Editorials category, Page 91
Editorial: The ultimate checks and balances
We have to hold our government accountable. But we have to do the same to ourselves. On Wednesday, Allegheny County Council held a hearing about an ordinance that would create an independent police review board. Independent observation and supervision of government is a good thing. It is the kind of...
Laurels & lances: Hard work, fast train, sweet music
Laurel: To the value of a hard worker. Some people have plans to retire after 20 or 30 years on the job. Not Nora Morant. At 88, the Oakland woman has spent 70 years on the housekeeping staff at Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill. She is...
Editorial: Do the math on jobs numbers
When you can’t quite believe what you hear, you might want to go back to the numbers. There’s nowhere that’s more true than when you look at a government report. Some of them are straightforward. This budget accounts for so much money in and so much money out. That’s hard...
Editorial: Just take a minute and connect
We all have someplace to be. We all have things to do and people to meet and tasks to complete and hurdles that frustrate us. But we also have time to stop and listen. We just have to decide to do it. Dylan Tetil did. On Saturday, Tetil was seating...
Editorial: Arsonist burns firefighter reputations
It doesn’t take much for a reputation to go up in smoke. It happens all the time. A respected person — a community leader or a valued professional — couldn’t possibly be responsible for a crime. Until it happens. Generally, it’s the kind of thing that hits only that person’s...
Editorial: Cheaper solutions work better sometimes
Sometimes you’ve got to decide between what’s better for the job and what you can afford. Maybe you could really use a brand-new custom-built house with four bathrooms and a kitchen that is all granite and stainless steel. But what you can afford is a fixer-upper where your kids will...
Editorial: Kudlow needs to see recession danger
Recession isn’t a blood-soaked word like murder or rape or stabbing. There will probably never be a slasher movie that starts with a dropping stock price or a devalued dollar. But that doesn’t mean recession isn’t a terrifying idea if you understand what it means. (And maybe more if you...
Editorial: Don’t lose your Pittsburghese
We aren’t one nation of people that look alike and think alike. So why should we all sound alike? A class at the Community College of Allegheny County offers yinzers the opportunity to “lose your Pittsburgh accent.” “Come to this class and learn how to subdue your Pittsburghese,” the course...
Laurels & lances: Cookie-eating, knife-wielding, fair-going
Laurel: To a whole lot of baking going on. Last week’s overwhelming response by cookie bakers during the Monongahela Area Historical Society’s 250th anniversary celebration brought the city a sweet honor when Guinness World Records adjudicator Christina Conlon announced that the number of cookies on display had established a new...
Editorial: Education needs a better charter
What is a charter? It’s the authorization by which something comes into being. William Penn was given a charter for the land that became Pennsylvania. It was the Charter of Liberties that he later granted the state’s first ruling body in 1701 that took Penn’s Woods from being his holding...
Editorial: What happens now with church abuse
It’s been a year. One year since the scope of the Catholic church sex scandal was dragged into the light of day. One year since Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released the grand jury report that detailed 70 years of children being abused — first when their bodies were touched...
Editorial: Jailhouse suicides aren’t theories
Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide has prompted a rash of conspiracy theories about how a wealthy man in an infamous criminal case could have been left to kill himself. There are the theories that the government had him killed. Or maybe it was the Clintons. Or maybe it was the even...
Editorial: Crime is nothing new
It’s enough to make you afraid to go … well, anywhere. Even though, statistically, we know that the places we go every day are no more dangerous than they have ever been. Violent crime rates have dropped 49% since 1993, according to the FBI. But the Pew Research Center says...
Editorial: Gun control isn’t just red or blue
When you think about guns and legislation, there’s a tendency to default to red and blue battlegrounds. It’s easy to reduce to stereotypes: Democrats want to restrict them and Republicans want to hand them out like bobbleheads at a baseball game. But Pennsylvania offers a lesson in the rainbow of...
Editorial: The politics of making tragedy political
On its best day, politics is a balancing act. The politician is like a waitress with a giant, carefully coordinated tray of plates and bowls and glasses. Move this constituent’s sandwich and it affects that agency’s soup which could slosh all over the opposition’s dessert and make the whole table...
Lori Falce: Thoughts, prayers and actions
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of El Paso. My thoughts and prayers are with the city of Dayton. My thoughts and prayers are with the people who are left bleeding and broken. They are with the family members who are trying to make sense of funeral arrangements...
Laurels & lances: Dig in, shut down, clean up
Laurel: To carrying on the family tradition. This year the Gearhard family, of Gearhard Farms in Murrysville, marks the farm’s 250th anniversary. Members of the family have been living and farming the property since 1769, making the farm older than America, and the oldest in Westmoreland County. Farmer Herb Gearhard...
Editorial: Census is America taking attendance
Rock the vote. Show up at the polls. Every vote counts. Voting is frequently pushed as a way to make your voice heard in the halls of government. And it is. It’s just not the only way. We vote twice a year. It matters, and it can affect everything from...
Editorial: Suicide happens. Pretending doesn’t prevent it.
Sometimes people just don’t know what to say when someone dies. It can be even more challenging when the death was a suicide. News agencies are no different. We want to be honest and frank about a serious incident. We want to be kind and compassionate about a profound loss....
Editorial: There is no one way to stop shootings
There is no way to stop someone brimming with fear and goaded by hatred, fueled by insecurity and propelled by prejudice. We have to stop this grappling to find the Holy Grail solution that will solve the tragic trouble of mass murder. It isn’t one answer. It is a complicated,...
Editorial: Data security demands cooperation
There is no lock that can’t be picked. There are just locks that haven’t been picked yet. That is the short definition of cybersecurity. Credit card giant Capital One became the latest victim in the hacking wars last week when the company announced 104 million customers and applicants had their...
Editorial: No such thing as a free lunch with SNAP
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. There are plenty of old sayings that urge us not to do something on principle that makes sense but has an obvious fly in the ointment....
Editorial: HQ2 bids gave Amazon lots of options
The Amazon announcement Tuesday of a new nonsortable fulfillment center near Pittsburgh International Airport was well- received. It was like Allegheny County got an unexpected rose from a TV “Bachelor.” It’s a $30 million investment. It means 800 full- time jobs will be created with $15 per hour paychecks. It...
Laurels & lances: Funds, fire and field
Laurel: To working hard to make beautiful music. Some people start saving early for Christmas but the Hempfield Area High School marching band is more focused on stockpiling money for New Year’s Day. The Spartans will ring in 2020 five hours earlier than the rest of Westmoreland County because they...
Editorial: Disgusting videos show pervasive disrespect
Have people always been this disgusting? In our cameras-everywhere internet age, we seem to be assailed with a lot of things no one wants to know. Not just the “how-is-the-sausage-made” kind of thing. No, this isn’t about incidental disgust — the unpleasantness that happens and we turn away because, hey,...
