Editorials category, Page 48
Laurels & lances: Back to school, birds and buildings
Laurel: To that time of year. School started this week for many students throughout the region. For others, that first bell is just days away. College students are back in their dorms and heading back to class in universities from Pittsburgh to Greensburg and everywhere else. This could be when...
Editorial: Push for Marc Fogel’s release unites right and left
For months, the issue of WNBA star Brittney Griner’s release from captivity in Russia has eclipsed the cases of others. Her fame has garnered her more attention than the case of Paul Whelan, an American held for espionage. It has definitely attracted more attention than the case of Marc Fogel,...
Editorial: Why won’t GOP lawmakers fix the voting law they don’t like?
You can’t get a Democrat and a Republican to agree on much of anything in Pennsylvania — especially when it comes to elections. But, on Friday, a Republican state judge sided with Democrats, including Gov. Tom Wolf, about a pile of contested ballots in three counties. Are they the heavily...
Editorial: Schools should walk line with pros and cons of cellphones
Cellphones are a great tool. They are the Swiss Army knife of electronics. If you have a smartphone in your pocket, you have more than just a way to call home. You can take a picture or make a video. You can send an email or read a book. A...
Editorial: The lesson of the ‘Kids for Cash’ judgment
Some debts simply can’t be paid in money. From 2003 to 2008, two Luzerne County judges used children as a commodity. When juveniles appeared before Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, a large number were quickly found to be delinquent and handed over to facilities that made their money through such...
Editorial: Westmoreland commissioners should be open about settlement money
Watch movies or television shows with cartels and kingpins, and you come away with one message pretty quickly: Drug money can make things go bad in a hurry. A lot of money plus little trust equals suspicion. It’s not just a fictional truism. You can see it in criminal court...
Editorial: Lawmakers’ big raises are an affront to Pa. taxpayers
Aren’t raises great? Everyone likes more money. Everyone appreciates finding out that hard work and service to an employer is rewarded with a little bit extra in the bank account. For too many people, that just doesn’t happen. There are pay freezes. There are sad conversations about how valuable you...
Laurels & lances: Celebrating concerts, condemning crime
Laurel: To a real comeback. Pittsburgh has always been a place to catch some truly amazing music — whether you are talking about at a local bar or small venue or in a traveling theater production. But is there anything like a big stadium show? There really isn’t. And yet,...
Editorial: ITT Tech loans show need for financial literacy before college
If you attended ITT Technical Institute at any point between 2005 and when it closed in 2016 and obtained federal student loans to pay for it, you may be breathing easier. The Department of Education announced Tuesday that about 208,000 borrowers with a total of $3.9 billion in debt would...
Editorial: Preventing tick-borne illness requires research and acceptance
It all starts with a tick. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria carried by the black-legged tick. While naturalists and scientists will warn arachnophobes that Pennsylvania spiders aren’t really something to worry about — even the deadly brown recluse isn’t as common as many fear — this eight-legged first...
Editorial: Internet survey demands participation
For many people, internet signal isn’t an issue. It’s just a fact of life. It might be a strong and steady presence as close at hand as a cellphone. It might be from a modem that distributes high-powered connection to all the devices in the house that demand it: a...
Editorial: The dangerous side of social media
Words have weight. Ideas have gravity. And when the two join with action, there can be consequences. On Thursday, an angry man who appears to have reached his boiling point in the soup of social media made inflammatory statements online. He took a weapon and headed out to turn the...
Editorial: Brackenridge proposal: Take your ball and go home
The lament about kids these days is often about laziness. They don’t get up. They don’t go outside. They’re always on their phones or video game systems or online. Remember when kids would actually run around and do things? There’s some truth in there, but there are also some problems....
Laurels & lances: Fuel, funds, a dog and guns
Laurel: To trying new things. The Westmoreland County Airport Authority is pondering a proposal from Kilocharge, a Rostraver-based company, that would designate up to 16 parking spots at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to a specific purpose. The idea is to have eight charging stations at the airport, allowing people...
Editorial: Too much Super PAC money in Pa.’s U.S. Senate race
Money makes elections go around. That’s nothing new. Political fundraisers are the only things more common in a campaign than stump speeches and kissing babies. Like it or not, they make the rest of a campaign possible. They provide the capital to pay for ads on television and online, the...
Editorial: Nursing home fraud crimes aren’t just about money
When looking for a nursing home, there are a number of things to consider. You can look to online reviews. You can consider recommendations from hospitals or doctors. You can visit websites that specifically help you find the right facility to treat medical, mental or emotional needs. But the one...
Editorial: The importance of history as taught by David McCullough
It is often said that those who do not study history will be doomed to repeat it. Whatever afterlife David McCullough finds himself in, it will not involve repeating history. The Pittsburgh native and world-renowned author died Sunday. He was 89. But what does the death of a historian matter...
Editorial: Response to Penn Township boy’s need shows hope for us all
Sometimes it can seem as though the worst is happening all around us all the time. Inflation, high gas prices, rising turnpike tolls are bad enough. Then there are the really ugly political divisions, especially in a midterm election year. War in Ukraine. Gun deaths. Violent crime. Whether you are...
Editorial: Penn State should realize keeping secrets doesn’t work
Come on, Penn State. Didn’t you learn anything? The backlash felt by the university in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal was not because an employee committed a crime. That can happen to any employer — public, private, parochial — and it has. A business or...
Editorial: Fix the uncertainty of Pa. mail-in ballot dating
Pennsylvania has an election problem that needs to be resolved. Elections can be complicated. Same with politics. But this is a ridiculously easy issue that doesn’t need to be the stumbling block it has become. It’s all about dates. Since Act 77 of 2019 was passed, broadening the access to...
Laurels & lances: Caretakers, campuses and cake
Laurel: To a respectful service. Western Pennsylvania has been home to settlements since long before America was a country. That translates to a large number of cemeteries, big and small, that are the final resting places of those long passed. Soldiers from the French and Indian War, the American Revolution...
Editorial: Stop raising turnpike tolls
Two things in Pennsylvania are as dependable as the sunrise. The Pittsburgh Pirates will disappoint everyone but their opponents, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will raise toll rates. Even the state Legislature and governor — whoever that might be — tease us a bit with their annual budget battle. They...
Editorial: Can we move on from Act 77 challenges now?
Pennsylvania’s expanded mail-in voting has been upheld by the state Supreme Court. The ballots that were broadly used beginning in 2020’s presidential campaigns have been on a roller coaster ride of protest, overturn and appeal. Fourteen Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit in September 2021 arguing that the no-excuse mail...
Editorial: Good government needs to engage public
The relationship between government and the governed should be collaborative and cooperative. After all, we don’t live in a monarchy. Our leaders aren’t — or shouldn’t be — aristocrats born to the privilege of rule. No, the more local our government, the more familiar the origin story. Borough council members...
Editorial: Universities need to commit to stopping tuition increases
Pennsylvania’s state-related universities need to address what their response is to their gift from the governor. The state has four universities that fall into this category of public but not really public, private but not really private. They also are some of the largest in Pennsylvania. Penn State — the...
