Editorials category, Page 66
Editorial: Masks, flu and listening to the doctor
There was a lot of pushback against masks during the coronavirus pandemic. While some people embraced even the simplest homemade fabric coverings for whatever layer of protection they might afford, others rejected them. They sometimes claimed the cloth was useless, stopping nothing and just acting as a prop in a...
Laurels & lances: STEM, sentence, study
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...
Editorial: The balancing act of vaccines, public health and liberties
Since the first covid-19 vaccines became available in December, the push has been on. Get the shot to the medical personnel, to the most vulnerable, to the front-line workers. Get it to everyone over 65, over 55, over 18, over 12. Get teachers vaccinated and corrections officers and inmates. The...
Editorial: Be realistic about public benefits of online sports betting
Online sports betting is quite the growth industry. Watch a professional athletic competition on TV and you are likely to see more gambling commercials than you will the old reliables such as cars, beer and snack food. The ads sell you on the thrill, the interaction, the potential prize —...
Editorial: Westmoreland wisely invests in election workers
The people of Westmoreland County will be investing a lot more in their elections. On Friday, county commissioners voted to lay out a great deal more cash for the process, but unlike the 2019 purchase of $7.1 million in new voting equipment, this time, the money will not be going...
Editorial: Go beyond voter support for fire departments and EMS
On Tuesday, a ballot question asked Pennsylvanians to take a side on the Municipal Fire and EMS Services Loan Measure. That very formal-sounding title boils down to a simple idea. Should municipal fire departments and ambulance companies be able to borrow from the state’s loan fund to support capital upgrades?...
Editorial: The Pitcairn election shows the political need for wisdom and youth
Government is often seen as an old folks’ game. The math shows why. The average age of a U.S. governor is 64.5 — old enough to be planning a retirement party. For a member of Congress, it swings between 58 for the House of Representatives and 63 for the Senate....
Editorial: A clear rejection of solitary confinement in Allegheny County Jail
Tuesday’s election was heavy on ballot questions. The ones that tended to gain the most attention were the two at the top — statewide proposals to fence in the emergency powers of the governor; those amendments passed by a close 53% to 47%. Another amendment that would protect people from...
Laurels & lances: Doses, closures, alternatives
Laurel: To house calls. To reach the 70% vaccination threshhold that experts say is necessary to fight off the coronavirus pandemic, it is important to get to as many adults as possible. Protecting people with medical conditions that put them at particular risk is even more important. But home care...
Editorial: Enhancing high school graduations with a virtual touch
The Class of 2020 didn’t graduate the way the classes that came before them did. For most graduates, the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic stole the pomp and circumstance from their commencements. There were no auditoriums packed with parents and grandparents snapping pictures and cheering when names were called and...
Editorial: The mask mish-mash goes away with mass vaccination
Do you wear the mask or not? For more than a year, the issue has been out there. At first the recommendations were to stay home and not bother with face coverings, because only the medical-grade masks did any good and health care workers needed them. A few weeks into...
Editorial: More than one reason for unfilled job openings
After a major upheaval, there is often a period of reflection. If your house burns down, you probably put some thought into the electrical system or the heating before you rebuild. The same thing happens after an epic event on a larger scale. Hurricanes like Andrew in Miami and Katrina...
Editorial: All politics start local — so vote on Tuesday
Here it is again: Time to go to the polls. Time to do your duty. Time to cast your ballot. Doesn’t it seem like we just did this? Well, we did, but while presidential races like the 2020 contest and its seeming four-year march to the ballot box get all...
Editorial: Transparency in state spending is a constant process
In a functioning democracy, citizens need to be able to see certain facts about their elected officials in the glaring light of day. They need to know what government is spending money on. They need to know where the money is going. They need to know how much people are...
Editorial: A positive step to encourage the vaccine resisters
In Ohio, the enticement to get the covid-19 vaccination is a chance at $1 million for adults or a college scholarship for a minor. In West Virginia, you can get a $100 savings bond. New York is giving baseball tickets. New Jersey will pour you a beer. But the Centers...
Laurels & lances: A public battle with cancer, a wayward officer
Laurel: To a brave journey. State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, made a hard and honest announcement Tuesday. She has Stage 1 breast cancer. She isn’t the first woman in the public eye to battle the disease or even the first legislator to face a diagnosis while serving. What she is,...
Editorial: After a lost year of school, parents deserve more power to choose what’s best
Parenting is about choices. It starts at birth and never stops. Formula or breast milk? Disposable diapers or cloth? Screen time, daycare, junk food, bed times. It’s exhausting but necessary. You would think that it would stop when a child is old enough for school, but it isn’t as easy...
Editorial: This merrier month of May, with hard-won covid caution
In 2019, when the month of May came and went, it did so with celebration. It came with proms — girls dressed in gowns they had planned to wear for months, guys in tuxedos who made their parents tear up. It came with Mother’s Day brunches and highly anticipated movie...
Editorial: In the war on covid, late data loses battles
Whenever you are dealing with important, measurable information, you have to know that it’s accurate. Sometimes that means knowing that size and weight are the same from one researcher to the next. Sometimes it means knowing that a definition is the same across the board. And sometimes it means knowing...
Editorial: A winning location to heal veterans and commerce in Monroeville
It is great when one solution can be used to tackle two problems. It would be even better if that could be used as a model to solve even more problems. A 6.5-acre site near the Monroeville Mall will be the home of a new 64,000-square-foot outpatient clinic for the...
Editorial: For U.S. Steel, reckoning with Toomey’s questions is a start
In 2019, U.S. Steel’s announcement of a $1.2 billion investment in its Mon Valley Works brought questions and excitement — the good, anticipatory kind. Yes, there would be a new endless casting and rolling facility at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock and a cogeneration facility at the Clairton Plant,...
Editorial: Nordenberg, the right person as reapportionment referee
It is hard to accomplish anything when two sides refuse to negotiate. It’s true of million-dollar labor disputes and neighbors fighting about fencelines. That’s why what frequently is necessary is an mediator — a rational voice to encourage reasonable debate over a rehashing of all the disagreements. For a courtroom,...
Laurels & lances: Building, billing, volunteering
Laurel: To a fitting choice. The Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha board of trustees announced Tuesday that an architect had been chosen to rebuild the Squirrel Hill synagogue that was the scene of the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. Daniel Libeskind has been entrusted with the project. His...
Editorial: Taking the steps to post-pandemic life
For more than a year, the promise has been there. Pull together. Keep your distance. Wear a mask. Follow the rules. Do all of this, and the coronavirus pandemic can be handled. Do this, and, eventually, we will be able to stop doing this. Admittedly, every day the finish line...
Editorial: Nurses provide the healing touch, hand to hand
The medical profession has been built by hardship. People go in for all kinds of mundane things now. Refill this prescription for headaches. Get a few stitches on a cut from a fall. A referral for physical therapy or a pregnancy test. But what built the legion of medical professionals...
