Editorial: Health insurance costs drive benefit cut in Westmoreland County
The rising cost of health insurance — and how to pay for it — is a question many families are debating around kitchen tables, strained checkbooks close at hand. Westmoreland County leaders are confronting that same reality. The county salary board, composed of the three commissioners and Controller Jeffrey Balzer,...
Editorial: Pittsburgh turns the page — with work still to do
On Monday, Pittsburgh started a new story. Corey O’Connor was sworn in as the city’s 62nd mayor. As with so many such moments, it came with optimism about what comes next. It also has to come with realism. There is much that must be examined with clear eyes and honest...
Editorial: Why is Secret Service dropping the ball on protecting president?
President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail has one job: protect the president. Yet even after a 2024 assassination attempt in which then-candidate Trump was shot in the ear while campaigning in Butler, there are appalling lapses in security. In September, the president went to dinner with Secretary of State Marco...
Editorial: AI is changing the job hunt
Artificial intelligence is everywhere. The technology is being used to refine medicine, science, business and industry. At the same time, concerns about how fast AI is evolving — and what that means for jobs, the environment and daily life — are growing. In Springdale and other communities, those concerns are...
Editorial: Penn State trustees still aren’t talking enough in public
Penn State’s Board of Trustees deserves credit for spending more time in public discussion this year than it has in the recent past. After years in which outcomes often were treated as foregone conclusions, more conversation is a welcome change. But more is not the same as enough. The measure...
Laurels & lances: Safety & honor
Laurel: To being prepared. Two Philadelphia lawmakers introduced legislation in October to require school districts to stock naloxone — a medication that reverses an opioid overdose and can save lives. A TribLive story revealed that many Southwestern Pennsylvania districts didn’t need a law passed. They already have naloxone on hand...
Editorial: Preparing for the politics of 2026
There is something clarifying about opening a fresh calendar. The pages are clean, the boxes empty, the year ahead undefined. It invites planning even as experience reminds us that no year ever unfolds exactly as written. This will be another year when Pennsylvania finds itself under a political spotlight. Presidential...
Editorial: What most-read letters say about 2025
A newspaper can sometimes feel like a fire hose, delivering a steady stream of information to the reader. This person was arrested. This tax is being levied. That politician did something controversial — depending on your point of view. But the opinion page is different. It’s not a speech. It’s...
Editorial: A year defined by accountability
When it comes to editorials, our focus is always on our people — what hurts, what helps, what can be fixed. Sometimes that means being hyperlocal, examining issues that may start on a single street or in a single community but carry meaning across the region. Other times it means...
Editorial: Broadband decisions must outlast politics
Congress made a bipartisan promise a year ago: Every home and business in America would have access to high-speed internet. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act put
$42.5 billion into the Broadband Equity, Access and
Deployment program on a simple premise: In a world where work, education and health care...
Laurels & lances: Charity & clarity
Laurel: To a spirit of giving. Western Pennsylvania communities deserve credit for stepping up — again — at a time when generosity is harder to give. This year’s Toys for Tots campaign was more important than ever as families through the region struggle with high prices and stretched paychecks. Hundreds...
Editorial: Are you naughty or nice?
Everyone knows about The List. Santa makes it. He checks it. He checks it again. Are you naughty? Nice? We don’t know. Santa does. The List is why we have elves sitting on shelves. It’s why kids brush their teeth more and pay closer attention to their homework after Halloween....
Editorial: Taking political pay raises off autopilot
Wouldn’t it be great if your income automatically increased based on the cost of living? Higher food, gas or electricity prices would sting less. Rent increases might still hurt, but not nearly as much if paychecks rose alongside them. That is the reality for some in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers and...
Editorial: Lower housing prices, not loan standards
Philosopher George Santayana once famously observed, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Unfortunately, our nation’s collective memory doesn’t seem to even extend back two decades. Last month, Fannie Mae dropped the requirement that borrowers have a minimum credit score of 620. Freddie Mac had made...
Editorial: VA staffing cuts test a promise to vets
Our veterans are not just people who performed military service. Veterans are the front line of promises that should be kept and what happens when promises are broken. They are our neighbors and family. They are teachers and police officers, doctors and elected officials. They are the aging, the sick,...
Editorial: Religious freedom doesn’t stop at the jailhouse door
In Westmoreland County Prison, the freedom to worship is treated less as a right than a whim. On multiple occasions, prayer or Bible study gatherings have been disrupted by corrections officers. Tim Williamson of Jeannette spent about a month at the prison related to a misdemeanor arrest. He says he...
Laurels & lances: Charging & changing
Laurel: To giving students a break. It isn’t the fault of those enrolled at Penn State’s New Kensington or Fayette campuses that university leadership voted to close the schools at the end of the Spring 2027 semester. With that hanging in the not-so-distant future, it makes sense that some students...
Editorial: Transparency matters on ICE agreement
Did Springdale do the right thing in signing an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without voting publicly or placing it on an agenda? It is hard to say yes, even if you agree with the partnership. For one thing, it wasn’t just hidden from residents. Springdale Manager Terry...
Editorial: Grand juries work but require restraint
More than 30 years ago, an investigating grand jury last sat to hear and deliberate evidence in Westmoreland County. That was in the 1980s when prosecutors were exploring allegations of law enforcement misconduct in North Huntingdon. After careful review, the grand jury recommended charges against the police chief and others...
Editorial: Against the dark of violence, candles provide light
There are certain places in the world that will forever be associated with stunning acts of violence. On Sunday, another pin was placed in that map. At least 15 people were killed when gunfire ripped across Australia’s Bondi Beach, where people gathered to celebrate the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish...
Editorial: High suicide rate among seniors is a tragedy for entire community
While many people will be enjoying the next few weeks surrounded by friends and family, many of our neighbors will be isolated, especially those in their senior years. This isolation can contribute to depression and other disorders, which in turn can contribute to the rising levels of suicide or suicide...
Editorial: Oversight starts with receipts but shouldn’t stop there
When public money is spent, the people deserve to know the ins and outs. It’s encouraging to see Harrisburg lawmakers on this particular bandwagon. The state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee opted Tuesday to issue subpoenas to detail the full extent of taxpayer money used to cover certain work at Gov....
Editorial: Rough water ahead for Pittsburgh’s 2026 budget
Is Pittsburgh’s spending plan for 2026 in good shape — or is it steering into the rocks? “I’m not denying a thin margin for error,” said Jake Pawlak, deputy mayor under Mayor Ed Gainey and head of the Office of Management and Budget. A “thin margin for error” is not...
Laurels & lances: Selling & settling
Laurel: To opening doors. The announcements about Pittsburgh hosting the 2026 NFL Draft were filled with predictions about the opportunities for area businesses. Those predictions started to pay off this week as Pittsburgh vendors had the chance to get in on the conversation. The NFL’s Source Program brought local entrepreneurs...
Editorial: Penn State choices made union push inevitable
Penn State faculty are not unionized. That could change soon. If the university’s leadership doesn’t like that, it’s their own fault. The Penn State Faculty Alliance turned in thousands of union authorization cards to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. While imprecise, that’s still a considerable chunk of the university’s 7,498...
