Editorials category, Page 51
Editorial: Hallam’s Airbnb ban shows struggle between safety and freedom
The problem with checks and balances is sometimes they don’t just check other people. Sometimes, they check us, too. It isn’t just dramatic irony. It’s an illustration of equity. The head of the Internal Revenue Services should be just as likely to be audited as anyone who turns in a...
Laurels & lances: Cleaning up and cracking down
Laurel: To preserving natural beauty. Southwestern Pennsylvania is defined as much by its water as it traditionally has been by its industry. However, the area’s rivers have both accommodated the businesses that built up around them and been negatively impacted by that development over the years. Reversing the pollution of...
Editorial: Suicide is military’s last battlefield
There is one thing that soldiers and sailors, Marines and airmen understand from the moment they undertake their task. It is that their lives are counted. They are the real weapons of war — more than bullets or bombs. They are the single greatest commodity in the logistics of defense...
Editorial: Westmoreland County should focus on doling out opioid settlement dollars it has before eyeing next lawsuit
Westmoreland County is planning to file another opioid lawsuit. The county — like communities across the nation — has been pursuing those who made money off the opioid epidemic for years. It’s the kind of opportunity not seen since the tobacco settlement of 1998, when states were able to take...
Editorial: School breakfast will help hunger, but lunch would be better
It is unthinkable that 12.5% of households with children deal with hunger. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released those numbers last week. Single women with children struggle the most. Although households at or below the poverty level deal with hunger the most, they aren’t alone. Feeding America says 18.1% of...
Editorial: Turnpike debt problems must be Harrisburg priority
When it comes to editorials, there are two things that most Tribune-Review readers agree on and utterly despise, without regard to party or politics: The Pittsburgh Pirates could screw up a one-car funeral, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission would increase the tolls on that one car astronomically. Pennsylvania Auditor General...
Editorial: Remember the shared grief of Sept. 11 attacks
We remember the losses our nation and our state felt on Sept. 11, 2001, with this editorial from the 20th anniversary of the tragic events (updated to reflect 21 years). For two decades, America has had one shared cultural touchstone. Every Sept. 11, we are transported to the day when...
Editorial: Candidates need to participate in debates
Pennsylvania will get at least one debate. It seems odd to suggest that not having debates during a midterm is at all possible, and yet the top two races in the Keystone State have kept that question unanswered for weeks. It’s absurd to consider skipping them. Pennsylvania has one of...
Laurels & lances: Listening and racism
Laurel: To listening to the people. Actually, Brackenridge’s problems started with listen to a few people complain about basketball hoops and hockey goals. In response to some complaints about traffic obstructions and property damage from kids playing sports on or near neighborhood streets, the borough proposed an ordinance that would...
Editorial: Redistricting legal bills are cost of putting party before people
Redistricting is not just something that happens every 10 years. It is more than just the way that we shuffle the decks of legislators and change the game board that says who goes where. It’s a complicated, necessary process that should be an accurate reflection of not how we wish...
Editorial: Common sense solutions for housing are great idea
People frustrated by government often cite one troubling factor: a lack of common sense. That can look like a committee spending months debating a solution to a problem your regular person on the street finds fairly obvious. The length of time it takes to decide to put a stop sign...
Editorial: Freeport mayor vacancy shows need for involvement
Freeport needs a mayor. James Swartz Jr. served as mayor for 38 years. He stepped down in June. About three months later, the borough’s executive office is still empty. Why? According to Council President Clint Warnick, there haven’t been any qualified applicants. One could say council needs to be a...
Editorial: More people in the workforce is good news
On Labor Day, we don’t honor the work that people do. We celebrate the people who do the work. It is a day off at the end of summer, as kids go back to school and schedules revert back to the norm after three months of vacations and heat and...
Editorial: Are Catholics key to the Tree of Life shooting jury?
Tree of Life shooting suspect Robert Bowers will go to trial next year. The federal criminal case has dragged on for almost four years since that Saturday morning in October 2018 when Squirrel Hill joined the list of mass shooting locations in the U.S. Eleven people died at the synagogue,...
Laurels & lances: Teaching and searching
Laurel: To making an effort. Lots of people are talking about the problems in education — especially with the falling numbers of teachers. It’s an issue that wasn’t necessarily caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but it has definitely been exacerbated by it. Colleges are seeing fewer people pursue degrees in...
Editorial: Pennsylvanians deserve Fetterman-Oz debate
How we conduct elections has changed over the years. It is no longer a show of hands. It isn’t by the roar of the crowd. We don’t drop a pebble in a vessel like they did in ancient Greece — although the evolution of that process is where we get...
Editorial: There’s still real work to do, Gov. Wolf
OK, Governor, it’s your turn. We recently took the Republican-controlled state Legislature to task for continuing to chew on Act 77 and its aftermath in recent elections like a pack of dogs with a particularly juicy bone. Several lawmakers have been in and out of court with challenges to the...
Editorial: Roberto Clemente’s dream can build sports cities in every community
Ciudad Deportiva. Sports City. For Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican right fielder who was one of the best players to wear a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, those words were more than just a dream. They were a plan for the future. The Sports City he envisioned was a gift for the...
Editorial: Health Department needs to be crystal clear about marijuana data
Pennsylvania has a data problem. A Commonwealth Court ruling recently directed the Department of Health to provide information on its medical marijuana program. The court got involved as Spotlight PA has tried to investigate the state’s decision to allow medical marijuana to treat opioid addiction. The Department of Health has...
Editorial: JCPA can stop Big Tech from playing games with the news
For some people, all they know of monopoly comes from the classic board game. If that’s where you learned about the practice of owning and controlling not just a business but also an industry, you might have come away with the idea that monopolies are a good thing. Own all...
Laurels & lances: Back to school, birds and buildings
Laurel: To that time of year. School started this week for many students throughout the region. For others, that first bell is just days away. College students are back in their dorms and heading back to class in universities from Pittsburgh to Greensburg and everywhere else. This could be when...
Editorial: Push for Marc Fogel’s release unites right and left
For months, the issue of WNBA star Brittney Griner’s release from captivity in Russia has eclipsed the cases of others. Her fame has garnered her more attention than the case of Paul Whelan, an American held for espionage. It has definitely attracted more attention than the case of Marc Fogel,...
Editorial: Why won’t GOP lawmakers fix the voting law they don’t like?
You can’t get a Democrat and a Republican to agree on much of anything in Pennsylvania — especially when it comes to elections. But, on Friday, a Republican state judge sided with Democrats, including Gov. Tom Wolf, about a pile of contested ballots in three counties. Are they the heavily...
Editorial: Schools should walk line with pros and cons of cellphones
Cellphones are a great tool. They are the Swiss Army knife of electronics. If you have a smartphone in your pocket, you have more than just a way to call home. You can take a picture or make a video. You can send an email or read a book. A...
Editorial: The lesson of the ‘Kids for Cash’ judgment
Some debts simply can’t be paid in money. From 2003 to 2008, two Luzerne County judges used children as a commodity. When juveniles appeared before Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, a large number were quickly found to be delinquent and handed over to facilities that made their money through such...
