Editorials category

Pittsburgh police have been over budget for years, particularly regarding overtime. Mayor Ed Gainey’s proposed budget all but ignores the cost of overtime in a manner that, frankly, makes no sense. Go to any pizza shop, corner store, hospital or university, and keeping overtime under control is a priority for...

We’ve all come to dread checking the mail. And not just when property taxes are due. Most of the year, the only post we get is bills, which are depressing, or advertisements, headed straight for the trash. Our mailboxes, once filled with interest and promise, have become a breeding ground...

In 2022, Excela Health announced a merger with Butler Health System. It was all about taking the two organizations and giving them “the requisite scale to accelerate and elevate its relevancy … in the region’s highly competitive health care marketplace.” That public-relations speak could be interpreted as allowing the hospitals...

Oh, those college expenses. There are those big ideas of what it will be like. It’s all freedom and independence until financial reality sets in. Then the calls start to come about borrowing money. No, this isn’t about your sophomore psychology student wanting to use that emergency credit card. It’s...

Laurel: To getting things done. When it comes to labor contracts, we have all become accustomed to hearing things come down to the wire — or beyond. How many union and employer deals can go months or even years without resolution while things hang in limbo or head into strike...

People accused of crimes have laid the blame at a variety of doorsteps to excuse — or at least explain — what happened. John Hinckley Jr. said it was the movie “Taxi Driver” and his obsession with a young Jodie Foster that prompted his assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in...

For most people, getting a raise is not a given. It is also a process. You have a performance evaluation. Your whole scope of work over the last year is reviewed. Did you meet expectations? Did you exceed them? What were your strengths? Did you work well with your team?...

A fire hydrant is part of the landscape, something your eye may just slide past. Like a light post or mailbox, it is expected to be just off the curb of a street. That makes them easy to ignore or to forget — unless, of course, you need one. But...

The next outbreak of serious disease is merely “a plane ride away,” public health officials have long warned. The current crop of measles cases in Canada proves that point. A traveler infected with measles visited a New Brunswick community with a low vaccination rate, sparking a national outbreak in 2024....

Education is built on the basics. ABCs become words, then sentences, then books. Counting becomes adding, then long division, then algebra. If you don’t get a good grounding at the primary level, everything gets harder until the learning process falls apart with the advanced material. That might be the issue...

What do you want to be when you grow up? The older students get, the more complicated the answer can become. By the time they graduate high school, plenty of young adults don’t have a grasp on what their next act might be. Many pick a college but not a...

Laurel: To finding an icon. When you think about mascots, you think about the kind that wear exaggerated cartoon suits at a sports venue. We have those covered with the Pirate Parrot, Iceburgh and Steely McBeam. But Pittsburgh has other mascots — the inanimate kind that are more like landmarks....

Thanksgiving is not just a day off and a big dinner. We tell ourselves that it is a uniquely American holiday. It may seem like that, the way it is based in our Plymouth Rock origin story. It comes to us wrapped in the trappings of turkey and stuffing, the...

In a representative democracy, the people pick their lawmakers. The lawmakers then decide what laws to enact. Over time, there has been an added layer. Lobbyists go to the lawmakers to advocate for their causes. Sometimes those causes are for things like cancer research or the environment. Sometimes they are...

Math scores in the U.S. have been so bad for so long that teachers could be forgiven for trying anything to improve them. Unfortunately, many of the strategies they’re using could be making things worse. It’s a crisis decades in the making. In the early 20th century, education reformers including...

A manufacturing company wants to expand. It makes announcements. And when the big news comes, there is another disclosure. The federal government is along for the ride. That might sounds like the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel deal that included a “golden share” specifically controlled by President Donald Trump. It also describes...

Imagine one of the most defining aspects of who you are. Maybe it’s your eye color or your height. Maybe it’s your name or your blood type or your language. Whatever it is, it’s part of what makes you distinctly you. And the law says it is OK for you...

Laurel: To seeing the problem. When you talk about bullying and programs to address it, the scope is generally broad. The instinct is to talk to the whole school or the whole class. You want to tell bullies not to bully. You want to tell the bystanders to speak up...

Why can’t Pennsylvania just have transparent government? Why is it so hard for the people to know who really is paying for the laws, the lawmakers and the influence? For nine years, March on Harrisburg has been — quite literally — marching on Harrisburg. The organization has returned to the...

Sometimes when police officers are accused of misconduct, it can be difficult to break through the wall of support — or at the very least, the wall of silence — that surrounds them. To a degree, that’s understandable. Officers depend on each other. In an emergency, they need to know...

Hate groups seem like the kind of thing that festers in the shadows. Who would admit to being aligned with an organization dedicated to hatred, committed to pressuring its neighbors and tied to violence? When was the last time you saw an obituary where someone’s long list of associations included...

The state budget is passed. It’s been signed by the governor. Four months of confusion and belt-tightening is over. But does that mean a handle turns and state funding starts to pour toward all of the restricted agencies and programs like water from a faucet? Not at all. Counties and...

If there’s one thing public schools understand, it’s how to apply math to a word problem. “Jimmy has five apples” and “a train leaves Philadelphia heading east at 30 miles per hour” are the kind of things that show up in homework, teaching kids that math problems don’t just come...

Pittsburgh has had a rocky road in recent years with its police leadership. Scott Schubert retired in 2022, bringing to end almost three decades with the department and five years as chief. Since then, things have run like a game of Chutes and Ladders — moving forward and sliding back....

Laurel: To asking for more. Brackenridge residents aren’t waiting for small problems to become big trouble. At a meeting this week, resident Heather Artman made a simple but important point: If ordinances aren’t enforced, they don’t matter. Maybe uncut grass and overflowing garbage cans don’t seem like a big deal,...