Editorials category, Page 12
Editorial: 1-stop shop for Westmoreland human services is good for all
Westmoreland County is considering putting its various service operations under one roof. The idea is to take the offices of the Human Services Department and move them all into the South Greengate Road building that used to be home to the county housing authority. “There’s nothing in stone yet,” Commissioner...
Editorial: Political attacks are shameful slides to gateway violence
Aspinwall is not big. The suburban borough in Allegheny County has fewer than 3,000 residents. It always was intended to be a residential area, carved out of a wedge of land along the river. It was a suburb before America really had suburbs. It calls itself “The Town That Pride...
Editorial: Pennsylvania fire hydrants should be flow tested regularly
There are few things in life that are more important than water. We need it to drink. We need it to clean. We might need it to control a heating system or a power plant or to run a factory. None of those is as immediate and specific as putting...
Editorial: Untaxed tips is not so easy — tax earnings equally and progressively
In his record-long address to Congress, President Donald Trump reiterated his aspiration to have taxes on tips and overtime pay eliminated, a position that has enough bipartisan cachet that it also forms part of Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral run agenda. This falls into the bucket of a policy that sounds excellent...
Editorial: Allegheny and Westmoreland counties show why Pennsylvania is a swing state
If you want to know how political power is ebbing and flowing in Pennsylvania, take a look at Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Pennsylvania’s politics swing like the clapper of a bell. It can be Democratic one year and Republican another. The 67 counties run the gamut of deepest blue to...
Editorial: Audit results make argument for clearer rules on credit card purchasing
Things can be broken and functional at the same time. It’s not ideal, but it’s true. Boiled down to its basics, that’s the message of Pittsburgh Controller Rachael Heisler’s report on the audit of use of city purchasing credit cards by the parks department. The audit was prompted by concerns...
Laurels & lances: Birds, cheese & QBs
Laurel: To flying high. The Fox Chapel Parks Commission has been singled out for its efforts in education. The borough has set the gold standard in environmental preservation and educating people about birds, according to a statewide grassroots program. Bird Town Pennsylvania works with communities and organizations such as the...
Editorial: 5 years after covid, scars linger
What a difference five years can make. Although the global story of the coronavirus pandemic began in December 2019, it would not be confirmed in America until Jan. 20, 2020. In Pennsylvania, covid began its takeover six weeks later. Until March 6, the pandemic was like Brexit or a terrorist...
Editorial: Pennsylvania must be more diligent in monitoring protective service for seniors
Are Pennsylvania’s seniors getting the help they need when it comes to protection from abuse? The state Department of Aging will be taking sterner steps to answer that question. Spotlight PA has pointed to failures in oversight of the agencies that work on county levels to respond to neglect and...
Editorial: What if Penn State sold naming rights to campuses?
On Monday, Penn State’s board of trustees sold the naming rights to its most prized piece of real estate for $50 million. The gridiron of grass inside Beaver Stadium is becoming West Shore Home Field. It’s not as much as the $150 million Acrisure reportedly paid for 15 years of...
Editorial: What is the cost of accepting GOP donations for Democratic candidates?
Last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey got his hackles up about money. Was it about the financial troubles his city finds itself experiencing? Nope. It was about the funds of his Democratic challenger, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor. Gainey, running for reelection, is in the same position his predecessor, Bill...
Editorial: Is it finally time for Real ID?
The federal government has threatened it before. It has dangled the string and tried to make us jump. It has coyly set deadlines only to pull back at the last minute. It’s happening! It is! Ha, ha, no, it’s not. No, this is not about the tariffs with Canada and...
Editorial: Safe2Say Something is a valuable tool, but false reports can’t be dismissed
In February, Millvale police arrested a 16-year-old Shaler Area High School student who was accused of having a semiautomatic weapon on a bus. The school resource officer was notified Jan. 30. The student was identified the next day. The student was then removed from school and the case turned over...
Laurels & lances: Lent, rent, money spent
Laurel: To the start of the season. Lent is upon us. Ash Wednesday was this week, and now Fridays in the coming weeks — and the practice for many Christians of abstaining from eating meat — are a chance for churches, fire companies and other nonprofits to fundraise with fish...
Editorial: Trump administration decisions have real impacts on real people
When incidents occur, it is human nature to do two things. We might empathize, recognizing the hardship others are enduring. We say “I understand,” or, “That could have been me.” The other reaction is to distance. We watch from behind a mental pane of glass. We don’t have to understand....
Editorial: Politics interferes with Pittsburgh police chief picks
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is, once again, without a leader. This time, it is losing even an acting leader. “Serving as your acting chief for the last four months has been one of the greatest honors of my career,” acting Chief Christopher Ragland told Mayor Ed Gainey at a...
Editorial: How can hospitals be made safe from violence?
UPMC Memorial in York County is a hospital. A hospital is a place where life or death struggles take place every day. It is usually a cardiac arrest or a stroke or an anaphylactic allergic reaction. It can be a traumatic injury. It might be a gunshot wound. It is...
Editorial: Never forget the WTC sick — Congress must finally fully fund their health care
We were relieved when House Republicans successfully pushed President Donald Trump to reverse the Elon Musk-imposed 20% cut to the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment to 137,000 responders and survivors sickened from the toxic plume from 9/11. Never forget, indeed. But having protected the...
Editorial: Medicaid doesn’t just provide care to the poor
Making cuts to one program often has a fallout beyond the intended recipient. For example, whenever a proposal is made to cut all benefits that might go to someone testing positive for drugs, there are voices in favor. It is understandable that many people don’t want to give assistance to...
Editorial: Police silence about shootings speaks volumes
How long can police remain silent about a shooting? Quite a while, it seems. On Feb. 14, yellow crime scene tape went up around McKinley Avenue in East Vandergrift. It happened after a raid on an apartment above the post office. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was leading the...
Laurels & lances: Learning experiences
Laurel: To getting into education. A good book can put a reader into the story. Virtual reality video gaming can put a player in a new world. But how can that happen for a whole classroom? On Tuesday, East Allegheny School District became the first K-12 public school setting to...
Editorial: Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow settlement filing is hard to swallow
Doing something audaciously bold is said to take gall. The saying comes from the word “gall,” referring to bile — in reality, secretions of the liver but generally any bitter, caustic, hard-to-swallow substance produced by the body. It “takes gall” to take some actions because, like swallowing bile, you have...
Editorial: Penn State must fulfill its land grant mission
On Sunday afternoon, after 46 hours of dancing and months of fundraising, Penn State celebrated what is the university’s proudest moment each year. The total of money pulled in for Thon, an event billed as the largest student-run charity in the world, to fight cancer broke records at $17.7 million....
Editorial: Ligonier Beach flooded with red tape
There is no beach in Ligonier. That isn’t surprising. Westmoreland County is more than 100 miles from Lake Erie and hundreds more from the Atlantic Ocean. There is water in abundance from the variety of creeks and springs and more peppering Pennsylvania. There is no stretch of sandy shore perfect...
Editorial: Credit card bill will hurt those it’s supposed to help
President Donald Trump has taken many productive steps during his first weeks back in the Oval Office. But supporting a bill to cap credit card interest rates — based on a campaign promise the president made — wouldn’t be one of them. The odd couple of Sens. Bernie Sanders, the...
