mike, anything,’” Dean recalled. “Big Mike was like my last father figure that I had around, so it meant a lot to me to just bring peace. It just meant a lot to me to finalize the loss of such a male role model in my life.”

Allen says he trained vigorously for this climb, often spending weekends taking his kids to hike just about every regional state park imaginable.



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