Editorials category, Page 44

For years, the stories coming out of malls have been pretty consistent — and pretty depressing. Stores closing. Anchors closing. Sales down. Traffic down. Just about the only thing rising was interest in online videos of what was happening behind the chained-up doors of long-shuttered shopping nirvanas of decades past....

The winter of 2021-22 is going to be a cold one, according to sources as traditional as the Farmers’ Almanac and as high-tech as AccuWeather, which predicts average temperatures in the region around 1 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit below normal, with the chill winds starting to blow as early as...

What would Arnold Palmer think? The question must be on the minds of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority members and those who knew the Latrobe-born professional golfer, after county commissioners removed Donald “Doc” Giffin and authority Chairman Paul Puleo from the board. The county airport is named for Palmer, the...

Laurel: To preserving culture. The 42nd annual powwow held last weekend in Indiana Township by the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center was an opportunity to share and appreciate native cultures. “We’re getting together to greet, meet and have fun and respect each other’s way of life,” said Russell...

Everyone deserves a break. Get up. Stretch your legs. Take a walk around the building or the block. Turn away from your work, breathe deep and think about something else for a minute. The job will still be there when you are done and maybe you can come back to...

Why can’t Pennsylvania just make a toll road that costs the same no matter how you pay for it? The Pennsylvania Turnpike can be a costly way to get from here to there. Use an E-ZPass — the transponder system that reads your account and deducts pre-deposited funds when you...

A decision from a government body that raises questions is nothing new. That happens every day. But reversing course to do something that makes sense? That’s a little more noteworthy, so imagine the surprise when a highly divided panel did just that. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission is hard at work...

Hunger was a problem before the pandemic started. Food is one of those bills that can be scrimped and shorted. The very euphemism that we use to talk about cutting back — tightening the belt — acknowledges the corners that get cut when money is short are often meals. So...

Booster shots are not a new idea. Kids get them periodically for measles and mumps, for diphtheria and for chickenpox. Adults are cautioned to get a tetanus or meningitis booster. Travelers may get an update for things like hepatitis or yellow fever. A booster is just what it sounds like...

A courthouse can be an intimidating place, even if you aren’t charged with a crime. Victims of crime can have to relive their worst moments while facing down an attacker. A witness might have to find the strength to participate in the process. Family court cases, such as custody disputes,...

Laurel: To addressing addiction. On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department announced a new campaign to address drug use and recovery in Westmoreland and eastern Allegheny counties. The program is a $75,000 effort to connect people who need help with services already being provided in the community, as well as information...

With a pandemic, there are certain things you expect to be problematic. Crowded emergency rooms are not surprising. Doctors telling you to keep your distance and wash your hands? That’s pretty on brand for them. Even the stock market rising and falling with the latest vaccine release or other developments...

Social media’s latest must-have app is creating problems in local schools. TikTok is the app. Today’s incarnation is an example of a mainstay of the video-sharing app — collaboration. It was formed by the merger of Chinese company ByteDance’s product, started in 2016, with Musical.ly, another Chinese app started in...

There are certain tasks government has to be depended upon to handle. The people can’t pave the roads. They can’t lock up criminals. They can’t just grant people the ability to work as a doctor or get divorced or drive a car. And they can’t build sewage systems. In Harmar,...

Bidding — the act of releasing information about a product or service that is needed and soliciting providers to make an offer — is a time-honored practice in both private businesses and the public sector. Government loves bidding projects because in a perfect world, it keeps costs down and quality...

The push in some corners to review the outcome of the 2020 general election in Pennsylvania took a strange turn in Harrisburg last week. There was a request for an avalanche of information on state voters. First, the state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted 7 to 4 to request emails,...

Sometimes a state audit unpacks surprises. Other times it just tells you exactly what you expected to hear. This week, Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor released a look into Gov. Tom Wolf’s waiver program that let some businesses reopen amid covid-19 shutdowns in 2020. It is completely unsurprising that DeFoor...

Laurel: To a spectacular run. Victory Brinker’s parents knew what they were doing when they named her. The pint-sized opera singer with a voice as big as all outdoors showed “America’s Got Talent” exactly what kind of talent resides in Unity with her months of appearances culminating in Wednesday night’s...

In 2019, the first Southwestern Pennsylvania toll booths started to change as the Turnpike Commission switched from a mix of manned stations and machines to a new, hands-off system. It started years earlier with the E-ZPass devices that let drivers roll through while a transponder was read and an account...

Campaign promises can be an oxymoron. They are something that a candidate swears he or she will do while shaking hands and making speeches, stumping for the job. Campaign promises are as famous for being broken as they are for being made. That doesn’t make it any less disappointing when...

A worker shortage in the pandemic economy has been troubling employers for months. But if you think scaled-back hours at your favorite pizza shop are difficult to handle, try staffing a long-term care home without enough nursing assistants. A short-staffed restaurant can cause irate customers. Not enough nurses for the...

Thank you for doing the right thing, Westmoreland County commissioners. It was more than a month ago that a Tribune-Review editorial took the leaders to task over an apparent lack of planning for how to spend the unexpected windfall of $105.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. While...

The coronavirus vaccine is no longer an option for many. With one announcement Thursday, President Biden removed the question of whether hospitals or factories or major universities would require employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment. Work for any employer with more than 100 people on the payroll?...

For 20 years, America has had one shared cultural touchstone. Every Sept. 11, we are transported to the day when the whole country held its breath, watching and waiting to see what would happen next in an unbelievable day where things couldn’t possibly get worse, and yet they did, over...

Laurel: To a last bequest. It is always hard to lose family, but people often say that what they leave behind helps keep their memories alive. For Ken Hulst, that c0uldn’t be more true. A former Lower Burrell resident, Hulst lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the progressive, uncurable nervous system...