Editorials category, Page 79

Okay, Senate. Your turn. The Pennsylvania House did its job. They took a proposal to rewrite the rules on child sex abuse reporting and ran with it. One bill would chuck the statute of limitations if the reason child abuse wasn’t reported was that the mandated reporters didn’t report the...

If nothing else, Penn Hills can be a cautionary tale. The school district’s $172 million money pit of debt might not be getting any shallower but it has prompted attention in Harrisburg. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale had already issued a 2016 report that called Penn Hills out for “mismanagement and...

Laurel: To a really big dill. Who doesn’t love a big old pickle? Now who doesn’t love an even bigger pickle? Exactly. And that’s what makes a bigger, better Picklesburgh festival something you can really sink your teeth into. The July 26-28 festival is going to be expanded and we...

We aren’t going to give up and go away. Highlands School District can keep making decisions and taking votes without the full light of day, but the Tribune-Review isn’t going to stop going to meetings. We aren’t going to stop paying attention to what is on the agenda and what...

It took more than a hundred years to build. It stood for hundreds more. It defined the skyline of a city and the soul of a religion. And it didn’t stand a prayer against the consuming hunger of fire. The vast, awe-inspiring beauty of one of the great palaces of...

How do you fill the hole left by grief and sorrow? How do you close the wound ripped open by hate? With hope. The Tree of Life synagogue stands — an empty shell — since the Oct. 27 shooting that shattered worship services on a quiet Sabbath morning. In the...

A veteran is someone who has proven they understand discipline. They know how to follow orders. They get what it means to be a small part of a larger operation, and why every part has a job to do. That means that when they get in trouble with the law,...

Imagine being robbed and finding out that, despite reporting it to police and turning over pictures and serial numbers for your TV and your laptop, the report sat on a shelf and waited for an investigation that never happened. Imagine being shot and discovering that the bullet was in an...

Six members of Pittsburgh’s city council and Mayor Bill Peduto have taken steps to change the law within their sphere of influence as applies to a certain class of weapon. It was a big step. The U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions both uphold gun ownership as a right. But both also...

You, Julian Assange, are not a journalist. I know you like to claim that you are, largely because you like to hide behind the protections journalists are sometimes afforded when it comes to obtaining and releasing information and questioning authority. But what you have done is not journalism. It has...

Laurel: To preserving a little piece of the past. Ligonier Township leaders don’t want lose their connection to a treasured longtime landmark. Instead, the municipality is interested in buying Ligonier Beach to keep the private pool from floundering after the owners filed for bankruptcy. Details are still up in the...

Listen to squabbles about gun control and you are bound to hear one question come up, either from frustrated proponents of limits or aggrieved champions of the Second Amendment. Why don’t we just enforce the rules we already have? If the two sides would actually listen to each other, they...

Are hospitals becoming the new malls? Just like retail has evolved, getting out of the big, glassy, glitzy shopping centers and into the phone in your pocket, it seems like medicine is likewise morphing into something else. And also like retail, it’s taking its toll on the old way of...

It’s not that nothing can be done. When Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson issued his decision in Josh Shapiro’s plea for a stay of execution in the UPMC-Highmark consent decree, he didn’t throw the Pennsylvania attorney general a lifeline. Simpson’s ruling might be read as helpless when he says, “this...

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education acknowledged something. It’s possible that things don’t always cost the same everywhere. PASSHE’s Board of Governors voted to let individual members of the state university system evaluate their own costs and set their own tuition. It might seem that maintaining control...

A girl took some sexy pictures of herself. She sent them to a guy. Not a big deal. Happens every day. But they both ended up in court. Why? Because police say she was 15 and he was 16. According to state police, that means he was in possession of...

Allegheny County is a study in the delicate dance between industry and regulation. Between coal mining and the steel industry, Pittsburgh was long tarred with a smoky, sooty reputation for being a grimy factory town. It took a lot of work to polish up the Steel City, but one of...

Laurel: To healing with those who understand. Parkland to Pittsburgh is a program that will bring together survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting with the local Jewish community. While many people have said they empathize and understand and offered prayers and tears, the two groups are the...

The changing demographics of the Pennsylvania Legislature are going to do more than increase Harrisburg’s social media presence and a demand for avocado toast. They are producing a whole new perspective on debt, and it’s an important view to understand as we move forward. We might pine for the old...

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s council passed a package of laws that would ban some weapons within the city limits and regulate access for people deemed an “extreme risk.” There are people who see this as a step forward in a nation where gun violence has become heartbreakingly commonplace while action to...

An empty threat might seem like a good middle ground. It could give all the weight of a hefty penalty without any of the responsibility for the follow-through. It could seem strong while not actually being prepared to show strength. The reality is that it is a frustrated mother telling...

No shirt, no shoes, no service. No dogs allowed. No smoking. All simple signs. Easy to understand. Easy to obey. Now Westmoreland County needs another sign for its hallways. No politics on the premises. Workers, this means you. It’s the kind of thing that probably shouldn’t need a sign. When...

“If only there were more bureaucracy.” File that under things no one has ever said. On Thursday, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik announced a new department to address sexual abuse claims and recovery. The Secretariat for the Protection of Children, Youth and Vulnerable Adults is open for business as of Monday....

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, just like we learned in elementary school science class. We have to react. Don’t react to a fire, and you get burned. Don’t react to a traffic light, and you can cause a crash. But overreaction is as bad as...

Laurel: To Pittsburgh in a cone. With the advent of baseball season, PNC Park will once again become not just the place to catch the great American pastime, but eat some great Pennsylvania cuisine. On Tuesday, the Pirates gave a glimpse of some of that, including a new signature item....