Editorials category, Page 99
Editorial: Do Excela problems show changing hospital industry?
Are hospitals becoming the new malls? Just like retail has evolved, getting out of the big, glassy, glitzy shopping centers and into the phone in your pocket, it seems like medicine is likewise morphing into something else. And also like retail, it’s taking its toll on the old way of...
Editorial: UPMC, Highmark should consent to modification
It’s not that nothing can be done. When Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson issued his decision in Josh Shapiro’s plea for a stay of execution in the UPMC-Highmark consent decree, he didn’t throw the Pennsylvania attorney general a lifeline. Simpson’s ruling might be read as helpless when he says, “this...
Editorial: PASSHE tuition decision is common sense
On Thursday, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education acknowledged something. It’s possible that things don’t always cost the same everywhere. PASSHE’s Board of Governors voted to let individual members of the state university system evaluate their own costs and set their own tuition. It might seem that maintaining control...
Editorial: Kids are victims and culprits in sexting
A girl took some sexy pictures of herself. She sent them to a guy. Not a big deal. Happens every day. But they both ended up in court. Why? Because police say she was 15 and he was 16. According to state police, that means he was in possession of...
Editorial: The dirty dancing of regulation and industry
Allegheny County is a study in the delicate dance between industry and regulation. Between coal mining and the steel industry, Pittsburgh was long tarred with a smoky, sooty reputation for being a grimy factory town. It took a lot of work to polish up the Steel City, but one of...
Laurels & lances: Healing, benefits, milk and beer
Laurel: To healing with those who understand. Parkland to Pittsburgh is a program that will bring together survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting with the local Jewish community. While many people have said they empathize and understand and offered prayers and tears, the two groups are the...
Editorial: Student loans are the new mortgage
The changing demographics of the Pennsylvania Legislature are going to do more than increase Harrisburg’s social media presence and a demand for avocado toast. They are producing a whole new perspective on debt, and it’s an important view to understand as we move forward. We might pine for the old...
Editorial: Pittsburgh gun ban is politics’ fault
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s council passed a package of laws that would ban some weapons within the city limits and regulate access for people deemed an “extreme risk.” There are people who see this as a step forward in a nation where gun violence has become heartbreakingly commonplace while action to...
Editorial: The empty threat of Pennsylvania’s death penalty
An empty threat might seem like a good middle ground. It could give all the weight of a hefty penalty without any of the responsibility for the follow-through. It could seem strong while not actually being prepared to show strength. The reality is that it is a frustrated mother telling...
Editorial: Political rules are sign of election times
No shirt, no shoes, no service. No dogs allowed. No smoking. All simple signs. Easy to understand. Easy to obey. Now Westmoreland County needs another sign for its hallways. No politics on the premises. Workers, this means you. It’s the kind of thing that probably shouldn’t need a sign. When...
Editorial: Diocesan abuse department can’t become bureaucratic
“If only there were more bureaucracy.” File that under things no one has ever said. On Thursday, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik announced a new department to address sexual abuse claims and recovery. The Secretariat for the Protection of Children, Youth and Vulnerable Adults is open for business as of Monday....
Editorial: Pennsylvania annual gun registry bill overreaches
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, just like we learned in elementary school science class. We have to react. Don’t react to a fire, and you get burned. Don’t react to a traffic light, and you can cause a crash. But overreaction is as bad as...
Laurels & lances: Food, first aid and free speech
Laurel: To Pittsburgh in a cone. With the advent of baseball season, PNC Park will once again become not just the place to catch the great American pastime, but eat some great Pennsylvania cuisine. On Tuesday, the Pirates gave a glimpse of some of that, including a new signature item....
Editorial: Sex charges connect to worldwide human trafficking
There are horrible things in the world that we like to think are far away. Like human trafficking. The phrase can conjure pictures. Slave ships and auction blocks. Abductions and chains. Images that are a world away from our everyday lives. That doesn’t happen here. That’s another country, another continent,...
Editorial: Avenatti, Cohen, Kane, etc., show law hard for some lawyers
Maybe some lawyers spend so much time charting the routes between the rules, they forget that they are supposed to follow them. A lot of legal eagles have been in big trouble for breaking the rules. On Monday, federal authorities in California arrested Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who became the...
Editorial: Mueller, Rosfeld and what justice looks like
We have a Hollywood fairy-tale idea of justice. It’s something that makes the hurt go away and heals rifts. Maybe sometimes that’s true. It would be nice if it was. But justice doesn’t always look like that. In Pittsburgh, a significant number of people look at the Michael Rosfeld verdict...
Editorial: Leaders can learn from firefighters
How do you encourage people to participate by denying them a benefit of participation? Local fire companies and emergency medical services need more volunteers. In Pennsylvania, these critical first responders — the people who show up at your home when there is a fire or along the road when there...
Editorial: Who won the Michael Rosfeld homicide trial?
No one won. On Friday, when a jury concluded the four-day homicide trial of Michael Rosfeld with three and a half hours of deliberation and an acquittal, there was no real victory. Rosfeld didn’t win the case. He just won’t go to jail. He can walk away from the courthouse,...
Editorial: Act 44 taking its toll on turnpike
On Thursday, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released an audit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The results were conclusive. Where some states build bridges to nowhere or roads without a destination, Pennsylvania knows exactly where things for the toll road are headed. Down a path to bankruptcy. Act 44 of 2007...
Laurels & lances: Treats, charges, legends and speaking out
Laurel: To spring being sprung. Regardless of predicted snowflakes Friday, spring is officially here and high temperatures in the coming week are predicted to stay in the 40s and 50s and all the way to 60s. It’s the perfect time to appreciate those longer days and brighter evenings, so thanks...
Editorial: Why use a mass shooter’s name?
We name names. The goal of journalism is to disseminate information. We find out who made a decision, who bought a business, who staged a protest, who won a prize, who died in a crash, who saved a life. And we name names. There are times that we pull the...
Editorial: Adults need to be informed about vaping, JUUL-ing
Do we really need another way to be addicted? We have internet and we have cellphones. We have alcohol and we have drugs. Lots of drugs. From the legal to the illicit to the things we use as substitutes for drugs when drugs are too hard to find. And we...
Editorial: What do we expect from black boys, rich kids?
Former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld’s trial starts Tuesday. Barring a plea or other last-minute changes, a jury will decide if he is guilty of criminal homicide in the June 19th death of Antwon Rose II. Rose’s story is one in a long line of high-profile shootings of black...
Editorial: Mental health has to be prioritized
As the trial of former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld for the shooting of Antwon Rose is set to begin, another police shooting has happened. While the Rose shooting brings attention to the nationally felt tension between the black community and law enforcement, the death of Nina Adams, 47,...
Editorial: Veto shows how Washington is supposed to work
President Trump has signed his name on a lot of things since taking office. Executive orders. Bills he signed into law. Bibles for fans in tornado-torn Alabama. But on Friday, he signed something new. A veto. For the first time in his presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives...
