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Editorials category, Page 90

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Laurels & lances: Perfection, Parkway, Pittsburgh Dad and payment
Laurel: To Olivia Grace Fertig for keeping it real. The Highlands High School senior has a following of thousands on her social media accounts, but unlike many “influencers” and celebrities who keep their fans with a Photoshop view of a life with perfect skin and perfect hair and perfectly fake...
Editorial: Pittsburgh, Parkland linked by tragedy
Load. Pull back. Take aim. On Valentine’s Day, that scenario should be about Cupid loosing arrows, inspiring love and leading to bouquets of roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. It should not be about high school kids lying dead in pools of their own blood in hallways where minutes before...
Editorial: Highlands hearing shows need for public engagement
There is a reason that government meetings are public. It is because the public has a right to know and participate in what the government is doing. The leaders represent the people. The people, therefore, aren’t supposed to be cut out of the process. The people delegated the responsibility of...
Editorial: Amazon money coming to Pittsburgh without HQ2
So what if Amazon doesn’t want to build a second headquarters in Pittsburgh? Southwestern Pennsylvania is more than capable of becoming the home of the next big thing in technology. That’s not just sour grapes. It’s an awareness of what is in the backyard. Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas are...
Editorial: Tarentum tax shaming is only fair
If there is one thing we learned from the Puritans, it’s the societal value of public humiliation. They might not have had good ideas about witch trials, but when it came to smaller offenses, they realized quickly that if everyone knew you did something wrong, you were probably less likely...
Editorial: UPMC, Highmark show charities are big business
When Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that he was going to court to break up the UPMC-Highmark catfight, it put a spotlight on something that frequently gets forgotten when dealing with the big business of health. They are both nonprofit organizations. Neither of them hide that. In fact, it...
Editorial: Penn Hills grand jury report, recovery plan short on teaching lessons
You can’t keep digging a hole without making plans to climb out. Right now, it doesn’t seem like Penn Hills School District will ever find a way out of the dirt. On Tuesday, a grand jury report used words like “economic ruin,” “egregious” and “catastrophic” to paint a picture of...
Laurels & lances: Marijuana, Scouts, violence, drugs, and the Super Bowl
Laurel: To the Wolf administration for committing to gauging the public’s sentiment on marijuana legalization. Can’t get much more thorough than Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s plan to visit 67 counties. Oh no, Toto, I don’t think we’re in Harrisburg anymore — or even Braddock! Laurel: To the Boy Scouts for...
Editorial: Is Wolf’s budget feasible?
Wow, does Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget sound good. He started out his 2019-20 budget address — a kind of “State of the Commonwealth” — with what he acknowledged was the thing people really wanted to know. “This proposal asks for no new taxes. Not one dollar. Not one dime. Not...
Editorial: Trump talks unity, doesn’t achieve it
The State of the Union address hit all of its marks. President Trump danced through the annual speech, following all the footprints on the floor to pull off a waltz that moved from point to point. Acknowledge everyone. Applause. Use the buzzwords. America. Jobs. Economy. More applause. And as usual...
Editorial: Shapiro’s PWSA charges show need for public trust
People just want to know what is going on. So many issues that arise with public service go back to public trust. The people need to have information and communication to believe that the people in power are doing the right thing. And that is the problem with the Pittsburgh...
Editorial: Hempfield vote review invites questions
Investigating yourself doesn’t work. Hempfield’s solicitor is reviewing whether or not the municipality made decisions outside the public eye after Supervisor Rob Ritson raised the issue of four times he says that has occurred. The instances weren’t petty. Occurring between 2016-18, they include a $125,000 union settlement agreement, a $4.3...
Editorial: Is Wolf’s minimum wage increase too high for Pennsylvania?
Everybody wants a raise. That means a lot of people hear Gov. Tom Wolf’s resurrection of a plan to increase the minimum wage and think that’s a good thing. The people who sign those paychecks — or the people who believe they will lead to higher prices to offset the...
Editorial: What can Bill Murray teach Punxsutawney Phil?
Everyone worries about job security in a world of changing industries and technologies. Manufacturing, medicine, journalism — you name it and someone is concerned about what is evolving and whether it means they should be updating their resume. So when does Pennsylvania’s favorite rodent have to start updating his LinkedIn...
Laurels & lances: Cold, animals, ‘known cheater’ and death threats
Laurel: To the fire companies, senior citizen centers and other groups which stayed open extra hours this week to provide warming centers or offered additional services as needed during the polar vortex. Thank you for all you do for our communities every day, but a special thanks for the way...
Editorial: Cold kids are ‘soft’?
The governor of Kentucky thinks we all need to just toughen up. Well, good news, governor. Everything has a tendency to get harder in the cold. “Come on, now. I mean, there’s no ice going with it, or any snow … I mean, what happened to America,” Gov. Matt Bevin...
Editorial: Pope lowers sex abuse expectations
Pope Francis thinks hopes are too high for a planned February summit on preventing sexual abuse. In a disaster movie, this is the point where the bureaucratic pencil pusher won’t give the hero the support he needs to keep bad from becoming calamitous. It is the mayor not closing the...
Editorial: Is the grass greener where it’s legal?
Could Pennsylvania be the new Colorado? The state has barely gotten its fledgling legalization of medical marijuana out of the nest and there are already moves to hatch recreational use, and some come from the Pittsburgh area. Like alcohol, state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, thinks weed should be legal...
Editorial: Shut down shutdowns
The longest government shutdown may have done the impossible. It got some Republicans and Democrats to agree on the need for some kind of wall. Unfortunately for President Trump, what they want to wall off is the option to shut down the federal government. Legislators from both parties have openly...
Editorial: Government is open. For now.
It took 35 days. It took more than a month to get the federal government open for business after President Trump pulled back on his previous support for a bipartisan spending plan that would have funded operations into February. It went through two pay cycles for 800,000 government employees and...
Editorial: Voices heard at gun control hearing?
It was a hearing. Not a listening. On Thursday night, 101 people stepped up to the microphone in front of Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Bill Peduto. They wanted to have their say. They each were allotted three minutes to tell their story or plead their case. They spoke on...
Laurels & lances: Art and history and crimes and punishment
Laurel: To “Hamilton” for prioritizing education. The hottest ticket in town is a free ticket for 2,700 Pennsylvania students who scored a shot at seeing the Tony Award-winning megahit at the Benedum Center on Friday as part of the Hamilton Education Project. It brings kids from low-income districts to the...
Trump is trapped and tanking in polls
Even this White House, infamous for self-delusion, must realize it’s in deep trouble. Two more polls released Wednesday show the depth of President Trump’s problem. The Morning Consult-Politico poll finds that “57 percent of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s job performance — more than any other survey in Trump’s two...
Editorial: Gigs are up with Walmart announcement
The news of Walmart grocery delivery in the Pittsburgh area was met with interest. A way to go to Walmart without actually going to Walmart? A chance to casually select ice cream, laundry detergent, half a pound of chipped ham, six frozen pizzas and a dozen bagels from a phone...
Editorial: A beautiful day…to be snubbed?
While some read the lists of Academy Award nominees with questions about how Bradley Cooper and Emily Blunt could be snubbed and why were no women nominated in the director category, in our little corner, the question is more about documentaries than blockbusters. What about Mr. Rogers? “Won’t You Be...


Editor's Picks

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Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 Mustang stops in hometown for museum anniversary
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