Laurel: To great ideas. STEM — the acronym for science, technology, engineering and math — has been a priority in education for years as a schools and government alike emphasized the rich opportunities for future careers in all the fields it could open.

Three Fox Chapel Area students are showing that potential early, as well as showing its importance in solving real world problems.

Junior Janise Kim and sophomores Arvind Seshan and Prajval Sreenivas just won the eighth annual Governor’s STEM competition for “CITISYNC,” an occupancy tracking system. It revolutionizes social distancing by tracking the number of people in a location and evaluating public safety.

To make things more complicated, they did it without even working together in person because they were attending school virtually. They walked away with trophies, medals and a $2,000 scholarship each, but the real prize is a great start on a future using their STEM skills to make the world a better place.

Lance: To justice delayed. On Wednesday, Berks County Senior Judge John Bocccabella ordered Graham Spanier to begin serving his two-month jail sentence followed by two months of house arrest and two years probation.

The former Penn State president was convicted of misdemeanor child endangerment in 2017, charges that took five years to stumble to court after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal in 2012. They actually originated much earlier, beginning with a 2001 abuse report.

Sandusky began serving his 30- to 60-year sentence in 2012. Spanier was charged alongside former athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, who entered pleas in 2017 and served short jail sentences followed by probation.

Spanier — who has already been approved for work release so he will serve little time actually in the jail — has asked for repeated delays due to appeals and health problems. It is long past time to finish this chapter of a case that has dragged on for years.

Laurel: To putting out fires. Latrobe is considering commissioning a study to find ways to increase the city fire department’s funding and cut costs.

The idea of getting help from the outside to make these plans is a smart way of addressing the issue, much like hiring an architect to draw up designs for a building or a lawyer to outline a legal strategy.

Latrobe’s five fire stations conduct their own fundraisers to supplement the city’s annual firefighting budget of $255,000 and an additional $50,000 raised through the department’s yearly fund drive. Those fundraisers took a hit during coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

“Hopefully, we can look at ways to reduce (costs) and take some of the burden off the city’s operating budget,” city manager Michael Gray said.

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