Editorials category, Page 19
Editorial: Why would Pennsylvania elections need foreign money?
The state Legislature is open to money from almost everywhere. For years, people have pointed out the lack of real restrictions on gifts from lobbyists. Lawmakers tend to listen sagely, nod and promise to consider a gift ban. And that’s as far as it goes. Actually crack down on things...
Editorial: Election officials focused on system integrity
Ideally, the number of noncitizens casting ballots in the United States should be zero. But elections and voter registration are run by human beings, so mistakes are inevitable. The test of any system is not the ideal but how it responds when the inevitable mistakes occur. As we head into...
Editorial: Pennsylvania ballot dating dilemma is a political Groundhog Day
The dating of ballots in Pennsylvania is a Groundhog Day kind of issue. No, we don’t mean that it pops its head up in February and then crawls back into its burrow to finish a long nap. No, we don’t mean that it is a kind of nonsensical, made-up affair...
Editorial: Not a value ad: Google’s ad services monopoly needs to end
This week began the federal antitrust trial against Google for alleged monopolistic practices when it comes to the online advertising space, with the Justice Department contending the company has outsize dominion over what is a lifeline for industries including online publishing. Google, of course, doesn’t see it that way. Google...
Editorial: Gainey misses chance with Fern Hollow announcement
Pittsburgh may be making a payment to the victims of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse. What a victory for justice. What a ringing endorsement for government accountability. What an absolute bare minimum. The Gainey administration made the announcement Friday in a news release from Pittsburgh Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak. The...
Editorial: Lifting residency requirement could benefit Westmoreland County
Where you live can often be used as the ticket to an opportunity. Live in the state of Pennsylvania, and you get a better deal on your tuition at a school like the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State or PennWest University. Live in some counties, and you might be able...
Laurels & lances: Solemnity, spotlights & sweets
Laurel: To remembrance. Whether it was the small, local services such as that of Lower Burrell American Legion Post 868 or the larger events at the places where lives were lost, Southwestern Pennsylvania took a moment Wednesday in memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was that time...
Editorial: Voters decide who won the debate
How do presidential candidates prepare for a debate? Former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump’s team claimed he didn’t do formal debate prep, but reports also say he sharpened his question-and-answer technique with the help of supporters such as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard....
Editorial: The indelible mark of Sept. 11, 2001
On Sept. 11, 2001, everyone woke up the same splintered, tribal people they were the night before. Americans were Democrats and Republicans. They were liberals and conservatives. They were Catholics and Jews, Methodists and Muslims, Californians and New Yorkers, Pittsburghers and Philadelphians. They aligned by job, by home, by alma...
Editorial: Are cellphone bans the right move for schools?
There are a lot of things kids shouldn’t be using in class. They shouldn’t have guns or knives or bullets. They shouldn’t have drugs or cigarettes or alcohol. They shouldn’t be bringing in anything that distracts from their learning or creates a hostile environment. Some schools have interpreted these ideas...
Editorial: Death of hostages amplifies call for peace
The hearts of the commonwealth and of the nation are with the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin today. The 23-year-old former resident of Richmond was among six hostages killed recently by Hamas terrorists, his body located in a tunnel underneath the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza. His bright light, now...
Editorial: Gun crimes can be lightning fast or take years to claim a life
We think of violence — especially gun violence — as something that is lightning fast. A gunshot is almost a measure of something here one minute and gone the next. Superman famously is described as “faster than a speeding bullet.” But speeding bullets are routinely caught by the slow or...
Editorial: Audit reveals Allegheny County’s unacceptable failure in matching homeless to available beds
There is a simple currency in providing service for the homeless. Is there a person who needs a warm, safe bed in a building with a roof? Is there a bed available? Bring the two together. The problem of homelessness is much larger than that, of course. It involves dozens...
Laurels & lances: Respect and attack
Laurel: To paying respect. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is the most visited of all the locations on the National Mall offering remembrance of a person or a group of people. More than 5 million visitors make the trip there every year. But that memorial is unique in...
Editorial: Trust the math with election integrity
Math is universal. One and one is two, two and two makes four, four and four becomes eight and on and on and on. It doesn’t matter where it happens. It doesn’t matter if you are counting pencils or puppies or people. The math is the math. That is what...
Editorial: Why can’t Westmoreland County consider a cap on elected officials’ salaries?
Westmoreland County Commissioners need to talk about a change to how elected officials are paid. They need to do it openly, publicly and on the record, rather than lobbing comments back and forth via answers and interviews. But they aren’t. County law ties elected officials’ raises to the consumer price...
Editorial: Why the Fed shouldn’t stop worrying about inflation
At the recent central-bank symposium at Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a widely expected message on interest rates: “The time has come for policy to adjust.” He all but confirmed the Fed will cut rates by at least a quarter-point when its policymakers next meet in September....
Editorial: There’s no excuse for not reporting child sexual abuse
How hard is it to report suspected sexual abuse of a minor? In recent years, we have been buried under an absolute avalanche of proof that children have been sexually abused, if not outright raped, by people in positions of authority. A 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report indicated a minimum...
Editorial: The promise and the threat of Nippon Steel’s investment announcement
On Wednesday, Nippon Steel made a promise. The Japanese giant would invest “no less than $1 billion” into the U.S. Steel operations in the Greater Pittsburgh area. “Nippon Steel believes that a transformed Mon Valley Works will expand U. S. Steel’s ability to serve a broader range of markets and...
Laurels & lances: Potholes & potshots
Laurel: To demanding action. The bare minimum that should be expected of a shopping area is accessibility. Long before there were food courts and anchor stores, marketplaces realized that, to serve their purpose, they had to be easily traversed. In the modern era, that means they should have good roads...
Editorial: Juries, not judges, decide death penalty. That means judges must seat death penalty juries
Judges can’t pick and choose when it comes to death penalty cases. That’s the ruling of the Pennsylvania Superior Court. The case in question started with the Bellevue killing of Rachel Dowden in January 2022. Prosecutors say the crime was committed by her ex-boyfriend, Deangelo Zieglar, 28. The Allegheny County...
Editorial: Why did Westmoreland warden tell tall tale about tampered lock?
Children will make up elaborate stories to get out of trouble. The broken cookie jar is because of a monster. Or an imaginary friend. Or the dog. Yeah, that’s it. The dog did it. The child will tell that story with innocent eyes as big as the missing cookies. It’s...
Editorial: Trump shooting cannot stop political process
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly opened his news conference at the Butler Farm Show grounds Monday with an explanation. Kelly, R-Butler, co-chairs a committee investigating the July 13 shooting in which former President Donald Trump was wounded, Buffalo Township volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed and two others also were hit...
Editorial: Iran’s attack on America: Criminal meddling in U.S. elections and protests
Back in 2016, it was the Russians who interfered with the U.S. presidential election, stealing emails and computer files from the Democrats and giving them to WikiLeaks to publish, seeking to embarrass the party and damage nominee Hillary Clinton. The culprit was the FSB, the Kremlin’s successor to the KGB,...
Editorial: U.S. Secret Service has no margin for error in protection
The U.S. Secret Service has a remarkable record when it comes to protection. It was born in 1865 — not because of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln but because of wildfire counterfeiting in the wake of the Civil War. The Secret Service is a child of the Treasury Department, transferred...
