Editorials category, Page 94
Editorial: What pushed UPMC on prepay?
For months, the deadline has loomed. June 30. The day Highmark patients would have to start paying for medical care at UPMC hospitals up front instead of presenting an insurance card and letting the process play out the way it does with other companies. But for UPMC, a different deadline...
Laurels & lances: Reach out, reveal, redd up
Laurels: To showing true colors. Pittsburgh police vehicles are sporting rainbow-skylined decals in June to celebrate Pride Month, a focus on the LGBT+ community. This is one of several decals the department will be using over the year to “focus on inclusiveness, community police work and building bridges,” according to...
Editorial: A world bought with sacrifice
The tide has come in and gone out every day for 75 years. The cold water has washed away the hot blood spilled by so many Americans on the beaches of Normandy. It hasn’t washed away what that blood bought us. It didn’t buy us a peaceful nation. It bought...
Editorial: How hot is too hot for classrooms?
It’s hot. You’re in a room full of people, trying to listen to the person talking but your mind keeps wandering. It’s hard to focus on your work. All you can think about is how uncomfortable you are, how much you want a drink, how you want to be anyplace...
Editorial: Virginia Beach joins tragic list
Hello, Virginia Beach. Welcome to the club no one wants to join. Like widows and parents who have lost children, cities that have experienced mass shootings are survivors that must learn to navigate in a new world while muscle memory tries to walk them through the layout of the old....
Editorial: Leechburg library closing is sad commentary
There may be no sadder commentary on the changing way we consume information than the demise of a local library. A library is one of those touchstone places that speaks to how a community comes together. Move to a new town and you have a list of things you need...
Editorial: Trump tariffs are Mexican standoff
A week ago, it was infrastructure versus a trade deal. “Before we get to infrastructure, it is my strong view that Congress should first pass the important and popular (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) trade deal,” President Trump wrote to Democratic leaders ahead of a planned meeting. The USMCA was negotiated between...
Editorial: Graduation ends journey for parents, not schools
That first day of school is hard. We drop the kids off for kindergarten. We dry their tears and push them to go. We hide our tears so they don’t know we’re scared, too. And that’s not the only first day. There’s the first time taking the bus, the first...
Laurels & lances: Flight, fire, art and weather
Laurel: To a high-flying success. The Memorial Day weekend Shop ‘n Save Westmoreland County Airshow drew thousands of visitors to the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. The annual undertaking is a big one for a small staff, assisted by contracted performers, hired hands and hundreds of volunteers. For two...
Editorial: Court confident in UPMC, Shapiro showdown
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht clearly has a lot of confidence in lawyers. When the court issued a split-decision ruling Tuesday regarding Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s attempt to force a resolution to the ticking time bomb that is the end of the UPMC-Highmark agreement, Wecht showed a great deal...
Editorial: Disaster aid should be non-partisan
A lot of attention goes to partisanship and bipartisanship. What do these groups agree on? What can bring both sides together? What drives them apart? There is less attention paid to the things that don’t have a side. Regardless of party affiliation, Pittsburghers can be depended upon to agree that...
Editorial: Does Pittsburgh view have too many signs?
Pittsburgh has always been a city pulled in opposite directions. It’s built around the natural wonder of two rivers coming together to birth a new waterway, but it was built by vital industries that obscured the sky and belched pollution for decades. It’s the home of ground-breaking, enviable medical treatment...
Editorial: Lest we forget
For Memorial Day, a classic Trib editorial: On this Memorial Day, be grateful that Americans’ willingness to sacrifice for freedom’s sake, instilled by each generation in the next, remains as strong as ever. Today, Americans honor those most worthy of such gratitude — those who gave their lives in our...
Editorial: CEO salaries, raises show wage gap
Pay raises: they’re not just for political employees anymore. Yes, it was just a week ago that we were questioning the salary bumps for members of Gov. Tom Wolf’s staff. Those annual numbers jumped from $9,000 to $33,000. But for some, that’s chump change. We all know the guys at...
Editorial: Impeachment isn’t the only I word
The “I” word. That’s what President Trump said derailed a meeting with Congressional Democrats Wednesday. He claimed that before that planned confab, House Dems gathered to discuss the “I” word. The “I” in this case stands for impeachment. Democrats, especially House members, have definitely been throwing around a lot of...
Laurels & lances: Good show, long loves and big heart
Laurel: To breaking records without breaking the law. Pittsburgh has seen plenty of packed country concerts end in arrests and drifts of debris that make local venues look more like landfills. It was nice to see Garth Brooks come to town and buck that trend. Not only did the Brooks...
Editorial: Not voting squanders basic birthright of America
Come on, people. You’ve got to do better. Everyone likes to complain about what the people in city hall are doing. Those SOBs in Harrisburg are screwing everything up. And Washington? Washington is full of cheats, liars and fools. But there’s a problem with that. We sent them there. “Well,...
Editorial: Morehouse College gift is valuable example
It isn’t every day that Leslie Odom Jr. gets upstaged — especially from 700 miles away. The “Hamilton” star came back to Pittsburgh on Sunday to give the commencement address at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. “I place my faith in the highest possible intentions in all things these...
Editorial: Highlands shouldn’t appeal Open Records ruling
Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. You can eat your co-worker’s unattended hoagie. You shouldn’t. You can steal your neighbor’s newspaper out of his driveway. You shouldn’t. You can paint your house PennDOT orange. You really, really shouldn’t. And yes, Highlands School District, you absolutely can appeal...
Editorial: Elected officials need to show up
OK, prospective office holders. Let’s think about this. You’re about to take a step toward holding a real responsibility. If you go through the primary process on Tuesday, you could win nomination and move on to the general election in the fall. You could end up as a leader of...
Editorial: Trickle-up voting can change government
The message is the same before every primary, and every general election. Get out and vote. It’s important. It’s how our system functions. We need to have voters participate in order to have representative government. The people who make the decisions have to be the ones who the voters have...
Editorial: Gov. Tom Wolf staff salary increases set tone, raise eyebrows
Everybody loves getting a raise. You might wait all year, have your review, get a gold star and be told, yes, you are valuable. You are worth another 3% in your paycheck. After Gov. Tom Wolf was re-elected, some of his staff got a taste of that experience. About a...
Laurels & lances: Music, mistakes, reeling and ruling
Laurel: To a real disc jockey. The kind who remembers not just pushing buttons, but spinning vinyl. There will be one fewer of those on the air waves after July 31. That’s when WDVE’s Sean McDowell will retire. Good for him and his 40-plus years behind the microphone. Sad for...
Editorial: Can student loan debt be opioid solution?
Solutions can be obvious if we open ourselves to seeing them. Doctors and scientists have a way of looking at something as both a problem and a solution. Something can be poison in one dose, medicine in another. HIV is being manipulated to fight cancer. Radiation can fuel a bomb,...
Editorial: Bishops right with priest suspensions, disclosures
Priests are people, too. They do good things and bad things and sometimes very bad things. They make sacrifices and they make mistakes. Priests are no more likely to lie, cheat, steal or hurt someone than a teacher or a banker, a barber or a chef. The statewide — and...
