Editorials category, Page 60
Editorial: Legislature legal bills should be open
There is a time-honored, court-supported concept of privacy when it comes to dealings between a person and lawyer. It’s an idea that extends to lots of areas of the law. You are guaranteed that your conversations with counsel will be as sacred as a Catholic confessional booth whether you are...
Editorial: More access means more vaccines?
Some things are just so obvious that it seems ridiculous they weren’t recognized sooner. The wheel. Fire. French fries and slaw on a corned beef sandwich. How did it take human beings so long to figure out what was right in front of them? Now there’s one in Westmoreland County....
Editorial: 100 years and counting — on all of us
It used to be that a 100th birthday was almost a tall tale. Celebrating 100 years was the kind of thing that a country or a city did, not a person. A well-loved business or a landmark institution might hit that milestone, but the list of people who reached it...
Editorial: Tax credit is low price for firefighters
How much is your life worth? Is it worth as much as your neighbors’ house? Their car? Their kids? Is it worth coming between a downed power line and a child on a bike? Is it worth the difference between a kitchen grease fire and the smoking ruin of a...
Editorial: Westmoreland County elections hiring could use some quality assurance
Westmoreland County has a new watchdog. The actual position is called quality assurance manager, but the general description of that kind of job is usually to watch what is happening and make sure it’s going according to plan. In a factory, quality assurance makes sure the computer or camera or...
Laurels & lances: Stepping down, stepping up, flying high
Laurel: To announcing a departure. U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, announced Monday that he will finish his term, which runs through 2022, but not seek reelection in the midterms. “I believe the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation,” he said. It would be nice...
Editorial: Building bridges to overcome hatred
A summit meeting is usually something seen between warring nations — or at least tense nations that could erupt into attack mode at the drop of a hat. Summit meetings are a way to broker a peace or defuse hostilities. We seldom think of them as something that happens in...
Editorial: School boards can defuse tension by following rules
Public schools don’t just teach the rules. They have to follow them, too. School districts have to fall in line with federal requirements regarding students with disabilities and equal opportunity for male and female sports teams. They have to measure up to state Department of Education demands about curriculum and...
Editorial: Taxpayers and the school funding house of cards
Burrell School District is losing out on $403,000 in tax money because of one large property owner’s appeal. Arconic has negotiated a lower assessment for its property in Upper Burrell because it just isn’t worth what it once was. School district legal counsel Anthony Giglio of Andrews & Price in...
Editorial: Ballot drop boxes make voting easier
For the past three years, how Pennsylvanians vote has been discussed in committees, debated on the floor of the Legislature and taken into court. It’s been just as hot a topic on television, in corner bars and at the dinner table. A big part of that has been about no-excuse...
Editorial: Is PennWest name really exciting decision?
On Thursday, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education made a long-awaited announcement. The three Western Pennsylvania schools being merged into one multi-campus university had the new name made official. In a triumph of the obvious, PASSHE selected Pennsylvania Western University — PennWest for short. The names of the original...
Laurels & lances: Saving lives, missing points
Laurel: To one man’s best friend. Tom Kissel of Mars is not the first person to be saved from catastrophe by a dog. He may not even be the first person to be rescued by a ball of fluff that is half Pomeranian and half Jack Russell terrier. But he...
Editorial: UPMC, AHN respecting transplant patients amid covid
Transplantation surgery and the illnesses that can precipitate it come with a lot of baggage. There may be years of health problems that build up to a transplant. Patients and their families can be so steeped in the language and procedures of their hospitals that they develop an almost professional...
Editorial: Let’s talk about domestic violence
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It’s an opportunity to not just put up fliers and circulate hotline numbers, but to talk about things that are too frequently unsaid. It is a chance to say the quiet part out loud. Domestic violence is most often equated with battered wives or...
Editorial: Nobel work and win is about education
Education is the scaffolding that supports everything about society. The things we teach our kids are the things that build their futures and our world. Without education, there is no science. There is no technology. There aren’t the logistics that keep trucks on the road and paper towels on store...
Editorial: Bedbugs aren’t a problem that can wait
Don’t let the bedbugs bite. It’s more than just the cutesy saying your mom would use when tucking you in. Bedbugs are no fairy tale. They’re an all-too-real pest that is not easy to eradicate. Vandergrift residents were thus right to be more than a little alarmed — and grossed...
Editorial: Responsible gun ownership means following rules
Conversations about guns and the limits of their accessibility are never easy. While most other rights like speech or a speedy trial are intangible, a gun is the one that can be held in your hand. It can be strapped at your side. It can even be packed in a...
Editorial: It’s time for real press conferences again
A press conference is supposed to be a give and take. Somewhere between a dance and a duel, it depends on both sides taking turns. The speaker gives a statement. A reporter asks a question. The speaker either answers or evades — which is in itself a kind of answer....
Laurels & lances: Filming, pleading, bargaining
Laurel: To lights, camera and action. While Pittsburgh has become a popular filming site and spent plenty of time on the big and small screens over the years, sometimes it can feel like the wealth of other communities can be left on the bench. But Greensburg hit a home run...
Editorial: Covid-19 data should be public and protected
There are times for the government to protect information. There are big secrets such as weapons codes or battle plans. There are small, personal ones such as an individual’s Social Security numbers or bank account. But by and large, the default with public information is that it is supposed to...
Editorial: PSERS board shouldn’t gag members
The Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System is one of those things that can just make people bristle. It’s bad enough when things are going right since taxpayers can grumble about paying into someone else’s pension. It’s even worse when things go wrong, as more than a decade of state pension...
Editorial: News you can use
Notable events, weather and sports. On social media, people are acting astounded to learn that “news” is an acronym for these four words. They might be even more shocked to realize that, like so much on Facebook or TikTok, it’s not true at all. The news, to put it bluntly,...
Editorial: A winning hand at Westmoreland Mall, against the odds
For years, the stories coming out of malls have been pretty consistent — and pretty depressing. Stores closing. Anchors closing. Sales down. Traffic down. Just about the only thing rising was interest in online videos of what was happening behind the chained-up doors of long-shuttered shopping nirvanas of decades past....
Editorial: Why do Pennsylvanians pay higher price for energy?
The winter of 2021-22 is going to be a cold one, according to sources as traditional as the Farmers’ Almanac and as high-tech as AccuWeather, which predicts average temperatures in the region around 1 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit below normal, with the chill winds starting to blow as early as...
Editorial: Ousting airport authority members was vindictive move
What would Arnold Palmer think? The question must be on the minds of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority members and those who knew the Latrobe-born professional golfer, after county commissioners removed Donald “Doc” Giffin and authority Chairman Paul Puleo from the board. The county airport is named for Palmer, the...
