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Editorials category, Page 79

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Gift limits are good policy
As Black Friday approaches, everyone is thinking about gifts. Kids. Parents. Department store Santas. And state representatives. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee unanimously approved an annual limit on what a public official, employee or candidate can receive. The value of limiting gifts should be obvious for anyone...
Editorial: Judge is right on Toner Trust
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a familiar saying. It refers to the idea of meeting one obligation at the expense of something else. Pay your light bill by putting off a credit card payment. Buy gas with the grocery money. Use the Christmas savings to take care of the...
Editorial: Kids shouldn’t suffer for politics
Kids need homes. A kid doesn’t necessarily need a smartphone or a new game system or a puppy, though those might all be on a wish list. But there are basics, like a roof and a door and clothes and food that are non-negotiable. There are things like love and...
Editorial: Give thanks for food bank grants
The shopping lists are being made. There’s the turkey. You’ll need the stuff to make the stuffing. Potatoes, of course — both sweet and starchy. The cranberry sauce that might not get eaten at all but still somehow seems necessary. Pies, lots of pies, but with whipped cream or ice...
Editorial: Veterans’ way out of homelessness
There are things that we promise our service members. We tell them that they will be paid and that they will be trained. We tell them that when they complete their service, they will have the opportunity to go to school. They will have medical care. They are told that...
Editorial: Myles Garrett’s helmet strike on Steelers QB should be investigated
It is easy to dismiss some post-game howling as poor sportsmanship. That call was blown! The refs were biased! The game was rigged! It so often comes down to the fact that one side won and the other side lost. Identify yourself so closely with a team and it can...
Laurels & lances: Growing, paying, climbing, working
Laurel: To making the holidays bigger. The Ligonier Country Market’s annual Christmas Market is getting a boost with a second location. The boost to the Nov. 30 event will not just accommodate more crafters, artisans and other producers, but also additional shoppers. Way to grow. Lance: To not paying up....
Editorial: Ethics have to be AG priority
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office sends out a lot of press releases. They come when a drug dealer is arrested or when a lawsuit is filed against a pharmaceutical corporation. They come when he releases a grand jury report. They come when charges are filed against an elected official....
Editorial: Write-in votes shouldn’t be wasted
Your vote is a valuable commodity. It’s the difference between being a victim or a volunteer. It is participation. It is involvement. And that’s all serious business. Voting for Porky Pig? That’s really not. In every election, there are people who exercise another right: the ability to disregard the options...
Editorial: Slip kindness on like a comfy sweater
Some things shouldn’t need a reminder. Don’t speed through a work zone. Don’t deliver a bomb threat to a school. Don’t drive the wrong way down a one-way street. But sometimes we need a gentle prod — like a mom nudging a kid to prompt a “please” and “thank you.”...
Editorial: In service and honor of veterans
On Armed Forces Day, we honor those who serve. On Memorial Day, we honor those who fell. And on Veterans Day, we honor those who wore the uniform, gave their service and came home. We honor them because they honored us all by stepping up. We honor the sacrifice they...
Editorial: Is Pittsburgh bullying out-of-town jocks?
It can be hard to think of jocks as being bullied. The whole idea turns everything we know on its head. Jocks don’t get pushed around, right? They’re the ones who get the attention, the ones who make up their own rules. Except maybe they don’t. In a lawsuit filed...
Editorial: Healthy investments pay off
The Greater Pittsburgh area will always be synonymous with steel, but it’s definitely become a hub of health activity more than metal in recent decades. That is why it’s good to see area health systems making investments in the services that keep people healthy and keep area workers employed. Highmark’s...
Laurels & lances: Moving on, monuments and memorials
Laurel: To change when it needs to happen. The Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Department has had a rocky couple of years as it faced problems from the top-down. Sheriff Jonathan Held’s public corruption charges continue to hang in limbo after a December 2018 mistrial and subsequent appeals over a retrial. Other...
Editorial: The toll of a cashless turnpike
Some things in life are inevitable. There’s death, obviously. Taxes, of course. And apparently there is also cashless tolling. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says that the state is just two years away from complete conversion to a system that demands you use an E-ZPass transponder or receive a bill via...
Editorial: Marsy’s Law ruling is right
Kelsey Grammer will be disappointed. The former “Frasier” star lent his star power — and his understanding as someone who lost loved ones to violent crime — to the Marsy’s Law proposal that looks to give constitutional standing to victims. A referendum for the amendment was on Tuesday’s ballot. But...
Editorial: Raise your voice, cast your vote
We were all born with a voice. We were not automatically granted the right to use it. That came by standing up and demanding it. When America was a colony, we had the rights that England gave us. We weren’t satisfied with that. We demanded a say in how we...
Editorial: Show volunteers they are valued
We can’t afford to lose the people who keep us safe. But we are. In Pennsylvania, there are 2,463 fire companies. More than 90% of them are staffed by volunteers. According to state Rep. Bob Brooks, R-Murrysville, the number of firefighters had been falling for 30 years or so when...
Editorial: Pittsburgh gun law isn’t a scrimmage
The preseason is when a team warms up, stretches and tries things out. Let’s see how this guy does as a quarterback. What if we pair up these two offensive players on the same line? It’s a way to do a test run on something before the score matters. So...
Editorial: Congress not unbiased jury in impeachment
A jury has been seated for the trial of Rahmael Holt in the November 2017 shooting death of New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw, slated to start Monday. The jury selection took days. In any such process, there are questions about whether jurors knew the defendant or the deceased. There...
Laurels & lances: Bills, budgets and buses
Laurel: To honoring the memory of those lost with real action. State Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, and state Sens. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, and Larry Farnese, D-Philadelphia, marked their remembrance of the Tree of Life shooting with a package of four bills. The legislators are...
Editorial: How do we save manufacturing?
According to the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Pennsylvania has more than 18,900 businesses and 570,400 people engaged in making everything from steel to potato chips to lighters. That is a significant number of companies and employees. It just isn’t what it used to be. The Georgetown Center...
Editorial: The high cost of voting security
Cost shouldn’t always be the most important factor in a government decision. There are plenty of times that you want your leaders to make the right call, not the cheap one. Build a bridge that won’t buckle. Buy a fire truck that works. Short-term savings aren’t always a long-run solution....
Editorial: What we learn from sinkholes
Is there any better allegory for infrastructure than a sinkhole on a public street? It is a collapse of what was put in place for a specific function. There could be lots of reasons a sinkhole happens. It might be the weather, like the one along Route 30 where Greensburg...
Editorial: Follow the path to economic development
A trail can be more than just a track worn through the grass and the dirt by a thousand other travels. A trail can be something that gets you where you need to go — the breadcrumbs you follow to get home, the yellow brick road that takes you to...


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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