Laurel: To shining a spotlight. For years, Steven Matto, 54, of Arnold, has taken people into the heart of area emergencies as the official photographer for many fire companies, particularly in the Alle-Kiski Valley. The pictures sometimes gather the attention they merit in print or in broadcast. They always document the work done by the fire companies, like football game film helping them learn from one event and do better in the next.

But since an infection spread through his blood and bones, prompting five surgeries complicated by double covid-19 pneumonia, Matto has lost a leg. Now the emergency is his, and the companies are working to help their friend and colleague.

A GoFundMe page has raised more than $8,000 of a $20,000 goal toward helping him battle back from the financial impact of the medical crisis. Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department is holding a spaghetti dinner to benefit him Saturday and a band blast with local musicians will do the same on May 29 at New Kensington Memorial Park.

It is good to know that first responders don’t just have each other’s backs when the flames are high. They are just as supportive when the sirens are off.

Lance: To leaving early. In many criminal sentencings, there are multiple punishments that may be served in a variety of ways. The judge can determine some might be served at the same time — you can’t exactly serve 10 life sentences one after another. Others might be stacked up to occur sequentially. This is often specifically articulated when probation is involved, with the monitored period served after release.

And so the motion for Robert Laskowski, 35, of Hempfield, to have his 10-year probation dismissed is poorly framed.

Laskowski was a teenager when he pleaded guilty to participating in the 2002 murder of a classmate’s brother. He received a maximum 20-year sentence for which he was paroled in 2010 after eight years. That parole is set to end this month, and his consecutive probation would begin. But Laskowski wants to move to another state, and that would be easier — but not impossible — without probation.

“Mr. Laskowski has paid his debt to society and has proven too that he has been rehabilitated,” his attorney Angela Y. Hayden wrote.

But he hasn’t paid his debt. He has literally paid just two-thirds of it. The full debt is the sentence issued for third-degree murder and conspiracy in 2002, and there is still 10 years to satisfy on that. That he has been able to comply well with the terms of his parole and become a better functioning adult than he was when he watched Adam Bishop, 18, be beaten to death with a claw hammer and a club before helping drag the body to a bathtub is good.

However, there is a world of difference between arguing that you are a better person who should be given a second chance and saying that you have done all that you should have to do for your part in the murder of another person. Hayden’s petition insults the victim’s memory and does her client a disservice by making him look insensitive.

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