Editorials category, Page 9

President Donald Trump has taken many productive steps during his first weeks back in the Oval Office. But supporting a bill to cap credit card interest rates — based on a campaign promise the president made — wouldn’t be one of them. The odd couple of Sens. Bernie Sanders, the...

An editorial is the one place on the pages of a newspaper where the job is different. It is not about reporting the facts. It is about interpreting them. It is not about exposing the failings of government. It is about calling for solutions. That is what makes a Mississippi...

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey didn’t need to be defensive Thursday. He was speaking at an event celebrating the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Wood Street police substation. “I want to thank our officers,” Gainey said. That’s the way things should have gone: appreciation for the Pittsburgh police officers,...

Laurel: To a defining voice. Mike Lange died Wednesday. He was 76 years old. That seems impossible. How could all of those marvelous Mike-isms come in so little time? Lange was a native Californian who came to the Steel City in 1974. From 1976 until his retirement in 2021, his...

Pittsburgh needs developers. The city has real challenges that require solutions only found through the swing of a hammer. Empty, unused buildings can become warrens for criminal activity. Derelict areas don’t generate tax money, but they do use it up. There are all manner of businesses in need of space...

During the pandemic, we directed a lot of criticism at Tom Wolf. As governor, he was taking a lot of steps to deal with the coronavirus and its impact on Pennsylvanians. Much of the criticism was directed at his handling of education orders and how districts should execute them. Even...

Amid the flood of executive orders issued from the White House on Jan. 20, one is especially misguided, both in legal and policy terms: Beginning in 30 days, the order declared, children born in the U.S. to mothers who are undocumented immigrants — or even legal temporary residents — may...

Joann is closing. The crafting and fabric retailer announced it was shuttering about 500 stores nationwide. Of those, at least 30 are in Pennsylvania and there are many throughout the Southwestern Pennsylvania region. Stores from Robinson and Monroeville in Allegheny County to Greensburg and Indiana and Johnstown in surrounding counties...

Do you owe the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission? Maybe. It can happen. The Toll By Plate system makes it possible to rack up tolls that can become fees that can become more. Even an E-ZPass transponder can end up with unexpected red ink now and then. But that doesn’t mean you...

Laurel: To a job completed. For three and a half years, Marc Fogel survived his stint in a Russian prison. But let’s give a laurel to the people who brought him home. There is President Donald Trump, who made a promise shortly before being shot in Fogel’s hometown in Butler...

Norwin School Board voted Monday to censure one of its members. Alex Detschelt has been a regular point of controversy on the board for years. There was his use of a slur regarding people with intellectual disabilities that he shared on social media. There was his subsequent opposition to a...

It took 1,278 days, but it finally happened. Marc Fogel, 63, of Oakmont, was released Tuesday from the Russian penal colony where he had been imprisoned since August 2021. He was sentenced to 14 years for possession of 17 grams of medical marijuana legally dispensed in Pennsylvania. It’s about damn...

Pittsburgh City Council is taking steps to make sure it gets the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Council last week unanimously passed legislation that would change the way prospective department leaders communicate when called in to meet. They will do so under oath. The legislation, introduced...

So far, President Donald Trump’s tariff brinkmanship has worked out well for him. He forced Colombia to bend to his will on repatriating its migrants and brought the leaders of Canada and Mexico rushing back to the table to talk border security. But what happens should his luck run out?...

To whom should Pennsylvania’s consumer advocate be answerable? The consumer advocate is a position created in 1976. The goal is to represent the people in state and federal proceedings involving utilities, including in front of the Pennsylvania Utility Commission. The point? The state’s interests and the people’s are often the...

What is the difference between an investment and a purchase? Apparently, it could be enough to move President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the relationship between U.S. Steel and would-be buyer Nippon Steel. The Japanese company in December 2023 offered almost $15 billion to buy U.S. Steel. Most of 2024 was...

Laurel: To a sign of the times. Pennsylvania fire departments are struggling with declining volunteers. The state mostly depends on volunteer departments across its 67 counties. There were about 60,000 volunteers in 2000. By 2023, that number had fallen to 38,000. Greensburg fire Chief Tom Bell is trying a new...

What’s next for Monroeville Mall? The 186-acre retail destination was sold by CBL Properties last week. The price tag? About $34 million. That’s nothing compared with the $231 million CBL paid when it bought the mall more than 20 years ago. But the mall isn’t really the draw it was...

Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out a plan for cooperation in his budget address Tuesday. Heading into his third budget negotiation, he outlined priorities that might be consensus builders between his Democratic Party and the Republicans on the other side. He talked about seniors. He talked about kids. He talked about...

February is Black History Month. It is a time when we stop and take a moment to recognize the role Black people have played in the building of our country. From America’s earliest days, Black people were an integral part of the architecture of the nation — whether it was...

During a tour of communities in western North Carolina and neighborhoods in Los Angeles devastated by natural disasters, President Donald Trump told victims, state officials and assembled media that his administration would look to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation’s foremost disaster response agency, or consider eliminating it...

Gov. Josh Shapiro has made nominations for two positions in the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Both are because of vacancies, as elected officials stepped away from their positions. In 2023, Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway retired. More than a year later, Hempfield lawyer Matt Schimizzi, 41, has been tapped by the...

As national eyes focus on the midair collision of a commercial plane with a military helicopter over the Potomac River, concerns remain about how to prevent a different kind of disaster. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, introduced a package of rail safety bills in March 2023, about a month after...

Laurel: To making improvements. Westmoreland County commissioners say they want to see more oversight at the secure juvenile detention center. Good. The facility was closed for about eight months between 2023 and 2024. It reopened in March 2024 with half the licensed 16-person capacity. That will require more staffing. Part...

The somewhat simplified diagrams in social studies textbooks and the catchy tunes of “Schoolhouse Rock!” have taught us a rudimentary idea of what society looks like and how government fits into that. But civics classes and cartoon shorts on Saturday mornings did not give us an appreciation of how those...