Editorials category, Page 72
Editorial: Pittsburgh police leaders show serious commitment to reforms
Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert says he is committed to doing better. That is the place every improvement should start. Now seems to be the perfect time for such a commitment. After all, the new year is just days away. “We’re always evolving, always striving to be better,” Schubert said...
Editorial: The PIAA can’t dodge the Right to Know Law
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is not a simple, powerless recreation organization. It is more than a club. To pretend otherwise seems like it should demand a flag on the play from an impartial referee of some kind. The call might be termed “offsides.” The specifics of being offsides vary...
Editorial: Restaurants need multiple lifelines to survive the pandemic
There is something about eating at a restaurant that is so different from eating at home. Maybe, it is a special occasion. Maybe, it’s a chance to catch up with friends Friday night. Maybe, Mom just wants a break. Whatever the motivation, the reason we gravitate to these public tables...
Editorial: Never too late for covid investigation tools
The state of Pennsylvania announced Monday a new “digital case investigation tool” is launching. The tool will let state residents between 19 and 64 years old who live in counties that don’t have county or local health departments help trace covid-19 contacts. It’s a good development. If the Pfizer and...
Editorial: Learn from the 1st covid relief package
As leaders in Washington come to a new coronavirus relief plan, it would seem the old one had been exhausted. The money allotted to help people through the pandemic was long since spent, right? Wrong. While some of the most obvious chunks — such as the stimulus checks sent in...
Editorial: The hopeful light of Scarlett’s Sunshine
Scarlett Lillian Pauley should be building snowmen and chattering about the holidays. She should be struggling with pandemic homeschooling. She should be asking a million questions. But in 2017, the Pittsburgh toddler died at just 16 months old. There was no obvious disease to blame or tragic accident to hold...
Editorial: Bishop-elect Larry Kulick, a shepherd who knows his flock
Whenever someone comes into a new position, there is usually a learning curve. We don’t expect Monsignor Larry Kulick will have that with his new role. On Friday, Pope Francis named him the new bishop of the Greensburg Diocese. He already knows the mechanics of the office. He has been...
Editorial: North Huntingdon hurts its residents by defying state covid mandates
Pennsylvania municipalities have a lot of responsibility. They are where the rubber meets the governmental road. They plow the streets. They keep the buildings safe and the parks welcoming. They provide dozens of small services residents might never even realize exist and yet would be sorely missed if they disappeared....
Laurels & lances: Shots, lockdown and cops
Laurel: To first steps. The fight against the coronavirus pandemic took a giant leap forward this week. UPMC began administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to health care workers. Five of the hospital system’s employees took the shot Monday in a livestreamed event, much like those held around the U.S. This isn’t...
Editorial: Highlands has no right to hide public info
Highlands School District doesn’t want to release information that should be made public. If this sounds familiar, it should. This is the kind of thing Highlands does regularly. Over the last two years, the Tribune-Review has filed multiple Right to Know Law requests, asking that Highlands do the bare minimum...
Editorial: When prisons are covid hotspots, the community suffers, too
The coronavirus pandemic has hit certain populations hard. Seniors are at risk. So are diabetics. Cancer patients. People with pre-existing respiratory or circulatory conditions. That makes some locations particularly important to protect. Personal care homes. Senior centers. Nursing homes were among the first major hotspots for covid-19 outbreaks. But those...
Editorial: Do what’s best and take the covid-19 vaccine
On Monday, the first health care workers rolled up their sleeves and accepted a shot in the arm of the Pfizer/BioNTech cocktail that offers hope against the coronavirus pandemic. In Pittsburgh, five front-line UPMC employees, including a critical care nurse and a patient transporter, had their injections livestreamed. This is...
Editorial: Don’t let the Brewster-Ziccarelli voting mess happen again
The people of Pennsylvania’s 45th district are supposed to determine who their state senator is. Ideally, they would consider the issues, look at the candidates, review their ballot and make a decision. The people who win in the primary would move forward to the general election, and the one with...
Editorial: Transit workers are front-line soldiers in covid war
Much of the language surrounding the coronavirus pandemic is comparable to that of warfare. We talk about fighting the disease. Having a battle plan. Deploying assets. And more than anything, we talk about the front lines. As in any war, that is where things get real. With covid-19, the front...
Editorial: Food banks filling holiday need
Certain reminders come to us every holiday season. Red kettles and ringing bells at shopping center doors urge us to drop in a few coins to help those in need. A box waits to collect toys for kids who won’t get any otherwise. And perhaps most ubiquitous is the food...
Laurels & lances: Corks for a cause, bad behavior over masks
Laurel: To passing along good cheer. While working under pandemic restrictions this year, a lot of people have turned to hobbies and crafts. For 16-year-old Noah Long and his mom, Wendy, of West Deer, one outlet has been turning wine corks into Christmas tree ornaments. There’s so much about this...
Editorial: Share your light at Hanukkah
Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates a miracle. It begins as the sun sets Thursday. Eight candles of the hanukkiah, a special menorah or candle holder used just for the Festival of Lights, represent the eight nights that a single vessel of oil lasted when the Jewish people had to...
Editorial: This pandemic tunnel is long, but light is flickering
If there’s one thing that frustrates Pittsburghers — and just about anyone who drives in and out of the city — it’s the tunnels. A tunnel is nothing more than a road that goes through an obstacle instead of around it. Despite the fact they are nothing new, they seem...
Editorial: The unhealthy state of the Allegheny County Jail
What is happening at the Allegheny County Jail? The Jail Oversight Board is looking into the turnover in medical administration at the county facility. It comes in the wake of several top medical officials stepping down. The most recent was Janet Bunts, who was hired in August to act as...
Editorial: Americans rallied after Pearl Harbor, and can again
It was 7:48 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941, when hundreds of Japanese aircraft filled the sky over Oahu. The attack on Pearl Harbor came on a quiet Sunday morning. By the time the last bomb fell, the last torpedo exploded and the last bullet was fired — a mere hour and...
Editorial: Pa. should take it slow on legalizing marijuana
Marijuana is the trend the whole country is watching. Weed was first banned by Massachusetts in 1911. Pennsylvania was one of the last states to outlaw it in 1933. The federal government followed in 1937. For a long time, everyone was on the same page about it — at least...
Editorial: The awful math of church abuse settlements
It can be hard to calculate damages when you can’t see the breakage. Crash a car, and the body shop can tell you precisely what it will cost to turn bent and twisted metal back into a shiny vehicle with a sleek paint job. Burn down a house, and the...
Laurels & lances: Volunteer, vandalism, overdose
Laurel: To volunteering again. Getting people to step up to participate in a project is often the hardest part of the job. Marc Wagner is the kind of guy who is willing to jump in. For 35 years, he has been a part of the Pitt Men’s Study. He was...
Editorial: A good first step to serve counties without health departments
Pennsylvania is going to give a helping hand to the areas of the state that don’t have a county health department. By state law, only six counties have those offices: Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Erie, Montgomery and Philadelphia. Allegheny updates residents and the media regularly about what is happening with the...
Editorial: Keeping hospitals from being swamped is a collective responsibility
The great fear with any disease is always death. We worry about how many people it will steal. But with a pandemic — a rising tide of illness that isn’t confined to one school district, one town or even one country — there is another concern that can be a...
