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Editorials category, Page 83

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Editorial: Gun control isn’t just red or blue
When you think about guns and legislation, there’s a tendency to default to red and blue battlegrounds. It’s easy to reduce to stereotypes: Democrats want to restrict them and Republicans want to hand them out like bobbleheads at a baseball game. But Pennsylvania offers a lesson in the rainbow of...
Editorial: The politics of making tragedy political
On its best day, politics is a balancing act. The politician is like a waitress with a giant, carefully coordinated tray of plates and bowls and glasses. Move this constituent’s sandwich and it affects that agency’s soup which could slosh all over the opposition’s dessert and make the whole table...
Lori Falce: Thoughts, prayers and actions
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of El Paso. My thoughts and prayers are with the city of Dayton. My thoughts and prayers are with the people who are left bleeding and broken. They are with the family members who are trying to make sense of funeral arrangements...
Laurels & lances: Dig in, shut down, clean up
Laurel: To carrying on the family tradition. This year the Gearhard family, of Gearhard Farms in Murrysville, marks the farm’s 250th anniversary. Members of the family have been living and farming the property since 1769, making the farm older than America, and the oldest in Westmoreland County. Farmer Herb Gearhard...
Editorial: Census is America taking attendance
Rock the vote. Show up at the polls. Every vote counts. Voting is frequently pushed as a way to make your voice heard in the halls of government. And it is. It’s just not the only way. We vote twice a year. It matters, and it can affect everything from...
Editorial: Suicide happens. Pretending doesn’t prevent it.
Sometimes people just don’t know what to say when someone dies. It can be even more challenging when the death was a suicide. News agencies are no different. We want to be honest and frank about a serious incident. We want to be kind and compassionate about a profound loss....
Editorial: There is no one way to stop shootings
There is no way to stop someone brimming with fear and goaded by hatred, fueled by insecurity and propelled by prejudice. We have to stop this grappling to find the Holy Grail solution that will solve the tragic trouble of mass murder. It isn’t one answer. It is a complicated,...
Editorial: Data security demands cooperation
There is no lock that can’t be picked. There are just locks that haven’t been picked yet. That is the short definition of cybersecurity. Credit card giant Capital One became the latest victim in the hacking wars last week when the company announced 104 million customers and applicants had their...
Editorial: No such thing as a free lunch with SNAP
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. There are plenty of old sayings that urge us not to do something on principle that makes sense but has an obvious fly in the ointment....
Editorial: HQ2 bids gave Amazon lots of options
The Amazon announcement Tuesday of a new nonsortable fulfillment center near Pittsburgh International Airport was well- received. It was like Allegheny County got an unexpected rose from a TV “Bachelor.” It’s a $30 million investment. It means 800 full- time jobs will be created with $15 per hour paychecks. It...
Laurels & lances: Funds, fire and field
Laurel: To working hard to make beautiful music. Some people start saving early for Christmas but the Hempfield Area High School marching band is more focused on stockpiling money for New Year’s Day. The Spartans will ring in 2020 five hours earlier than the rest of Westmoreland County because they...
Editorial: Disgusting videos show pervasive disrespect
Have people always been this disgusting? In our cameras-everywhere internet age, we seem to be assailed with a lot of things no one wants to know. Not just the “how-is-the-sausage-made” kind of thing. No, this isn’t about incidental disgust — the unpleasantness that happens and we turn away because, hey,...
Editorial: Regatta board needed to trust but verify
Festivals that over-promise, over-commit and under-deliver to the point of investigations and public outcry are becoming all too common. The Fyre Festival has become synonymous with fraud. The “luxury music festival” planned for 2017 in the Bahamas was canceled at the last minute amid broken promises. Sounds something like Tuesday’s...
Editorial: We all live in drug neighborhoods
A drug buy is the kind of thing that could happen anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a crack house. Money doesn’t just change hands in dark alleys and abandoned warehouses. There isn’t just one kind of neighborhood where people have drug problems. The July 23 shooting at Northland Center...
Editorial: Nobody puts Facebook in a corner
How do you punish a company that is bigger than a country? How do you control an industry that evolves at light speed? Can you? The Federal Trade Commission tried last week. Facebook was hit with a $5 billion fine on Wednesday. That’s a huge number. As individuals, it’s hard...
Editorial: The new life in the death penalty
The death penalty is alive and well in the federal government. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr resuscitated the punishment that has languished since 2014 when the Obama administration began a review. That review is complete and executions are being scheduled. The first five death row inmates who will...
Laurels & lances: A bridge, water and respect
Laurel: To free-flowing traffic. If you’ve been avoiding Freeport Road in East Deer for a year, you can stop taking detours to avoid delays. On Monday, the road was reopened to traffic with a new longer, wider bridge built to stand 100 years. The bridge is the last one in...
Editorial: Should schools turn down free lunch?
It’s fine for a government official to take a stand, as long as he remembers who is picking up the tab. Wyoming Valley West School District is in Luzerne County, and there’s little reason that it would usually attract national attention. According to measurements by Niche.com, the district’s report card...
Editorial: A calling to serve and protect
When a police officer assumes his role, it isn’t like other jobs. He may put on a uniform. He may punch a clock. He may be “on duty” from this time until that time. And all of that might have a lot in common with other jobs. Cable installer. Postal...
Editorial: DirecTV, CBS blackouts make TV too hard
Hey, let’s watch some TV. That should be simple enough. Pick up your remote, press a button, pick a channel. It’s not rocket science. Collapsing on the couch and zoning out to the television is the very definition of rest for many people. So why are entertainment companies making it...
Editorial: Progress or caution with turnpike proposal?
Development always seems like a good idea. It’s expansion. It’s growth. And generally, yes, that can be great. Our leaders are responsible not just to maintain the status quo but to keep an eye on the future. That means we have to grow. We need younger residents to feed the...
Editorial: Black arrests up, police recruits down
The numbers show two perspectives of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s relationship with black people. But are they telling the same story? On Monday, the Black Political Empowerment Project pointed to the data from the latest class of police recruits as a “serious disappointment.” The numbers show just four black...
Editorial: Moon shot proves American aspiration
Moon shot. It was an against-all-odds idea. It was a plan that was as far-fetched as it was impossible. It was the kind of ridiculous idea that you threw out there as an example of ridiculous ideas. But in 1961, John F. Kennedy gave the impossible a deadline. He stood...
Laurels & lances: Wishes, dangers and partners
Laurel: To a hero’s dream come true. Seven military or first-responder brides received a fairy godmother moment in Greensburg when they participated in a Brides Across America event that put Cinderella-fantasy wedding gowns onto women who have served their country or their community — or are marrying someone who has....
Editorial: Could Congress vote conscience over caucus?
“Our Independent Voice.” That’s how a Bucks County congressman’s official website describes him. It takes digging on Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s website to uncover his GOP affiliation. You can find that he’s a former FBI agent and an attorney, a CPA and an EMT. It shows he is on his second...


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