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Editorials category, Page 39

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Laurels & lances: Listening and racism
Laurel: To listening to the people. Actually, Brackenridge’s problems started with listen to a few people complain about basketball hoops and hockey goals. In response to some complaints about traffic obstructions and property damage from kids playing sports on or near neighborhood streets, the borough proposed an ordinance that would...
Editorial: Redistricting legal bills are cost of putting party before people
Redistricting is not just something that happens every 10 years. It is more than just the way that we shuffle the decks of legislators and change the game board that says who goes where. It’s a complicated, necessary process that should be an accurate reflection of not how we wish...
Editorial: Common sense solutions for housing are great idea
People frustrated by government often cite one troubling factor: a lack of common sense. That can look like a committee spending months debating a solution to a problem your regular person on the street finds fairly obvious. The length of time it takes to decide to put a stop sign...
Editorial: Freeport mayor vacancy shows need for involvement
Freeport needs a mayor. James Swartz Jr. served as mayor for 38 years. He stepped down in June. About three months later, the borough’s executive office is still empty. Why? According to Council President Clint Warnick, there haven’t been any qualified applicants. One could say council needs to be a...
Editorial: More people in the workforce is good news
On Labor Day, we don’t honor the work that people do. We celebrate the people who do the work. It is a day off at the end of summer, as kids go back to school and schedules revert back to the norm after three months of vacations and heat and...
Editorial: Are Catholics key to the Tree of Life shooting jury?
Tree of Life shooting suspect Robert Bowers will go to trial next year. The federal criminal case has dragged on for almost four years since that Saturday morning in October 2018 when Squirrel Hill joined the list of mass shooting locations in the U.S. Eleven people died at the synagogue,...
Laurels & lances: Teaching and searching
Laurel: To making an effort. Lots of people are talking about the problems in education — especially with the falling numbers of teachers. It’s an issue that wasn’t necessarily caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but it has definitely been exacerbated by it. Colleges are seeing fewer people pursue degrees in...
Editorial: Pennsylvanians deserve Fetterman-Oz debate
How we conduct elections has changed over the years. It is no longer a show of hands. It isn’t by the roar of the crowd. We don’t drop a pebble in a vessel like they did in ancient Greece — although the evolution of that process is where we get...
Editorial: There’s still real work to do, Gov. Wolf
OK, Governor, it’s your turn. We recently took the Republican-controlled state Legislature to task for continuing to chew on Act 77 and its aftermath in recent elections like a pack of dogs with a particularly juicy bone. Several lawmakers have been in and out of court with challenges to the...
Editorial: Roberto Clemente’s dream can build sports cities in every community
Ciudad Deportiva. Sports City. For Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican right fielder who was one of the best players to wear a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, those words were more than just a dream. They were a plan for the future. The Sports City he envisioned was a gift for the...
Editorial: Health Department needs to be crystal clear about marijuana data
Pennsylvania has a data problem. A Commonwealth Court ruling recently directed the Department of Health to provide information on its medical marijuana program. The court got involved as Spotlight PA has tried to investigate the state’s decision to allow medical marijuana to treat opioid addiction. The Department of Health has...
Editorial: JCPA can stop Big Tech from playing games with the news
For some people, all they know of monopoly comes from the classic board game. If that’s where you learned about the practice of owning and controlling not just a business but also an industry, you might have come away with the idea that monopolies are a good thing. Own all...
Laurels & lances: Back to school, birds and buildings
Laurel: To that time of year. School started this week for many students throughout the region. For others, that first bell is just days away. College students are back in their dorms and heading back to class in universities from Pittsburgh to Greensburg and everywhere else. This could be when...
Editorial: Push for Marc Fogel’s release unites right and left
For months, the issue of WNBA star Brittney Griner’s release from captivity in Russia has eclipsed the cases of others. Her fame has garnered her more attention than the case of Paul Whelan, an American held for espionage. It has definitely attracted more attention than the case of Marc Fogel,...
Editorial: Why won’t GOP lawmakers fix the voting law they don’t like?
You can’t get a Democrat and a Republican to agree on much of anything in Pennsylvania — especially when it comes to elections. But, on Friday, a Republican state judge sided with Democrats, including Gov. Tom Wolf, about a pile of contested ballots in three counties. Are they the heavily...
Editorial: Schools should walk line with pros and cons of cellphones
Cellphones are a great tool. They are the Swiss Army knife of electronics. If you have a smartphone in your pocket, you have more than just a way to call home. You can take a picture or make a video. You can send an email or read a book. A...
Editorial: The lesson of the ‘Kids for Cash’ judgment
Some debts simply can’t be paid in money. From 2003 to 2008, two Luzerne County judges used children as a commodity. When juveniles appeared before Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, a large number were quickly found to be delinquent and handed over to facilities that made their money through such...
Editorial: Westmoreland commissioners should be open about settlement money
Watch movies or television shows with cartels and kingpins, and you come away with one message pretty quickly: Drug money can make things go bad in a hurry. A lot of money plus little trust equals suspicion. It’s not just a fictional truism. You can see it in criminal court...
Editorial: Lawmakers’ big raises are an affront to Pa. taxpayers
Aren’t raises great? Everyone likes more money. Everyone appreciates finding out that hard work and service to an employer is rewarded with a little bit extra in the bank account. For too many people, that just doesn’t happen. There are pay freezes. There are sad conversations about how valuable you...
Laurels & lances: Celebrating concerts, condemning crime
Laurel: To a real comeback. Pittsburgh has always been a place to catch some truly amazing music — whether you are talking about at a local bar or small venue or in a traveling theater production. But is there anything like a big stadium show? There really isn’t. And yet,...
Editorial: ITT Tech loans show need for financial literacy before college
If you attended ITT Technical Institute at any point between 2005 and when it closed in 2016 and obtained federal student loans to pay for it, you may be breathing easier. The Department of Education announced Tuesday that about 208,000 borrowers with a total of $3.9 billion in debt would...
Editorial: Preventing tick-borne illness requires research and acceptance
It all starts with a tick. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria carried by the black-legged tick. While naturalists and scientists will warn arachnophobes that Pennsylvania spiders aren’t really something to worry about — even the deadly brown recluse isn’t as common as many fear — this eight-legged first...
Editorial: Internet survey demands participation
For many people, internet signal isn’t an issue. It’s just a fact of life. It might be a strong and steady presence as close at hand as a cellphone. It might be from a modem that distributes high-powered connection to all the devices in the house that demand it: a...
Editorial: The dangerous side of social media
Words have weight. Ideas have gravity. And when the two join with action, there can be consequences. On Thursday, an angry man who appears to have reached his boiling point in the soup of social media made inflammatory statements online. He took a weapon and headed out to turn the...
Editorial: Brackenridge proposal: Take your ball and go home
The lament about kids these days is often about laziness. They don’t get up. They don’t go outside. They’re always on their phones or video game systems or online. Remember when kids would actually run around and do things? There’s some truth in there, but there are also some problems....


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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