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Editorials category, Page 81

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Law shouldn’t bend to outrage
Outrage is a good catalyst but a poor navigator. A physical assault on two women at an Exxon station in Pittsburgh’s Marshall- Shadeland neighborhood has prompted huge response. Viral video of the incident shows the black women leave their car to go into the gas station, ostensibly to ask for a...
Editorial: Take it slow on marijuana legalization
“Legalize marijuana” is not a new refrain in Pennsylvania. You could hear it on college campuses. You could hear it from libertarian groups. It came more and more as other states made lighting up permissible. The old song has been sampled often as medical marijuana has been OK’d and the...
Laurels & lances: Habeas corpus, handshakes, hard topics
Laurel: To pursuing the law despite the obstacles. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has charged Douglas Berry with homicide in the case of Elizabeth Wiesenfeld despite the fact that the 67-year-old Baldwin woman’s body has not been found. The law may be built on a premise of...
Lori Falce: We all need more team players
This week, I was reminded of how old I am because of a football player. Jon Condo retired. You might not recognize that name. Condo is a Pennsylvania native, a graduate of my own high school, Philipsburg-Osceola, that straddles the line between Clearfield and Centre counties. And he was a...
Editorial: Conversion therapy proposals pure politics
Conversion therapy is a grab bag of practices that utilize psychological, emotional, spiritual or physical techniques to try and remake someone who is gay or bisexual into a heterosexual. The practice also has been used on people identifying as transgender. Subjects are often minors. So kudos to the Allegheny County...
Editorial: How much surveillance is too much?
Someone is always watching. That might sound a little crazy, but you’re only paranoid if it’s not true. These days, everything is being monitored all the time. It’s not that someone can swoop in and stop you from doing something illegal or saying something inciteful. It’s that if something does...
Editorial: Where have all the birds gone?
Pennsylvania may be dotted by cities and towns, but at its heart, the state is a forest. It’s right there in the name. Pennsylvania. Penn’s Woods. The state has always embraced that nature. The Department of Environmental Protection was established in 1995 but traces its roots all the way back...
Editorial: Keep politicians off pedestals
It is hard to believe that someone who makes the laws could break them flagrantly. But it happens. It happens more than we would like to admit. Elected officials are arrested. They plead guilty. They are convicted. They can serve prison sentences and sometimes they come back from political death...
Editorial: Narcan isn’t addiction antidote
People are alive today because of Narcan. That is absolutely indisputable. Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, is like a pharmacological blindfold. If someone has overdosed on a narcotic, a dose of Narcan can make the body and brain ignore the drugs. Pay no attention to that heroin. What heroin?...
Editorial: Colt’s AR-15 decision is market driven
Guns aren’t just about hunting or target shooting or personal defense. They aren’t just about firepower. They are also about money. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, it’s big money. The total economic impact of the gun industry topped $52 billion in 2018. Nationwide, there are 311,991 jobs related...
Laurels & lances: Music, malice and money
Laurel: To making a good thing better. And bigger. The inaugural Greensburg Music Fest went well in 2018 with about 3,000 people showing up for concerts. It can’t get much better than that. Except it did. The second festival last week saw attendance top 5,000 music lovers coming out to...
Editorial: Student sports more than athletics
The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League is once again investigating allegations of slurs at a local sporting event. If it sounds familiar, it’s because the same thing happened a year ago. Connellsville students, fans and players were accused of hurling racial slurs against black Penn Hills players at a soccer...
Editorial: Capitol capacity can’t contain protests
Pennsylvania invites its citizens to engage in lively and personal protest at the seat of government. As long as it’s done in small enough groups. As reported by PennLive.com, if you want to marshal your forces and show up at the state Capitol with a contingent of like-minded individuals to...
Editorial: Companies play games with bankruptcy
Bankruptcy isn’t supposed to be child’s play, but too often companies big and small use it as a way to cheat at tag. Remember when you were a kid and someone wouldn’t play the game so much as game the rules? They would taunt “come and get me!” as they...
Editorial: Ms. Monopoly panders to women
Talk about diversifying your portfolio. The makers of an age-old favorite board game have created a new version that celebrates the contributions of women: Ms. Monopoly. That’s great. Women have consistently been unrepresented on the board, which has just one real character — Mr. Monopoly, the top-hatted, cane-wielding image of...
Editorial: Dick’s, other CEOs get to speak up
Who is Dick’s Sporting Goods to ask for stronger gun laws? Who is Gap? Who is Levi Strauss? Who is Credit Karma or Bloomberg or Condé Nast? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, they are people. In the 2010 decision that has rippled through campaign finance, the court decided that...
Editorial: Shapiro right about Purdue Pharma offer
What is the cost of a life lost to drugs? According to Pennsylvania statutes, it is 40 years in prison. That’s the maximum sentence for drug delivery resulting in death. It’s decades in a concrete-block box with a metal tray for a bed. It’s matching jumpsuits that identify you as...
Laurels & lances: Counseling, foreclosure and mobility
Laurel: To helping kids cope. There are things that you might expect at a Friday night football game. Zealous fans. Uncomfortable bleachers. Both sides mad at the referees. What you don’t expect is a man being gunned down outside the field. That happened last week at McKee Stadium. Jeannette City...
Editorial: Stop laughing at Antonio Brown
It is time to stop being amused by Antonio Brown. Oh, sure, it was fun for a while. And it kind of felt like Steelers fans had earned the entertainment, the opportunity to kick back and watch the football player make another team befuddled for a change. There were frozen...
Editorial: On anniversary of 9/11, we must find strength to unite once again
It seemed hard to believe, that day, that it was happening. It seemed hard to believe your eyes, even though you watched the planes hit, the towers fall, the Pentagon burn, the smoke roll off the Pennsylvania field. The nation stared, not the way you might be unable to look...
Editorial: Details matter with rail inspection
The devil is in the details. On Aug. 4, 2018, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Station Square in Pittsburgh. Given the proximity of people at the Port Authority T track below, it is providential that there were no casualties. But there were costs. Local transit riders were disrupted...
Editorial: The real challenge of gun debate
In August, days after shootings in California and Texas and Ohio, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto issued a challenge to legislators in Washington and Harrisburg: Do something about guns in 30 days. If nothing else, reconvene from recess and talk about what to do. The 30 days have passed. Nothing has...
Editorial: Vaping epidemic can be stopped
Just stop the vaping. Take the little electronic device that you are using to inhale vaporized liquids and put it down. It might not be smoking, but you’re playing with fire. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the latest ugly numbers about the health impacts of...
Editorial: Firefighter support is priceless
Putting out a fire isn’t cheap. According to the International Association of Fire Chiefs, that iconic helmet is $350. Goggles are $75. The hood that goes under the hat is $45, and that’s the cheapest thing they wear. The jacket and pants are $1,800, gloves are $75 and boots are...
Laurels & lances: Soldiers, screens and schools
Laurel: To telling the stories of heroes. Sutersville fire Chief Mark Ghion conducted countless hours of research into the lives and deaths of 14 soldiers from that borough who were killed while serving their country in World Wars I and II and Korea. His work, “14 Sons of Sutersville,” has...


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