Got to Category

Editorials category, Page 20

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Rustic Ridge carries on
It can be hard to move forward after a tragedy. There is a kind of triage aspect. Address the actual problem in front of us. Take care of what is happening right now. That is the priority. It has to be. That is what happened with Rustic Ridge. The priority...
Editorial: Will hotter housing market help renters?
Real estate experts are hoping to see an uptick in the housing market in 2024. Not a boom, but more of a bump. The region’s home sales were down in 2023. According to Dennis A. Cestra Jr., president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland,...
Editorial: Astrobotic launch is next step for space program in Pittsburgh
In 1962, when President John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University in Houston, Texas, challenging Americans to go to the moon, he used the timeline of advancement to make his argument. Compress human history’s accomplishments to just 50 years, and you could see how quickly things moved, he rhapsodized. “Only...
Editorial: Hydrogen isn’t clean if it adds to climate pollution. Biden’s rules are a good start
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden more than a year ago, is a game-changing law that invests hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change and boost renewable energy. It includes lucrative tax credits aimed at making it cheaper to produce clean hydrogen, which are expected...
Editorial: A new year, a new chance to get involved
In January of presidential years, there is a turnover of authority. It doesn’t happen in Washington, where everyone is far too focused on the White House or which U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. The U.S. House of Representatives — where all seats are up at once — becomes...
Editorial: The ups and downs of Westmoreland pay raises
Westmoreland County has cut a new deal with its lawyers. The county salary board approved the four-year agreement Tuesday. It starts new attorneys at $65,000 a year. Lawyers hired in 2023 would be likewise adjusted. More senior lawyers would see comparable salary increases, according to human resources director Alexis Bevan....
Laurels & lances: Hello, goodbye, God bless
Laurel: To a fresh start. So many people start out Jan. 1 with the intent to be a whole new person. The only people who really accomplish that are the babies born after midnight. “New Year, new me!” actually applies to Jonathan Mrockosky and Emily Hibling’s daughter Madison, who showed...
Lori Falce: Minimum wage, self-worth and pizza
My first job was babysitting. In 1983, at 12 years old, I made $5 an hour. Minimum wage in Pennsylvania was $3.35 at the time. By the time I was 15, I had a regular client that paid $10 an hour plus pizza. Minimum wage hadn’t budged. When I had...
Editorial: Cybersecurity is important to infrastructure
Infrastructure is one of those words that we think we know. Then something happens that shows us infrastructure is a lot bigger and a lot more complicated than we believed. When a bridge falls in Pittsburgh on the morning the president is due to visit for an infrastructure speech, that...
Editorial: Keep track of your gun or face the consequences
There is only so much you can rely upon people to do for themselves — especially when it’s clear they aren’t doing it. Given the opportunity, people will drive their cars faster than the speed limit. To address that, we have speeding tickets that make it expensive to ignore the...
Editorial: Humans over machines — New York Times seeks to protect journalism in suing OpenAI, Microsoft
The New York Times is not content to let OpenAI and Microsoft get rich using the newspaper’s web content for artificial intelligence like ChatGPT without paying and sued this week in federal court. We don’t know if the pun on the word “content” is particularly funny or if an AI...
Editorial: Who owns Pennsylvania’s historical records?
Pennsylvania’s history is frequently bigger than the state. From the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia to the sweeping battlefields of Gettysburg to the remains of Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh, the Keystone State is a rich cache of evidence of what came before. But it isn’t all buildings and...
Editorial: Why should the DA have to approve body camera video release?
The things we can see make a huge difference in the things we can understand. We show pictures not only because they add interest to a story but also because they can give as much information as the words. In addition, they can provide context. Pictures can help us not...
Laurels & lances: Highs and lows of 2023
As 2023 comes to a close, we look back on some of the highs and lows of the past 12 months. Laurel: To healing wounds. Five years after the deadliest antisemetic attack in U.S. history, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting finally had its day in court. Shooter Robert Bowers was convicted...
Editorial: Personal finance class long overdue for Pennsylvania students
William Penn opened schools when Pennsylvania was just a colony. Public schools in the state were put in place constitutionally in 1789. The Free Public Schools Act passed 45 years later, formalizing a public education system in the Keystone State. Education represents about 39% of the state’s budget, according to...
Editorial: What mattered to readers in 2023?
Every day in this space, we try to open a conversation. The idea isn’t to tell you how to think or what to think. It’s to take the stories that are breaking across the other pages and explore them. Are there questions you want answered? Are there angles that should...
Editorial: Why Biden can’t convince voters he has beaten inflation
Economic happy talk doesn’t lower mortgage payments. It’s one reason Bidenomics remains deeply unpopular. President Joe Biden wants the public to believe the economy is doing great. At a recent campaign event, Biden bragged that he had overseen “record job creation, historic economic growth (and) among the lowest inflation rates...
Editorial: We wish you a merry Christmas
What is your Christmas tradition? Do you open presents on Christmas Eve? Is that the night you finally decorate the tree? Do you eat homemade candy and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life?” Do you dress in matching pajamas? Do you put your kids to bed and then eat the plate...
Editorial: Is massive Westmoreland tax increase an overcorrection?
The most dangerous part of an imminent crash can be the attempt to avoid it. This being Pennsylvania, most of us are familiar with the hazards of driving on an icy road. When the wheels slip, you can make cautious adjustments that help you regain control — or you can...
Laurels & lances: Reaching for stars, praying for rain
Laurel: To a moonshot. Pittsburgh-based space company Astrobotic was set for a Christmas Eve launch of its lunar lander, but that was scrapped less than two weeks out. That move was attributed to “routine” ground system problems. But a Christmas launch will come early in the new year as the...
Editorial: Student philanthropy shows lessons beyond the classroom. It’s our role to support it
Kids learn a lot of important lessons in school. They learn the alphabet and simple arithmetic. They learn to read and, for some, to love it. They learn to make baking soda volcanoes. They learn about the scientific method, what happened in 1776 and how to find Nebraska on a...
Editorial: Who actually learns a lesson from Comprehensive Healthcare’s guilty verdict?
Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services is guilty. On Monday, after five weeks of trial and 29 witnesses taking the stand, two entities of the corporation were found guilty of health care fraud. The case involved accusations of making false statements in connection with the payment of health care benefits and for...
Editorial: What is the future of U.S. Steel?
U.S. Steel has been the skeleton of American industry. It didn’t just churn out millions of pounds of metal. It was behind and inside the landscape of the nation. It is in bridges and railroads and freighters. It has drawn the iconic skylines of our cities. It is the U.S....
Editorial: So Fetterman’s not a progressive?
John Fetterman, the Democratic U.S. senator from Braddock, says he isn’t a progressive. That might seem like a surprise to a lot of people. We are talking about the most unconventional legislator in the Senate. This is a man who caused an uproar with his wardrobe of shorts and hoodies...
Editorial: The best use of opioid settlement funds
Pennsylvania’s share of settlements with opioid manufacturers and from retailers like CVS and Walgreens is huge. The state will receive more than $2 billion. It’s the kind of significant outlay that hasn’t been seen since the tobacco settlement of 1998. The money will roll in over 18 years and be...


Editor's Picks

Front Porch Theatricals’ musical ‘Baby’ is a labor of love

Washington townhouse on the market for $1,225,000
Folk legend Bruce Cockburn gives uplifting performance at City Winery
‘Champagne & Chapeaux’: Westmoreland Symphony’s annual soiree for a good cause
Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 Mustang stops in hometown for museum anniversary
More Editor's Picks >