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Editorials category, Page 27

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Lawmakers: Carpe diem; end per diems
Taxpayers, who employ Pennsylvania legislators, should reimburse those employees for the expenses they incur while conducting the public business, just as a private employer should cover its employees’ work-related expenses. But they should do so under a comparable system. Private employers don’t simply provide employees with a flat-rate expense payment....
Editorial: Coroners’ obstruction is obituary for open records
In a perfect world, no one would ever need to see a coroner’s report. They would be the paper relics of a life ended. They would be filed away in the bureaucratic mausoleum that is a governmental file cabinet. They would rest in the peace of the millions of other...
Editorial: The debate over where drug treatment should be located
Not in my backyard. It’s a statement that draws lines around not only what is acceptable but also where. It’s the kind of thing you usually see surrounding something everyone acknowledges is necessary but that they would rather forget or ignore — and that’s hard to do when it is...
Laurels & lances: Star power and shots fired
Laurel: To a special delivery. Madonna and Beyonce may have let Pittsburgh down with canceled concerts this summer, but then a redhead from the United Kingdom came to town to show a little love to his fans. Ed Sheeran has a kind of everyman Brit image — like he’s the...
Editorial: Who gets to judge challenged books?
While people joke — or gripe — about teachers having summers off, a lot happens over the summer to get ready for the kids to come back in the fall. For Hempfield Area School District, there’s even more because of ongoing issues such as the imminent construction project. And the...
Editorial: South Side violence closes more doors as little changes
On Monday, Carson City Saloon announced it was closing its doors — at least temporarily. A sports bar on the South Side doesn’t do that lightly. It isn’t a new business. It has been around for 17 years. It’s baseball season. But right now crime season is taking the spotlight....
Editorial: Pa. budget standoff drags on
The worst kind of budget impasse is when both sides have a point. It’s easy to say what should happen when there is a clear right and clear wrong — even if it is only about perspective. If something is as simple as raising taxes versus lowering them, most people...
Editorial: Abandoned malls are monuments to blight
There is something about ruins. People love to look back on what was and imagine it in all its glory. That can mean historical sites of the ancient world such as the Colosseum in Rome or the Parthenon in Athens. It can mean relics of American history such as the...
Editorial: Releasing pythons slithers around responsibility
It should go without saying that, if you have a pet, you keep your pet. Keep it fed. Keep it healthy. Keep it under control, whether in the yard, in the house or in its cage. Too bad a Ross man didn’t do that. Police say the unidentified individual is...
Editorial: EMS services need reimbursement lifeline
There are few things we depend on more than the idea that when we call for help in an emergency, help will come. We call for police. We call for the fire department. We call for medical assistance. For 63 years, Jeannette EMS ambulances showed up for heart attacks and...
Laurels & lances: Summer plans
Laurel: To a happy birthday. America celebrated its 247th year Tuesday, but there is a real milestone being marked closer to home: 2023 is Westmoreland County’s 250th birthday. It’s a celebration with a special name: Semiquincentennial. There’s a tongue-twister for you. The event is prompting celebrations all over the county,...
Editorial: Is leaving Pa. the way to find lower taxes and cost of living?
A Commonwealth Foundation poll shows a lot of Pennsylvanians are considering relocation. Tell us something we didn’t know. Pennsylvania has been aware of its changing demographics for years. Decades, actually. Pennsylvania lost one of its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census, bringing the number of...
Editorial: Late budgets are the norm in Pa., but 2023 is a little different
Yet again, Pennsylvania starts the fiscal year without a budget. Who could have predicted this? Almost anyone who has paid even grudging attention to the state’s woefully gridlocked government would have trouble missing it. Failing to have the legislative and executive branches agree on what the state will do and...
Editorial: Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial spotlights importance of mental health
The jury hearing the case of Robert Bowers in the federal courthouse Downtown already has decided he is guilty of the hate-­motivated murders of 11 people, members of the three congregations that met at the Tree of Life Or L’Simcha synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27, 2018. Now they are...
Editorial: What do financial problems mean for future of Independence?
The merger of Butler Health System with Excela Health was supposed to take the local medical groups and forge them into a larger, stronger entity that would survive and serve. The two officially became one entity in January. In May, it adopted a new name: Independence Health System. A new...
Laurels & lances: Furries and taxes
Laurel: To being popular. Pittsburgh sometimes can seem as defined by its rivalries as by its assets. A good football game can be one in which the visiting team is one of those perpetual enemies like the Cleveland Browns or Baltimore Ravens. Is there a better hockey night than one...
Editorial: Pa. needs better reintegration plan when paroling former prisons
SCI Greensburg was once a center of activity in Westmoreland County. It housed around 900 inmates. It was staffed by 360 people, generating paychecks that fueled business throughout the area. Then, in 2013, it closed. Overnight it went from being a place with purpose to a question mark. What would...
Editorial: Marc Fogel Act is important step forward in bringing detainees home
Marc Fogel’s name has been relatively lost in the conversation about Americans detained in Russia. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, we hear it a lot because Fogel is one of our own: a teacher from Oakmont with family who lives here and waits for his return. But outside the area, his name...
Editorial: Juvenile detention needs staffing solutions to keep doors open
Pennsylvania needs to find a fix for juvenile detention. So do counties. Westmoreland County’s Regional Youth Services Center has had its juvenile detention facility shut down temporarily because of staffing issues and state investigations. The investigations come after two incidents occurred in a short time frame. One was a suicide...
Editorial: Competing for college students amid declining enrollment
Pennsylvania does not have the most colleges of any state. That spot goes to California, which has 400. The Keystone State comes in fourth, behind New York and Texas. There are 218 post-secondary schools in Pennsylvania, based on federal Department of Education statistics. But look at the population, and things...
Editorial: Is paying teachers $10K a cure for shortage?
Money is not the only answer. With government, it often seems that way. No matter what the problem may be, there are any number of solutions that can be proposed. Most of them have big-ticket spending attached, which can end up on the chopping block later when the problem being...
Editorial: Pittsburgh and Philly bridges should lead nation in safety
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia seem to be eternally locked in competition. If one city is in the hunt for the Super Bowl, the other is a contender for the Stanley Cup. If one is up, the other is down. If one scores a win, the other wants to top it. Politics,...
Laurels & lances: Air show and shelter
Laurel: To a high-flying event. For some people, summer starts with the end of school. For others, it’s Memorial Day or that day on the calendar when the solstice officially begins the season. But, for many in Western Pennsylvania, the kickoff is about airplanes. The Shop ’n Save Westmoreland Airshow...
Editorial: Dissenting votes should be applauded amid political rhetoric
On Tuesday, the Allegheny County Council did something that doesn’t happen very often. It overrode a veto by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. By a vote of 10-5, the council decided that its earlier vote to establish a minimum wage for the county’s employees would stand. It was only the...
Editorial: Harrisburg ethics shouldn’t be a game of chance — or skill
Should Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials meet privately with casino lobbyists? That’s a good question. State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming County, and state Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, showed a rare moment of bipartisan and bicameral agreement when they asked the Office of the Attorney General and the state Ethics Commission...


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
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