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Editorials category, Page 88

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Laurels & lances: Healing, benefits, milk and beer
Laurel: To healing with those who understand. Parkland to Pittsburgh is a program that will bring together survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting with the local Jewish community. While many people have said they empathize and understand and offered prayers and tears, the two groups are the...
Editorial: Student loans are the new mortgage
The changing demographics of the Pennsylvania Legislature are going to do more than increase Harrisburg’s social media presence and a demand for avocado toast. They are producing a whole new perspective on debt, and it’s an important view to understand as we move forward. We might pine for the old...
Editorial: Pittsburgh gun ban is politics’ fault
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s council passed a package of laws that would ban some weapons within the city limits and regulate access for people deemed an “extreme risk.” There are people who see this as a step forward in a nation where gun violence has become heartbreakingly commonplace while action to...
Editorial: The empty threat of Pennsylvania’s death penalty
An empty threat might seem like a good middle ground. It could give all the weight of a hefty penalty without any of the responsibility for the follow-through. It could seem strong while not actually being prepared to show strength. The reality is that it is a frustrated mother telling...
Editorial: Political rules are sign of election times
No shirt, no shoes, no service. No dogs allowed. No smoking. All simple signs. Easy to understand. Easy to obey. Now Westmoreland County needs another sign for its hallways. No politics on the premises. Workers, this means you. It’s the kind of thing that probably shouldn’t need a sign. When...
Editorial: Diocesan abuse department can’t become bureaucratic
“If only there were more bureaucracy.” File that under things no one has ever said. On Thursday, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik announced a new department to address sexual abuse claims and recovery. The Secretariat for the Protection of Children, Youth and Vulnerable Adults is open for business as of Monday....
Editorial: Pennsylvania annual gun registry bill overreaches
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, just like we learned in elementary school science class. We have to react. Don’t react to a fire, and you get burned. Don’t react to a traffic light, and you can cause a crash. But overreaction is as bad as...
Laurels & lances: Food, first aid and free speech
Laurel: To Pittsburgh in a cone. With the advent of baseball season, PNC Park will once again become not just the place to catch the great American pastime, but eat some great Pennsylvania cuisine. On Tuesday, the Pirates gave a glimpse of some of that, including a new signature item....
Editorial: Sex charges connect to worldwide human trafficking
There are horrible things in the world that we like to think are far away. Like human trafficking. The phrase can conjure pictures. Slave ships and auction blocks. Abductions and chains. Images that are a world away from our everyday lives. That doesn’t happen here. That’s another country, another continent,...
Editorial: Avenatti, Cohen, Kane, etc., show law hard for some lawyers
Maybe some lawyers spend so much time charting the routes between the rules, they forget that they are supposed to follow them. A lot of legal eagles have been in big trouble for breaking the rules. On Monday, federal authorities in California arrested Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who became the...
Editorial: Mueller, Rosfeld and what justice looks like
We have a Hollywood fairy-tale idea of justice. It’s something that makes the hurt go away and heals rifts. Maybe sometimes that’s true. It would be nice if it was. But justice doesn’t always look like that. In Pittsburgh, a significant number of people look at the Michael Rosfeld verdict...
Editorial: Leaders can learn from firefighters
How do you encourage people to participate by denying them a benefit of participation? Local fire companies and emergency medical services need more volunteers. In Pennsylvania, these critical first responders — the people who show up at your home when there is a fire or along the road when there...
Editorial: Who won the Michael Rosfeld homicide trial?
No one won. On Friday, when a jury concluded the four-day homicide trial of Michael Rosfeld with three and a half hours of deliberation and an acquittal, there was no real victory. Rosfeld didn’t win the case. He just won’t go to jail. He can walk away from the courthouse,...
Editorial: Act 44 taking its toll on turnpike
On Thursday, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released an audit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The results were conclusive. Where some states build bridges to nowhere or roads without a destination, Pennsylvania knows exactly where things for the toll road are headed. Down a path to bankruptcy. Act 44 of 2007...
Laurels & lances: Treats, charges, legends and speaking out
Laurel: To spring being sprung. Regardless of predicted snowflakes Friday, spring is officially here and high temperatures in the coming week are predicted to stay in the 40s and 50s and all the way to 60s. It’s the perfect time to appreciate those longer days and brighter evenings, so thanks...
Editorial: Why use a mass shooter’s name?
We name names. The goal of journalism is to disseminate information. We find out who made a decision, who bought a business, who staged a protest, who won a prize, who died in a crash, who saved a life. And we name names. There are times that we pull the...
Editorial: Adults need to be informed about vaping, JUUL-ing
Do we really need another way to be addicted? We have internet and we have cellphones. We have alcohol and we have drugs. Lots of drugs. From the legal to the illicit to the things we use as substitutes for drugs when drugs are too hard to find. And we...
Editorial: What do we expect from black boys, rich kids?
Former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld’s trial starts Tuesday. Barring a plea or other last-minute changes, a jury will decide if he is guilty of criminal homicide in the June 19th death of Antwon Rose II. Rose’s story is one in a long line of high-profile shootings of black...
Editorial: Mental health has to be prioritized
As the trial of former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld for the shooting of Antwon Rose is set to begin, another police shooting has happened. While the Rose shooting brings attention to the nationally felt tension between the black community and law enforcement, the death of Nina Adams, 47,...
Editorial: Veto shows how Washington is supposed to work
President Trump has signed his name on a lot of things since taking office. Executive orders. Bills he signed into law. Bibles for fans in tornado-torn Alabama. But on Friday, he signed something new. A veto. For the first time in his presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives...
Editorial: Shooting shows high cost of cheap hate
Words have a high price. Thoughts have a cost. We make a mistake terming these things “free” when we really mean “unrestricted.” Nothing valuable comes without cost. Like guns, ideas can be valuable tools or deadly weapons. Like bullets, words can hit with pinpoint accuracy or spray like a hose,...
Laurels & lances: Musicals, memes, gadgets and guns
Laurel: To all the kids raising the curtains. Musical season at schools all over the area is in full swing, with cast members singing and dancing and hitting their marks while crew members build sets, prep props and focus the spotlights. Every show is as physical as a football game...
Editorial: Boeing crash, FAA delay test confidence
Confidence is what makes transportation work. We have confidence in painted lines on the road keeping lethally fast cars in their lanes. We have confidence that a bus will follow its route and get us where we need to go. And we have confidence in all of the dominoes that...
Editorial: Social media meets Social Security
If you put your life on social media, you may have to worry about security. Social Security. While Russian hackers and Chinese cyberattacks get all the attention for how they break into a system, the government here at home can use what you put out there without resorting to ransomware...
Editorial: How do you ask charities for charity?
Charity begins at home, and Allegheny County is home to a lot of charities. After six years, the county has only been able to review 72 percent of the tax-exempt properties owned by “complex nonprofits.” Out of 2,800 parcels, about 700 have not been reviewed to see if they really...


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