Editorials category, Page 78
Editorial: Who answers for Brighton Rehab?
Death is not an unfamiliar visitor at a nursing home. For some, the point of such a facility is to recover from a disease or an injury that is hard to manage at home without constant assistance. For others, the support is both more long-term and less transitional. It is...
Editorial: Mental health must be pandemic priority
It is not surprising that people are having some trouble dealing with things since the coronavirus lockdown. The data suggest we have more than one pandemic going on. One is covid-19. The other is its impact on our mental health. And that’s a disease we can’t overlook. In her podcast...
Editorial: Wolf needs to stop playing chicken
And the can gets kicked down the road again. On Friday, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association took a tepid fake-out from Gov. Tom Wolf and didn’t try to make a play for the end zone. On Thursday, Wolf made an unexpected drop-in comment at a news conference, saying sports should...
Editorial: Sit-down could serve Wolf solutions for restaurants
Gov. Tom Wolf needs to make a reservation for dinner. He needs to sit down at a nice big table and have a conversation with the people who own and run and work in Pennsylvania restaurants. Earlier in the week, members of the newly created Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern...
Editorial: Words matter with covid-19 message
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. It’s a good rule of thumb for everyone, but it’s especially important for elected officials. Politicians get — and keep — their jobs by what they say. Their words shape laws and policies. They send us to war and broker peace. In...
Editorial: Rivera and Lechman — a tale of two departures
The coronavirus pandemic has created all-hands-on-deck situations in areas like medicine and the economy, government and manufacturing. But we are now staring down a deadline for two arenas: education and elections. So what happens when longtime leaders step away from those responsibilities? On Monday, Westmoreland County officials confirmed elections bureau...
Editorial: The New Ken-Arnold school board should have seen the severance agreement
The people have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. And how much it’s going to cost them. Last week, the New Kensington-Arnold school board accepted the resignation of superintendent John Pallone. That was followed by a 7-0 vote to accept a severance agreement with...
Editorial: Freedom of press and coronavirus
A pandemic can affect a lot of things. It can change how we work, how kids go to school and how we shop. It can screw up baseball and bingo. It can complicate weddings and funerals. But it doesn’t change the Constitution. It hasn’t changed the freedom of speech of...
Editorial: PIAA and WPIAL set good examples for playing by coronavirus rules
Are you ready for some football? Well, you have to wait. Thanks, covid-19. And even when it starts, you probably won’t get to see it in person. At least not for high school games. The same goes for other fall sports like soccer and cross country. This week, the Pennsylvania...
Editorial: Following clues in covid-19 contact
There are ways that fixing a pandemic can be a little like solving a crime. It takes a lot of legwork. There are clues to follow. It is as important to figure out the what as it is the who and the where to reconstruct what happened and try to...
Laurels & lances: Listening, hearing, living
Laurel: To doing the right thing. Westmoreland County Controller Jeffrey Balzer did just that when he put on a mask. Balzer was previously criticized by some — and supported by others — for not donning the protective gear required in the courthouse and by Gov. Tom Wolf’s edict. A three-term...
Editorial: Nursing homes need continued covid attention
Pennsylvania has 693 nursing homes. According to the state Department of Health, all of them have now had at least one round of covid-19 testing. Every resident, every staff member, have reportedly been tested for the disease that is at its most lethal among the aging population. Personal care and...
Editorial: Child care helps babysit the economy
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, there is plenty of debate about opening schools and opening businesses and opening the economy. There are all these questions about getting the millions of people who have been laid off or furloughed back to collecting a paycheck instead of an unemployment check. There has...
Editorial: Tax credit grows Pennsylvania agriculture
Pennsylvania might have been made famous by coal and oil, iron and steel, but the industry that actually built the state was agriculture. Rolling hills and wide fields and their crops and livestock have been the powerhouse of the Keystone State since its Colonial days and remain a major building...
Editorial: Pa. swings and misses in Blue Jays call
The score in a game is more than just a record of who won and who lost. The score is a way to navigate through the game itself. It charts the progress from the first pitch to the last run. It lets a team know where it stands. So why...
Editorial: Covid-19 calls for communication
On Wednesday, White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx participated in a phone call with state and local officials from around the country. Discussion included a number of cities that need to get “more aggressive” and step up contact tracing to address covid-19 numbers as increases are being...
Editorial: Wolf shouldn’t veto Right-to-Know
Open records are important or they aren’t. The public has a right to an accountable government or they don’t. It really isn’t a complicated issue. Gov. Tom Wolf’s position, however, is unnecessarily garbled. During the coronavirus pandemic and the state’s shifting series of lockdown and social distancing protocols, freely available...
Laurels & lances: Answers, inspection, education, cruelty
Laurel: To listening to grief. When Marquis Jaylen Brown fell to his death from the 15th floor of Duquesne University’s Brottier Hall in 2018, it left questions about why and how — and it created a hole in the heart of his mother, Dannielle Brown. On July 4, she began...
Editorial: Does FirstEnergy have too much power?
Utility bills are the kind of thing that can feel a little like extortion. You can’t just tell your water company you have found another option and to please dig up their pipes. Sewer service isn’t exactly the kind of thing you can shop around for and find the best...
Editorial: Diversion is good step toward criminal justice reform
On Monday, Pittsburgh announced a pilot program that would work to keep people out of the criminal justice system. As a pilot program, it’s starting small, just on the North Side. The idea is a “public health-focused, pre-arrest diversion program,” something that would address issues of substance abuse or behavioral...
Editorial: Harrison Point project should stay prepared to roll with the changes
Planning for the future is always important. That doesn’t stop just because of economic upheaval and a global pandemic. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is putting $3 million into a road modification for Route 366 (Bull Creek Road) just off Route 28’s Tarentum exit. It would support a 162-acre business...
Editorial: Elected officials should wear masks in public meetings, or stay home
Masks have been a hot-button issue in these pandemic days. Whether it is an online video of a confrontation over wearing a mask in a private business or something closer to home, some people rebel against wearing masks in public settings. Wearing cloth masks, especially indoors, is widely regarded by...
Editorial: Names of jurors in Held trial should be released
A jury has a job. Everything that happens in a criminal trial plays to an audience of 12. The jury is entrusted with the solemn responsibility of hearing evidence and legal arguments and setting aside preconceptions to determine whether or not someone committed a crime. It’s arguably the most important...
Laurels & lances: Working, moving, rewarding, destroying
Laurel: To a change of plans. For some, a youth group trip cancellation would be the end of a very short story. Cornerstone Ministries made it the start. When middle schoolers from the Murrysville church couldn’t go to New York on a mission trip, the trip didn’t happen, but the...
Editorial: Vaccine volunteers are heroic
In the search for a way out of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a lot of attention on the key players. There are the agencies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Food and Drug Administration, the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the...
