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Editorials category, Page 64

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Food banks filling holiday need
Certain reminders come to us every holiday season. Red kettles and ringing bells at shopping center doors urge us to drop in a few coins to help those in need. A box waits to collect toys for kids who won’t get any otherwise. And perhaps most ubiquitous is the food...
Laurels & lances: Corks for a cause, bad behavior over masks
Laurel: To passing along good cheer. While working under pandemic restrictions this year, a lot of people have turned to hobbies and crafts. For 16-year-old Noah Long and his mom, Wendy, of West Deer, one outlet has been turning wine corks into Christmas tree ornaments. There’s so much about this...
Editorial: Share your light at Hanukkah
Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates a miracle. It begins as the sun sets Thursday. Eight candles of the hanukkiah, a special menorah or candle holder used just for the Festival of Lights, represent the eight nights that a single vessel of oil lasted when the Jewish people had to...
Editorial: This pandemic tunnel is long, but light is flickering
If there’s one thing that frustrates Pittsburghers — and just about anyone who drives in and out of the city — it’s the tunnels. A tunnel is nothing more than a road that goes through an obstacle instead of around it. Despite the fact they are nothing new, they seem...
Editorial: The unhealthy state of the Allegheny County Jail
What is happening at the Allegheny County Jail? The Jail Oversight Board is looking into the turnover in medical administration at the county facility. It comes in the wake of several top medical officials stepping down. The most recent was Janet Bunts, who was hired in August to act as...
Editorial: Americans rallied after Pearl Harbor, and can again
It was 7:48 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941, when hundreds of Japanese aircraft filled the sky over Oahu. The attack on Pearl Harbor came on a quiet Sunday morning. By the time the last bomb fell, the last torpedo exploded and the last bullet was fired — a mere hour and...
Editorial: Pa. should take it slow on legalizing marijuana
Marijuana is the trend the whole country is watching. Weed was first banned by Massachusetts in 1911. Pennsylvania was one of the last states to outlaw it in 1933. The federal government followed in 1937. For a long time, everyone was on the same page about it — at least...
Editorial: The awful math of church abuse settlements
It can be hard to calculate damages when you can’t see the breakage. Crash a car, and the body shop can tell you precisely what it will cost to turn bent and twisted metal back into a shiny vehicle with a sleek paint job. Burn down a house, and the...
Laurels & lances: Volunteer, vandalism, overdose
Laurel: To volunteering again. Getting people to step up to participate in a project is often the hardest part of the job. Marc Wagner is the kind of guy who is willing to jump in. For 35 years, he has been a part of the Pitt Men’s Study. He was...
Editorial: A good first step to serve counties without health departments
Pennsylvania is going to give a helping hand to the areas of the state that don’t have a county health department. By state law, only six counties have those offices: Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Erie, Montgomery and Philadelphia. Allegheny updates residents and the media regularly about what is happening with the...
Editorial: Keeping hospitals from being swamped is a collective responsibility
The great fear with any disease is always death. We worry about how many people it will steal. But with a pandemic — a rising tide of illness that isn’t confined to one school district, one town or even one country — there is another concern that can be a...
Editorial: Why weren’t poll workers better prepared?
Everyone knew there could be issues with the 2020 election. Aside from the obvious political ramifications of a presidential battle that was four years in the brewing, there was a very technical situation at hand. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in 2017 that Pennsylvania was one of 21...
Editorial: Hunting changes could feed families
The Monday after Thanksgiving has long been an additional holiday in Pennsylvania. A day off work. A day with special observations and rituals. And one with a lot of prayers said as hunters call upon a higher power for a little divine assistance in bagging the biggest deer possible. But...
Editorial: Act 47 shows the way to help distressed municipalities recover
In 1987, the Pennsylvania Legislature threw a lifeline to communities that were struggling economically: Act 47. Known as the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, it takes some of the back-to-the-drawing-board nature of a bankruptcy restructuring and adds a bit of money management lessons in the vein of debt guru Dave Ramsey,...
Editorial: Small business can use big boost this holiday season
We all know the minute Thanksgiving is over, the world of retail begins its annual gift-selling juggernaut. Despite the challenges and changes of 2020, including the coronavirus pandemic, that’s something that seems set in stone. The National Retail Foundation is anticipating holiday spending of between $755.3 and $766.7 billion. To...
Laurels & lances: Giving thanks, respecting rules
Laurel: To putting the “give” in Thanksgiving. It’s hard enough to nail the “thanks” part. There are different ways to do that, though. Some find the gratitude in the grace they say before dinner. Others do it by giving to others, whether in money or food or time. Plenty of...
Editorial: A different kind of Thanksgiving
’Tis the gift to be simple. ’Tis the gift to be free We often think of Thanksgiving in terms of the visuals. A Norman Rockwell kind of festivity with packed tables of loved ones and browned turkeys the size of laundry baskets. Everyone is dressed in their holiday best and...
Editorial: Public health orders that hurt the bar business require a chaser of aid
Gov. Tom Wolf has set last call for alcohol Wednesday at 4:59 p.m., because at 5 p.m. on the biggest drinking night of the year, bars and restaurants have to stop pouring. The new order is aimed at cutting down on the spread of covid-19 over Thanksgiving. The Wolf administration...
Editorial: Pa. counties need health department authority
The coronavirus pandemic is one big stew pot. The sometimes confusing information that emerges points to a lot of cooks stirring the soup. On the state level, there is the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which coordinates information from 67 counties — plus hospitals and nursing homes and personal care homes...
Editorial: Life lessons from Lucy’s kitchen
We should all live like Lucy. Lucy Pollock, 98, of Latrobe spent the last months surrounded by the love of her family and friends. And how those friends grew in that time. During the coronavirus pandemic, when people stayed home in lockdown and baking bread became the closest thing many...
Editorial: Vaccines great but pandemic not done
The vaccines are coming. In the last two weeks, two major pharmaceutical companies have made announcements about their covid-19 vaccines. Pfizer’s testing is showing a 90% efficacy. Moderna’s is 94.5%. Both are in the homestretch of a race with a huge jackpot — potentially millions of lives in America alone...
Editorial: PWSA plea needs to be clean start
The government has a problem with pollution. Some agencies just spew a lot of filth. Take the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Scott Brady announced that PWSA had pleaded guilty to eight federal charges in connection with a pattern of bad behavior from 2010 to 2017....
Laurels & lances: Neighbors, risks and connections
Laurel: To good neighbors. The Tree of Life Congregation still has no permanent home since the 2018 shooting at its synagogue, where two other congregations worshipped, as well. The attack killed 11 from the three congregations in the largest, deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. The synagogue in Squirrel Hill...
Editorial: Tranquilli resignation is last judicious word
Nolle prosequi is one of those formal, Latin phrases that abounds in the law. Translated to English as “not to follow,” in court it refers to a charge that isn’t pursued, often because of a plea deal where other charges were completed. On Tuesday, Allegheny County Judge Mark V. Tranquilli...
Editorial: The commonwealth’s appeal to serious common sense on coronavirus safety
Is Pennsylvania doing what it should have been doing all along with the coronavirus pandemic? Secretary of Health Rachel Levine announced Tuesday “targeted efforts” to address rising covid-19 numbers. The measures include beefing up the mask mandate she issued in April. It will demand people be masked inside anytime they...


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