Editorials category, Page 81

Infrastructure. It’s not just for roads and bridges anymore. For years, when people talked about access and connection, it was about roads. We wanted our small towns to be able to reach our bigger towns, and our suburbs to be able to glide gracefully into our cities. We wanted to...

Homosexuality will not go away by voting it off the island. This week, the United Methodist Church took a vote on whether or not it would permit a church in Pittsburgh or Poughkeepsie, Portland, Ore., or Paris to celebrate a same-sex wedding or hire a minister who is openly gay....

A civil suit is not the same thing as a criminal case, and the two should never be confused or conflated. O.J. Simpson, for example, is not a convicted murderer because, regardless of the decision in a civil case that he was responsible for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole...

Laurel: To public school districts such as Leechburg, Hempfield, Jeannette, Seneca Valley, Norwin and a growing list of others across the state that are reaching out to families in search of cyberschool options with district-based cyber programs that save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those programs also offer high-achieving...

“He is all about winning.” Michael Cohen made that statement to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday. It was an indictment of the actions of the president. It doesn’t really matter if you believe Cohen or not. It doesn’t matter if you support President Trump or not. Because Cohen’s statement doesn’t...

A reader wasn’t happy with the opinion of two people who deal with Westmoreland County’s drug epidemic every day. Detective Tony Marcocci handles the criminal side of the crisis. Tim Phillips, director of the county’s Drug Overdose Task Force, works with the social and treatment aspect. In a Tribune-Review editorial...

It always comes down to us versus them, and it’s getting exhausting. The New England Patriots are the team that everyone south of Connecticut and west of Vermont loves to hate. Come from another NFL powerhouse location — like, say, Pittsburgh — and the animosity doubles. It’s easy to say...

Okay, here’s the deal. You probably shouldn’t work on a political campaign while you are at your job — unless, of course, working on a political campaign actually is your job. Regardless of whether you are an accountant or a short order cook or an airplane mechanic or a kindergarten...

When you have a lot of rivers, you’re going to have a lot of bridges. When you are a city that was built on coal and steel, you’re going to have a lot of trains. And sometimes that’s double the trouble. Norfolk Southern wants to rebuild a bridge on a...

The designs for a new Pittsburgh International Airport terminal are beautiful. They are filled with light pouring in through huge windows. There are ceilings high enough to park an airliner in the concourse. There is enough greenery to give you the feeling you are visiting Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens....

Laurel: To Irwin Council for giving borough residents who are active volunteers for the Irwin Volunteer Fire Department a break on their real estate and earned income taxes, if they meet certain criteria for the number of emergency calls they respond to and amount of training they undergo. Unfortunately, North...

The people have the right to know. The people have the right to care. The people have the right to question. And in most cases, the government doesn’t have the right to say, no. Highlands School District does not have the right to shadowy decision-making. In January, the school board...

Human beings have made a lot of progress over the years. We turned the wheel into the cart and then the car and then stuck it on rovers that went to Mars. (Rest in peace, Opportunity.) We set wood on fire, and then rocks, and then oil, and then we...

There are increasingly more women behind bars in Pennsylvania. A Tribune-Review project looked at women in the Westmoreland County Prison, where the female population inhabits two units with 115 beds. When we think about prison, we don’t tend to think about women, despite the ratings for “Orange Is the New...

A community that is close-knit is generally one that survives if not thrives. That’s not just everyone knowing each other’s names. It doesn’t have to have a “Cheers” corner bar or a Mayberry sheriff. It doesn’t have to be a sitcom with pies cooling on the windowsill and kids engaged...

Cancer is scary. It is a dark monster that steals joy and causes pain. It takes away people we love. It is no reason to dance. Except at Penn State. Except during THON. The largest student-run philanthropy in the world, the annual dance marathon to raise money to battle pediatric...

On Friday, President Trump declared a national emergency to go about spending $8 billion on barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. This brings to an end the stare-down between the White House and Congress over budgeting. It likely begins a new battle over who has the power to do what. The...

Laurel: To Olivia Grace Fertig for keeping it real. The Highlands High School senior has a following of thousands on her social media accounts, but unlike many “influencers” and celebrities who keep their fans with a Photoshop view of a life with perfect skin and perfect hair and perfectly fake...

Load. Pull back. Take aim. On Valentine’s Day, that scenario should be about Cupid loosing arrows, inspiring love and leading to bouquets of roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. It should not be about high school kids lying dead in pools of their own blood in hallways where minutes before...

There is a reason that government meetings are public. It is because the public has a right to know and participate in what the government is doing. The leaders represent the people. The people, therefore, aren’t supposed to be cut out of the process. The people delegated the responsibility of...

So what if Amazon doesn’t want to build a second headquarters in Pittsburgh? Southwestern Pennsylvania is more than capable of becoming the home of the next big thing in technology. That’s not just sour grapes. It’s an awareness of what is in the backyard. Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas are...

If there is one thing we learned from the Puritans, it’s the societal value of public humiliation. They might not have had good ideas about witch trials, but when it came to smaller offenses, they realized quickly that if everyone knew you did something wrong, you were probably less likely...

When Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that he was going to court to break up the UPMC-Highmark catfight, it put a spotlight on something that frequently gets forgotten when dealing with the big business of health. They are both nonprofit organizations. Neither of them hide that. In fact, it...

You can’t keep digging a hole without making plans to climb out. Right now, it doesn’t seem like Penn Hills School District will ever find a way out of the dirt. On Tuesday, a grand jury report used words like “economic ruin,” “egregious” and “catastrophic” to paint a picture of...

Laurel: To the Wolf administration for committing to gauging the public’s sentiment on marijuana legalization. Can’t get much more thorough than Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s plan to visit 67 counties. Oh no, Toto, I don’t think we’re in Harrisburg anymore — or even Braddock! Laurel: To the Boy Scouts for...