Editorials category, Page 33

Some municipalities — as well as school districts, counties and other government agencies — talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to releasing information. Coincidentally, they do so by limiting who is doing the talking. Take Aspinwall. The Allegheny County municipality with a population less than...

Laurel: To taking time. In Murrysville, elected officials aren’t rushing into an ordinance that would address short-term home rentals. Council is taking time to debate what needs to be regulated and what doesn’t when it comes to homeowners making their properties available through services like Airbnb or VRBO. It’s an...

The Hempfield Area School District’s building project just keeps adding layers of issues without ever breaking ground. The project is conceived as a “revitalization” of the senior high school. It would bring the outdated structure up to today’s needs and provide improvements to the sports facilities, including a swimming pool...

Bail is money that serves as a guarantee that a defendant will show up in court. It is not meant to be punitive but simply a surety that the process plays out as intended. Don’t show up? You not only have a new warrant for arrest, but you also lose...

As state lawmakers ponder fully legalizing marijuana, a new Senate bill points to a persistent related problem that Congress should resolve. Like 37 other states, the District of Columbia and three territories, Pennsylvania allows the use of medicinal marijuana. Those territories, the District of Columbia and 23 states also have...

We remember the losses our nation and our state felt on Sept. 11, 2001, with this updated editorial from the 20th anniversary of the tragic events. For two decades, America has had one shared cultural touchstone. Every Sept. 11, we are transported to the day when the whole country held...

Do police officers need to go to college? It’s a question that many places have struggled to answer in recent years as it has become harder to fill the vacancies in police departments large and small. There are a number of officers walking away from the job, either retiring or...

What’s up with all the prison escapes? Pennsylvania has seen a number of high-profile incidents in 2023 when someone in custody has gotten free and gone on the lam. As of Friday, one was still ongoing. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, is a Brazilian native convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend. He was...

Laurel: To finally getting answers. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ruled on the cause of an explosion at a home in Plum. No, it was not the August incident in Rustic Ridge that claimed the lives of six people and destroyed three homes and damaged others. The PUC...

It is critical that people have trust in the police. The relationship between the public and police officers depends on an understanding of best interests. Like child and parent or student and teacher, it is more than just authority. It is a belief in doing the right thing. At least,...

“Jurassic Park” is a heck of a movie. Indeed, it is a great franchise of movies. Michael Crichton’s bestselling book as the skeleton and Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster thriller brought us all face to face — or screen to face — with reptilian claws and teeth. Five more movies followed....

To borrow a device from the recent Republican candidates’ debate: Raise your hand if you think that lobbyists influence politicians, officeholders and public policy. Raise it again if you think that the public should know how those lobbyists affect policy. Pennsylvania’s 203 representatives and 50 senators disagree with you. They...

Predators in the wild prowl around the edges of a herd of animals, waiting to pick the vulnerable. They may lie in wait, camouflaged until it is time to pounce. In real estate, the wolves and hyenas are corporations that buy up properties from the desperate. The bait can be...

Pennsylvania’s role in the 2024 presidential election cannot be underestimated. Since 1972, the state has only voted for the losing candidate twice, opting for Al Gore and John Kerry instead of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. After the results have been reported in the small and sparsely populated...

Laurel: To a fresh start. Elizabeth Forward High School ended the 2022-23 school year on a sad note with the auditorium, band and chorus rooms out of commission following a February fire. Those spaces are always full of activity in the final months of a school year as students bustle...

How much of a raise did you get last year? According to international insurance and brokerage company WTW, the U.S. average was about 4.2%. That was higher than the 3.1% and 3% of the previous two years. All together, the three years come in at 10.3%. Unless you are an...

A criminal court sentence should not be something you negotiate like buying a house. It should absolutely not be like buying a multimillion-dollar house that is squarely in the middle of the case in question. But the motion filed by the defense in a federal fraud case seems a little...

Pennsylvanians have spent years — decades, really — begging the state to find a better way to fund education. School districts in the Keystone State operate primarily on real estate taxes. An April report from advocacy group PA Schools Work estimates that 84% of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania...

Clarity emerged in February from the thick, acrid, black smoke that billowed over and fell upon East Palestine, Ohio: The nation needed significant rail safety improvements. A Norfolk Southern train including multiple tank cars full of toxic vinyl chloride derailed after parts of the train experienced mechanical problems with brakes....

The impact of gun violence is usually measured in bodies. We count it in the day-to-day numbers of small crimes. One shot here. Two killed there. Over and over again. We tally it in the staggering explosions of mass-casualty events. Eleven worshippers. Twenty-three Walmart shoppers. Nineteen children and two teachers....

A district attorney bears the weight of not only enforcing the law but also understanding how, where and when to apply it. The DA sets the tone for other prosecutors — and often, by extension, police agencies — about the way crimes are charged and how the accused are treated....

Laurel: To learning lessons. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Buses are rolling. Lunches are being packed. School is opening. Franklin Regional students were back in classrooms Wednesday, with many others close behind. Over the next week, most children will be at desks, logged into computers or sitting on...

Enthusiastic gas-drilling advocates in the Legislature long have fallen over themselves in their haste to get out of the industry’s way. Their zeal, for most of two decades, included a prohibition on using public money to conduct studies on the industry’s public health impact. Former Gov. Tom Wolf finally commissioned...

Pennsylvania colleges, please take note of what happened Monday at West Virginia University. Hundreds of students at West Virginia’s top public school staged a walkout protest of a slate of proposed cuts announced Aug. 11. The problem is a significant budget gap. The university is trying to make up for...

Robbie Thomas Saunders, 59, was shot and killed July 2 by a Ligonier Valley police officer. Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli announced July 21 that the use of deadly force was justified. That was bolstered when police released the body camera footage, which showed Saunders coming out of his...