Editorials category, Page 65
Editorial: Holding university funding hostage won’t solve this impasse
We depend on our leaders to fix problems when they are presented. Whether it is a state of emergency in the face of a hurricane or recognizing a new kind of fraud and declaring it a crime, the people we elect to run our government need to find ways to...
Editorial: Westmoreland Transit making right moves to bring back passengers
The federal CARES Act funding passed in 2020 was meant to do more than just provide stimulus checks to families and loan money to keep businesses writing paychecks. It also was about keeping necessary services from closing down. The Westmoreland County Transit Authority will be making use of that to...
Editorial: Cocktails-to-go and other no-big-deal moves from the state
Pennsylvania has long been home of some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in the country. The Keystone State has made it harder to get a drink than just about any state but Utah. While other states had effortless mechanisms to pick up their beer and wine, Pennsylvanians had to...
Editorial: How to celebrate Juneteenth
On June 19, 1865, 2,000 Union troops marched into Galveston Bay, Texas. They carried a message for the 250,000 enslaved people of the Confederate state — and the people who owned them. Slavery was over. This was the last corner of America to hear the news. It came three years...
Laurels & Lances: Bikes, bridges and slides
Laurel: To pedaling forward. There may be no more quintessential expression of the freedom of summer vacation than a kid on a bike. It’s exercise. It’s fun. It’s the ability to be and grow and do on their own. But for some kids, a bike is out of reach. On...
Editorial: No excuse for silence about change at county elections office
The person in charge of Westmoreland County’s elections bureau is out of the office. Kind of. Maybe? It’s hard to tell because no one is talking about what’s going on. The county commissioners met Tuesday as the election board, doing pro forma tasks such as certifying the final numbers for...
Editorial: Lower impact fees mean real pain for local governments
Natural gas drilling does not translate to money in the bank for local governments. In 2020, while prices on items such as hand sanitizer and commodities including lumber went through the roof, other numbers dropped through the floor. One of those was natural gas, which hit a low of $1.66...
Editorial: Vaccine success depends on keeping track of second-dosers
In boxing, a simple balled-up fist, delivered quick and hard, is the basic blow. But the sport depends on a strategic combination of attacks. The most basic is the one-two punch. It starts with a jab — a quick, straight punch delivered hard and fast like a bullet. That is...
Editorial: All told, the school year was something amazing
Now that school is over for most kids, it’s finally time to take a good look at the way things went over the past nine months and give out some grades. Not to the students. Their final scores for math and reading and science and history are in. Their tests...
Editorial: For women in Pa. politics, a steady rise
Women are not the minority. In the United States, they edge out men by 0.5%, but, if you look at the population of adult women, the numbers creep up to 58%, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us. In Pennsylvania, ladies make up 51% of the state’s residents. That means that...
Editorial: Legislators, show us the receipts for your expenses
The first real political scandal in the newborn United States — and an excellent second act number in a Broadway musical — is the Reynolds Affair. In 1791, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton had a relationship with a married woman, whose husband subsequently blackmailed the politician. When the tawdry...
Laurels & Lances: Celebrated centenarians, slippery silence, real recycling
Laurel: To longevity with brio. Newspapers usually wait for an occurrence of threes to cite a trend, but two will do in this case. This week, we observed the 100th birthdays of two dynamic men: Ufemio “Fem” Biagioni of Leechburg and Frank Pugliano Sr. of Washington Township. Both are Italian...
Editorial: College students, step up and get the vaccine
The team project has been the bane of many an educational institution. There are the ones who have done the reading, come up with a plan and broken it all out into a series of tasks. There are the ones who will do what they are told. And there are...
Editorial: Community health centers are essential healers
The first hospital in Pittsburgh opened its doors in 1847, when the Sisters of Mercy built on their mission of aiding the sick. It has been 174 years, and, today, healing the sick and maintaining the healthy has become a billion-dollar industry in the region. On June 2, UPMC released...
Editorial: Judge Feliciani proves value of human element in sentencing
A judge’s job in a courtroom is to enforce the rules as the prosecution and defense go through the steps of a trial. It is frequently less about being the hammer of judgment than it is about interpreting and enforcing the law as written by legislators and determined by years...
Editorial: Honor a candidate’s legacy of seeking public service
Shawn Marcellino was running for mayor of Plum. He had just gotten through the Democratic primary and was looking forward to facing Republican Harry Schlegel in November. On Tuesday, he was playing in a church league softball game when he began having chest pains. He died of a heart attack...
Editorial: Why gun laws are a matter of state law
Say the word “gun” and you can instantly divide people. Some want to enact laws and restrictions in hopes of curtailing violent crimes. Some are just as passionate about protecting constitutional rights and protections surrounding gun ownership. It can be hard to find a middle ground anywhere. Pennsylvania is practically...
Editorial: The battle of agendas in Zappala vs. Raiford
A courtroom is an adversarial forum. The process is set up that way, to help find truth and justice by performing a legal dance to a set of rules. The adversaries in this system are not enemies, but opposing forces like magnets that pull and push in different directions. It...
Laurels & lances: Flying again, hired again
Laurel: To flying high again. The Westmoreland County Airshow didn’t happen in 2020. Unlike many of the events that were canceled over the last year, it wasn’t due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made in November 2019. It happened because the marquee draws — military precision groups like...
Lori Falce: Pirates owe taxpayers better baseball
When it comes to sports, I am a product of my environment. My soul has fed on the Steelers’ Super Bowl wins and the Penguins’ names etched on the Stanley Cup. Even when they missed the playoffs or if it was charitably described as a “rebuilding year,” the faith is...
Editorial: Vaccine incentives aren’t the Pennsylvania way (right?)
Hey, where is our big money jackpot? Promising giant paydays as a possibility for coronavirus vaccination is the kind of thing that is attracting attention in some states. Ohio recently made Abbigail Bugenske, 22, of Silverton the first vaccination recipient turned millionaire in the state’s Vax-a-Million lottery. Teen winner Joseph...
Editorial: A bipartisan effort to secure Purple Heart valor
Courage is the kind of thing anyone can have. Grab the moment. Seize the day. But valor is different. Valor is a special kind of bravery. Valor speaks to courage under fire. It is about acts of duty and grit in combat, and it often comes with consequences. Valor is...
Editorial: Be a caretaker for Pennsylvania parks
If you are planning on spending part of your summer camping at Keystone State Park or kayaking at Ohiopyle, you aren’t alone. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation of Natural Resources issued an overcrowding alert for the Memorial Day weekend, warning visitors that 14 of the 121 state parks including the...
Editorial: In remembrance of the fallen
For Memorial Day, a classic Trib editorial: On this Memorial Day, be grateful that Americans’ willingness to sacrifice for freedom’s sake, instilled by each generation in the next, remains as strong as ever. Today, Americans honor those most worthy of such gratitude — those who gave their lives in our...
Editorial: An unsatisfactory finding of state incompetence
Sometimes, an investigation can turn up answers. Sometimes, they turn up questions. It would have been nice if the Office of the State Inspector General discovered either in the dive into why a constitutional amendment never made it to the Pennsylvania primary ballot. On May 18, the voters were supposed...
