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Editorials category, Page 44

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Is inflation as bad as it seems?
Inflation is on the rise. That’s not news to anyone who has been to the grocery store lately. Or bought a house or car. Or signed a lease. If you’ve spent money on literally anything in the past two years, you have seen the cost steadily rise. A U.S. Commerce...
Editorial: Domestic violence and public office
A Wayne County judge has responded to a three-page, handwritten petition from a Poconos woman by granting a temporary protection-from-abuse order against her husband. This isn’t unusual. The petition complains of verbal, physical and mental abuse, including stalking the wife at work, preventing her from seeing her family — even...
Laurels and lances: Puppies, birds, Chance
Laurel: To a natural treatment. College is stressful all the time, but heading into finals? That’s when things get really tense. Mental health on university campuses has been a growing problem for years. The University of Pittsburgh and Penn State have worked to increase access to support for students at...
Editorial: Property tax reform is long overdue
Pennsylvania property owners need better friends in Harrisburg. On Tuesday, the state House of Representatives passed a bill with the kind of overwhelming majority that is usually only seen for naming bridges after fallen soldiers. A legislative body that tends to vote along party lines on almost everything threw those...
Editorial: Existing resources easily available for ballot drop-off
In 2020, dropping off a ballot for no-excuse absentee voting was pretty easy. In Allegheny County, there were drop boxes in satellite locations of the elections office weeks before the election date. You could fill out your ballot and hand it over Downtown at the elections office in the County...
Editorial: Nursing, teaching, trucking — a trifecta of burnout
For the past two years, America has dealt with a weird paradox. While many people were out of work, many businesses were suffering from an inability to find workers. While some of the most obvious examples were the front-facing service industry, it wasn’t just a problem for fast-food joints and...
Editorial: Debates are chance to minimize money’s role in elections
Pennsylvania is one of the most important states in national politics — even in a year when only state races are on the top of the ticket. With less than a month until the primary election, the contests for governor and U.S. senator are heating up, both in rhetoric and...
Editorial: Indoctrination, controversy and education
Norwin School District has new guidelines when it comes to teaching about controversial subjects. It’s the kind of thing that has been growing in the district and others like it for months while meetings have been taken up with criticism of classes and books. But exactly what is controversial? It’s...
Editorial: What should be regulated with Airbnb rentals?
In the early hours of Easter Sunday, a party at an Airbnb rental in Pittsburgh’s North Side turned from a noisy nuisance into a bloody gunfight with hundreds of people running for their lives. Two 17-year-olds died. Nine others suffered gunshots. Five more were injured as they fled. By Tuesday,...
Laurels & lances: Football and fumbles
Laurel: To the best return in football. After two seasons away, the Pittsburgh Steelers gave fans a return to normalcy with an announcement Wednesday. The team plans to return to its longtime training camp location at Saint Vincent College near Latrobe. It was welcome news for the community, too. For...
Editorial: Earth Day is no time for politics
Happy Earth Day to you — all of you. On Friday, we will celebrate the annual event that brings attention to the planet and the way people impact it. It’s a holiday born on April 22, 1970. For more than 50 years, the day has served to spotlight the many...
Editorial: As mask mandates lift, we should respect others’ decisions
A federal judge in Florida issued a ruling against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask mandate early in the day. By evening, the Transportation Security Administration was announcing it no longer would enforce the requirement. That drops one of the final demands of the federal government, leaving any...
Editorial: Westmoreland ARP funds need tentative plans
In 2021, Westmoreland County received half of a $105.3 million coronavirus relief fund allocation under the American Rescue Plan. It’s a significant amount of money. The county’s entire budget for 2022 is $367.6 million, so being given nearly a third of that as a windfall with comparatively few strings opens...
Editorial: What do we do about gun violence?
“It was a war scene.” This is a short statement, but it is vividly, viscerally descriptive of the violence that erupted on Pittsburgh’s North Side in the early-morning hours of Easter Sunday. Almost 100 gunshots — half fired inside a home by the corner of Madison Avenue and Suismon Street,...
Editorial: Common problems, common sense solution
Hear that kids are being locked out of the school bathrooms, and it can bring up questions. It’s an issue that is happening at Kiski Area High School. Is this allowed? The number of bathrooms in a building are not just randomly assigned. They are prescribed by building codes and...
Editorial: Westmoreland County has to answer for hiring decisions
Westmoreland County government has some questions it needs to answer when it comes to hiring. On Wednesday, county commissioners voted to rehire Rich Gordon to run the Regional Youth Services Center. At first glance, this isn’t a big deal. People with a specific skill set are often known to leave...
Editorial: Celebrate our different holidays together
Faith is one of the things that defines us as people. Ask any historian, any anthropologist, any archaeologist and how a people worships is always a defining part of a culture. Unfortunately, it can also be a dividing aspect. That is seen in the footprints of war from our earliest...
Laurels & lances: Clean woods, dirty mouths
Laurel: To cleaning up. Boy Scouts learn a lot about how to interact with the environment. One of their top priorities is to “leave no trace.” But when Troop 284 of Irwin spent some time in a wooded area of North Huntingdon, it was obvious they had been there —...
Editorial: Does Pittsburgh’s plastic bag ban steal other municipalities’ choices?
The good thing about living near a big city is you get the benefits of events like concerts that would never come to a town of 2,000 people or sports teams that provide a reason to cheer on a Sunday afternoon. The down side can be that proximity can take...
Editorial: Elected officials need to work civilly
Elected officials are only human. They make mistakes. They have disagreements. They can get angry, just like anybody else. But representing their communities is a job they all sign up to do and, like any job, it should be done with respect for co-workers. So the proposed censure of Allegheny...
Editorial: Take me out to the ballgame? For Pirates fans, there’s little joy in Mudville
And so it begins. Another baseball season. The peanuts. The hot dogs. The fireworks. The game? Maybe? Last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled all the new things that will be happening at PNC Park for the 2022 season. When the home opener happens Tuesday, attendees will be able to enjoy...
Editorial: Cold cases like Cassandra Gross’ can’t be forgotten
Where is Cassandra Gross? This is a question that the Unity woman’s family and law enforcement have been asking for four years. On April 7, 2018, she had lunch with a friend at the Parkwood Inn in Southwest Greensburg, called her mom as she was driving home along Route 30...
Editorial: Avian flu precautions protect Pennsylvania economy
There is a pretty good chance that a chicken or egg eaten somewhere in the U.S. came from Pennsylvania. The Keystone State is the fourth largest producer of poultry in America. The U.S. Department of Agriculture puts the number of chickens alone at 201 million, and that doesn’t count other...
Laurels & lances: Support and punishment
Laurel: To shining a spotlight. For years, Steven Matto, 54, of Arnold, has taken people into the heart of area emergencies as the official photographer for many fire companies, particularly in the Alle-Kiski Valley. The pictures sometimes gather the attention they merit in print or in broadcast. They always document...
Editorial: A gigabyte of prevention is worth a server farm of cure
Prevention is important, whether we are talking about disease or drugs or crime. It is easier to extinguish a match than to put out a house fire. It’s the kind of thing that frequently is said and frequently ignored on a host of topics. The most obvious and timely might...


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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