Editorials category, Page 48
Laurels & lances: Bridges and brick walls
Laurel: To an end in sight. The year started with a bang — literally. It was Jan. 28, and the president was on his way to talk about infrastructure when a very public example of why it was important occurred in Pittsburgh. The Fern Hollow Bridge in Frick Park collapsed,...
Editorial: Corrections officers are key to a successful jail
The most important part of a corrections operation is not the bars. A jail is not a cage. It isn’t a place where people are chucked in and the door is locked behind them like some medieval dungeon. At least, it’s not supposed to be. No, the word “corrections” implies...
Editorial: Challenges and certification part of election process
The votes are in — officially. The day we cast our votes is the start of a process that isn’t completed for weeks. Starting in October, Pennsylvanians started voting by mail. Ballots were cast in person Nov. 9. While we knew who the projected winners for some races were within...
Editorial: Hospital expansions, costs need checks for patients
The number of names in the hospital game is shrinking, even in a state abundant with facilities. Large hospitals buy smaller ones to create health systems. Health systems merge to create regional or statewide networks. On top of that, the building of more facilities happens steadily. More beds, more services,...
Editorial: More work needed on mental health capacity to stand trial
Sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t fix the problem. In September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court looked at the case of a mentally ill man convicted of a crime who was charged with another crime while in state prison. A judge found the man’s profound mental illness meant that, under a...
Editorial: Automatic state pay increases aren’t fair to the people
Asking for a raise isn’t easy. Well, asking for one might be, but actually getting one is different. For many, it involves sitting down with your boss and justifying not only the job you are doing but also its increased value over what you are being paid. Maybe it happens...
Editorial: Small businesses are the backbone of economy
Black Friday started its less-than-subtle expansion by creeping forward hour by hour into Thanksgiving, until one could rush through a Thanksgiving lunch to go line up for pre-Christmas deals. While there was pushback from some against cutting into the national holiday, that didn’t mean people objected to expanding access to...
Laurels & lances: Tuition, decisions and rewards
Laurel: To a real deal. While the White House and the courts work out the feasibility of student loan forgiveness, the cost of a college education isn’t getting any smaller. At least, it’s not at most institutions. At Washington & Jefferson College, that’s not the case. The Washington County school...
Editorial: Thanksgiving, a celebration of enough
Thanksgiving is often symbolized by an overflowing cornucopia, the horn of plenty spilling out bounty too great to be contained. Giving thanks for that kind of splendor is simple. There is little effort in saying grace at a table that groans under the weight of an impossible feast. It is...
Editorial: Is lieutenant governor question too important to be bundled?
When it comes to the U.S. government, no one is drafted to be vice president. It’s an honored invitation. Presidential candidates search for someone who is a complement, providing strengths where there are weaknesses while still having a similar overall direction. Sometimes that’s a real partnership. Other times, it’s a...
Editorial: What is the point of unmonitored electronic monitoring?
Electronic monitoring is one link in the chain of options when it comes to keeping track of people charged with or sentenced for a crime. It falls between incarceration and the kind of release on bail where someone is restricted by fear of losing a posted bond. Being released with...
Editorial: Competence versus rhetoric in Pennsylvania elections
There is nothing as important as our electoral process. Elections have to be safe. They have to be secure. They have to be easy and accessible. All of that can seem a little contradictory at times. Does making the process encouraging prevent it from being secure? Does making it safe...
Editorial: No time for election victory laps
In Washington, D.C., it took about a week to discover which party would have the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, with attention pulled to races in Colorado and California before the balance finally tipped. The Republicans would take back the House from Democratic hands by a narrow margin....
Lori Falce: Is crypto the MLM of dudes?
My friends and I were talking about the collapse of FTX — the cryptocurrency trading firm that suddenly declared bankruptcy last week. It was a scandal that might have been of epic proportions if not overshadowed by things like the U.S. election vote counting and developments in the war in...
Laurels & lances: Renew, revisit, rethink
Laurel: To everything old being new again. When the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation gave a $160,000 rehabilitation loan to Dave Rankin to breathe new life into the old G.C. Murphy building in Tarentum, the hope was that it would preserve old architecture and benefit the area. The response to...
Editorial: Politics should include a little more parental guidance
This month, Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher will take on a new role with a constituency of one — her about-to-be-born first child. Thrasher is one of a growing number of women in politics — especially women actively building their careers and their families at the same time. In...
Editorial: A real way for Kim Ward to make history
On Tuesday, state Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, notched another first. After serving as the first female Senate Majority Leader for the past two years, she was elected by her fellow Republicans to become the chamber’s Senate President Pro Tempore. She is also the first woman to serve in that role....
Editorial: Will Pa. pay the price for colleges’ tuition border wars?
The State University of New York is making it plain that it sees Pennsylvania’s high school students as an interstate commodity. “If your high schooler wants to go to college in New York, the State University of New York offers same in-state tuition as Penn State,” SUNY said in a...
Editorial: Time is running out for Congress to save local news
Local journalism is a cornerstone of democracy. It is a vital source of information for communities across the country. Newsrooms cover local politics, high school sports, local business openings, cultural events and other matters that help a community remain vibrant and connected. But the industry is facing an existential crisis...
Editorial: The peer pressure of legalizing marijuana
When it comes to vices, Pennsylvania is not the kind of state that tends to be on the cutting edge. Sure, the Keystone State doesn’t shy away from a little wicked fun. It’s a place where people enjoy their alcohol. There are more than 350 breweries, 300 wineries and 40...
Editorial: Who controls the House? The people do.
Who will control the House of Representatives? With the voting in the rearview mirror and the counting dragging on, it’s the question everyone is asking. On television and radio, the pundits obsess about the minute-to-minute fluctuations in the data over the seats up for grab in Washington, D.C. By how...
Laurels & lances: Election edition
Laurel: To the value of a good book. Or a lot of books, for that matter. While some people may focus on the candidates that walked away from Election Day as winners, some communities had something a little closer to home to celebrate: their local libraries. In Southwest Greensburg, voters...
Editorial: The lessons of the 2022 election
So what did we learn? The 2022 election was not just a survey of what people want and don’t want. Those are the polls that have been going on for months. You know, the ones assessing what the most important issues would be, allowing candidates to make subtle — or...
Editorial: Election rules shouldn’t differ county to county
OK, it’s over now, right? The political ads are done. The polls opened. The polls closed. The ballots were cast. The early and absentee ballots came into election offices and through the mail. It’s all done but the final counting and certification, right? Oh, if only that were true. We...
Editorial: Toll scofflaw legislation is easy, but hard work is needed on other PennDOT, turnpike problems
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a new law last week giving the state a stick to smack or prod drivers owing delinquent toll money. The law comes after the state adopted Toll by Plate as an alternative to E-ZPass and eliminated in-person toll workers or the mechanical devices that caught...
