Editorials category, Page 67
Editorial: All politics start local — so vote on Tuesday
Here it is again: Time to go to the polls. Time to do your duty. Time to cast your ballot. Doesn’t it seem like we just did this? Well, we did, but while presidential races like the 2020 contest and its seeming four-year march to the ballot box get all...
Editorial: Transparency in state spending is a constant process
In a functioning democracy, citizens need to be able to see certain facts about their elected officials in the glaring light of day. They need to know what government is spending money on. They need to know where the money is going. They need to know how much people are...
Editorial: A positive step to encourage the vaccine resisters
In Ohio, the enticement to get the covid-19 vaccination is a chance at $1 million for adults or a college scholarship for a minor. In West Virginia, you can get a $100 savings bond. New York is giving baseball tickets. New Jersey will pour you a beer. But the Centers...
Laurels & lances: A public battle with cancer, a wayward officer
Laurel: To a brave journey. State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, made a hard and honest announcement Tuesday. She has Stage 1 breast cancer. She isn’t the first woman in the public eye to battle the disease or even the first legislator to face a diagnosis while serving. What she is,...
Editorial: After a lost year of school, parents deserve more power to choose what’s best
Parenting is about choices. It starts at birth and never stops. Formula or breast milk? Disposable diapers or cloth? Screen time, daycare, junk food, bed times. It’s exhausting but necessary. You would think that it would stop when a child is old enough for school, but it isn’t as easy...
Editorial: This merrier month of May, with hard-won covid caution
In 2019, when the month of May came and went, it did so with celebration. It came with proms — girls dressed in gowns they had planned to wear for months, guys in tuxedos who made their parents tear up. It came with Mother’s Day brunches and highly anticipated movie...
Editorial: In the war on covid, late data loses battles
Whenever you are dealing with important, measurable information, you have to know that it’s accurate. Sometimes that means knowing that size and weight are the same from one researcher to the next. Sometimes it means knowing that a definition is the same across the board. And sometimes it means knowing...
Editorial: A winning location to heal veterans and commerce in Monroeville
It is great when one solution can be used to tackle two problems. It would be even better if that could be used as a model to solve even more problems. A 6.5-acre site near the Monroeville Mall will be the home of a new 64,000-square-foot outpatient clinic for the...
Editorial: For U.S. Steel, reckoning with Toomey’s questions is a start
In 2019, U.S. Steel’s announcement of a $1.2 billion investment in its Mon Valley Works brought questions and excitement — the good, anticipatory kind. Yes, there would be a new endless casting and rolling facility at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock and a cogeneration facility at the Clairton Plant,...
Editorial: Nordenberg, the right person as reapportionment referee
It is hard to accomplish anything when two sides refuse to negotiate. It’s true of million-dollar labor disputes and neighbors fighting about fencelines. That’s why what frequently is necessary is an mediator — a rational voice to encourage reasonable debate over a rehashing of all the disagreements. For a courtroom,...
Laurels & lances: Building, billing, volunteering
Laurel: To a fitting choice. The Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha board of trustees announced Tuesday that an architect had been chosen to rebuild the Squirrel Hill synagogue that was the scene of the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. Daniel Libeskind has been entrusted with the project. His...
Editorial: Taking the steps to post-pandemic life
For more than a year, the promise has been there. Pull together. Keep your distance. Wear a mask. Follow the rules. Do all of this, and the coronavirus pandemic can be handled. Do this, and, eventually, we will be able to stop doing this. Admittedly, every day the finish line...
Editorial: Nurses provide the healing touch, hand to hand
The medical profession has been built by hardship. People go in for all kinds of mundane things now. Refill this prescription for headaches. Get a few stitches on a cut from a fall. A referral for physical therapy or a pregnancy test. But what built the legion of medical professionals...
Editorial: A positive incentive to become a vaccinated Pens fan
Consumers are accustomed to choices: First class or coach? Table or booth? Balcony or orchestra? And now maybe vaccinated or unvaccinated? The Pittsburgh Penguins have proposed the idea of a vaccinated section of PPG Paints Arena as a way to increase capacity at the venue while still maintaining adequate and...
Editorial: One way or another, bridge repairs must be paid for
In the fairy tale about goats trying to cross a bridge, a troll sat under the bridge, waiting to gobble up the goats as payment for their audacity. Troll bridge. Toll bridge. Is there really much difference? It’s easy to feel like you are being gobbled down one bite at...
Editorial: For state universities, consolidation is tough but necessary medicine
For many families, it’s college time. High school seniors are getting acceptance letters. Juniors are making applications. Parents are filling out financial aid paperwork and taking the family on campus visits. But this year, students are being accepted to schools that might not be the name on their degree in...
Editorial: The ever-confusing state covid guidelines for schools
It has to be difficult to be a school in the pandemic. Sure, there are lots of other institutions working hard to figure out what’s happening and what to do about it. Hospitals, nursing homes, churches. Even grocery stores and baseball teams have been in turmoil because of covid-19. But...
Laurels & lances: Clean, delay, warn
Laurel: To two birds with one stone. It is great when people are able to lend a hand for a good cause. When you can do two at the same time, it’s even better. Plum Borough observed Earth Day on April 24 with a Cleanup Day event as the culmination...
Editorial: ‘Move Over’ law is just common sense
You are driving down the road. A flash of red and blue light catches your eye up ahead. A police car is stopped behind another vehicle. What do you do? For most people, it’s going to be obvious. Get into the left lane, if it’s available. If it’s not, pass...
Editorial: Why a $25 incentive for prisoners to get vaccinated makes sense
Some people were so eager to get back to a pre-pandemic life that they did anything they could to get a vaccine. Some lined up at mass vaccination sites. Some called providers day after day after day until they could get an appointment. Some drove out of town or out...
Editorial: Community colleges took a hit, but are well placed to rebound
Community colleges often are not appreciated enough for what they contribute to the educational landscape. Students don’t sweat bullets over whether they get in. They decide to get the education and sign up. These are the reliable schools. There are no frat parties or football games. Just the classes that...
Editorial: A county courthouse convenience, but with a caveat
What is the price of convenience? The Westmoreland County Courthouse is debuting a system that lets attorneys file documents via the internet — any day, any time, anywhere. If you are desperate to file a petition in Greensburg today but your lawyer happens to be taking a deposition in Chicago...
Editorial: Police reform means honoring the meaning of ‘protect and serve’
The question of how to fix what is broken in police departments is echoing across the nation, thrown into overdrive with the trial of former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin and his conviction last week for the murder of George Floyd. But in many towns in Pennsylvania, especially in Westmoreland County...
Editorial: The price of voting is worth every penny, but who pays it?
Funding and flexibility: That is what Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald would like when it comes to elections. On Tuesday, Fitzgerald testified before the Pennsylvania Senate’s Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform via Zoom, along with officials from Philadelphia. It was a glimpse into how the state’s two largest...
Laurels & lances: Infrastructure, taxes, court
Laurel: To building bridges. And roads and sidewalks and more. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority gave the go-ahead for $48 million in multimodal transportation projects. Among them are $4.6 million in projects in Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties. These are not giant bypasses or miles of asphalt poured...
