Editorials category, Page 81
Editorial: The high cost of safe elections
Safe elections mean something to America. The freedom of the vote is something people have fought and died to achieve and to protect. We look back on the periods when people couldn’t vote because of race or gender or the simple fact they didn’t own land, and we shake our...
Editorial: Wolf needs consistent message
It’s a system used for stoplights and preschool behavior charts: red, yellow, green. Apply it to the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and you have a series of gates that keep Pennsylvanians behind closed doors. Until May 8. On Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf announced a list of 24 counties that will go...
Editorial: U.S. Steel layoffs sign of bigger issue?
Maybe 2,700 doesn’t seem like that big a number right now. There are 30 million people who have filed for unemployment benefits in the United States in the six weeks since the coronavirus pandemic closed businesses and sent workers home. Last week alone, there were 3.8 million laid-off Americans filing...
Editorial: Port Authority needs to find answer
If you get a flat tire, you can put on the emergency doughnut to get to the garage for a real repair. You can’t just accept that the little round rim of rubber is going to do the job of a full-fledged tire. A half-solution can end up being no...
Editorial: Hospitals need elective surgery to survive
There are some things we want back after weeks in a pandemic lockdown. We want happy hour and Sunday brunch and a shopping trip that doesn’t feel like deploying on a military maneuver. But there are other things we need. New hips. Gallbladder removal. Coronary angioplasty to see if an...
Editorial: Pittsburgh construction signs of life
You have to start somewhere. Getting back to some kind of normal after weeks of coronavirus pandemic lockdown is going to take a first step, and Pittsburgh is getting ready to stretch its legs. On Monday, the mayor’s office announced construction projects within the city will be able to get...
Editorial: The LCB adapts, under pressure, like always
Deriding the way alcohol is sold in Pennsylvania is nothing new. The coronavirus pandemic and the state’s social distancing shutdowns didn’t build the walls around the bottle in the Keystone State. The system has long been one of the most controlled in the country, with the state acting as chief...
Editorial: Could PSU cuts show cost correction possibility?
Maybe the coronavirus pandemic can do something in Pennsylvania nothing else has been able to do. Maybe it will lead to reducing budgets at universities. On Friday, Penn State announced a series of moves to make the books balance in the face of a $100 million loss. The state’s largest...
Editorial: Is cutting polls smart in pandemic?
As a nation, we spend a lot of time telling people to get out and vote. As a news organization, we do, too. We want people to be informed about issues, aware of implications and prepared for the decisions they are about to make. But more than anything, we want...
Laurels & lances: Recover, release, rescue, return
Laurel: To getting better. Coronavirus is most dangerous to our older population. It’s most risky for those with other health problems, like cancer or diabetes. But that doesn’t mean it is a death sentence for them, even when they are seriously ill. James Toth, 89, and Yvonne Demagall, 92, are...
Editorial: Nursing home data key to covid-19 response
Testing and tracking. Those are the two things that will make it possible to get out of the black hole of coronavirus lockdowns. The state needs to know not just who is sick. It needs to know who is infected and not sick. That’s the testing part, and that is...
Editorial: Falling oil price shows high Pennsylvania gas tax
Call it irony. Call it supply and demand. Whatever you call it, the result is the same. Gas is cheaper than it has been in years. Shop around in the Pittsburgh area, and you could find it as low as $1.59 a gallon. The average in Pennsylvania is just $2.17...
Editorial: May 8 could be moving target for pandemic reopening
May 8. That’s when Gov. Tom Wolf is saying the state can slowly start to come out of its coronavirus shell, tentatively getting back to the business of being normal again. It’s more than two weeks away. And maybe that’s enough to make a difference. After all, a lot can...
Editorial: Don’t forget broadband after lockdown
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about expanding broadband connectivity. As more and more government offices and services went online, the divide between accessible and inaccessible became undeniable. Data plans and internet services aren’t cheap, cutting out the poor. Rural areas and some low-income neighborhoods don’t...
Editorial: Timing the pandemic reopening
It is no surprise that people are ready for this to be over. For five weeks, Pennsylvania has been a tiger in a cage, prowling back and forth, frustrated by remembered freedom and eager to get out. We know that coronavirus put us here. We know all the simple reasons...
Laurels & lances: Milk, food and liquor
Laurel: To a tall glass of support. When the milk market was drying up for Ben Brown’s Westmoreland County farm Saturday, things looked bleak for Whoa Nellie Dairy. While milk is one of those staples everyone buys when a storm is coming or an emergency threatens, some farmers have been...
Editorial: Masks defend health and economy
The best offense is a good defense. It’s a familiar sentiment. It’s a tenet of arenas from the military to Wall Street. It’s a concept that fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers might even consider a religion. It’s the idea that there is no better way to attack a problem than...
Editorial: Hospital loans could save lives
We need our hospitals. Right now, they are all busy with other things. Emergency departments are taking care of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Health care workers are testing to identify those with covid-19 symptoms. Intensive care units are struggling with the task of trying to save lives —...
Editorial: The economy needs an immune system
When President Trump says the economy needs to be open, he’s not wrong. It’s a matter of timing and safety, based on scientific data, as the president himself has said. But when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says, “This is not a light switch we can just flick on and...
Editorial: Voting decision sooner, not later
In some high-stakes competitions, you can get two scores. You get one for degree of difficulty — for trying a backflip instead of a somersault. But you also get one for execution. Fail spectacularly on the attempt and the effort doesn’t matter quite as much. Let’s acknowledge that every government...
Editorial: Pandemic state prison release a bad idea
As soon as Tuesday, Pennsylvania will begin releasing inmates from state prisons. They will send them back to their communities on home confinement or to community facilities — as many as 1,800 people deemed non- violent and who would have been released within the next nine months anyway, or who are...
Editorial: Why hope is the starting point
We need hope. When things are bad — so bad that it seems unthinkable that they will ever be good again — hope is what tells us to hold on and breathe through it. Hope survived the car crash that crushed John Sikora’s NBA dreams. Glenn and Carole Johnson had...
Editorial: Darkness of quarantine, light of Easter
Easter isn’t a celebration of rabbits and chocolate. It isn’t about the lilies and jelly beans and ham. It isn’t even about the church service with meaningful sermons and little kids in crisp new pastel outfits. That’s all an important part of the annual rite of spring. It’s just not...
Laurels & lances: Bunny, bottles, breakdown
Laurel: To a bunny’s best helpers. Easter is one of those milestone holidays for many kids, like Christmas or birthdays. For some, it could be hard to reconcile a quarantine celebration without egg hunts and family parties. But volunteers in South Greensburg helped the Easter bunny out by making sure...
Editorial: New heroes arise in pandemic
Hero. A person admired because of courageous acts or selfless endeavors. We all know what a hero is. It’s the firefighter who rescues a kid from a burning building or the soldier who falls on a grenade. It’s a police officer who stops a bank robbery. We recognize the heroes...
