Editorials category, Page 12

We cannot accept antisemitism. It shouldn’t happen in America. It shouldn’t happen in Pennsylvania. It cannot happen in Pittsburgh. In every other place in the country and the state, antisemitism is an ugly word that speaks of an ugly history. It reflects disgusting, individual attacks. It is about policies and...

If you have a mailbox, you may have gotten a postcard advertisement from U.S. Steel. If you watch television, you may have seen a commercial about Nippon Steel. If you spend time online, you may have seen a pop-up ad about the sale of the high-profile Pittsburgh-based American steel company...

Every year, the world has a chance to be better for a few days. Right now, more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries have gathered in France for the Olympic Games. They will compete in 329 events over 32 sports. There are the classics such as running and cycling. There...

Former president Donald Trump will return to Pennsylvania. On Friday, it was announced the Republican presidential nominee would campaign Wednesday at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg. It is another sign things are returning to normal after the July 13 campaign rally in Butler. Gunman Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel...

Laurel: To recognizing a reality. Not everyone drinks alcohol or indulges in other substances. Some people don’t drink because they’re in recovery from alcoholism or other substance abuse. Some people can’t drink because of a medical condition, like pregnancy, diabetes or liver disease. Some may have an emotional or psychological...

Football season doesn’t mean the same thing in the Latrobe area that it does in Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, football season is a fall phenomenon. It is tailgating and Sunday afternoons, Monday nights and powering through games sometimes cold enough to freeze a Terrible Towel. It is months of fans living...

Members of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security did something Monday that lawmakers rarely do. They did not meet in a formal room, sitting at glossy wood desks, perched behind nameplates underscoring their importance to a political process. Instead, a group of lawmakers from both parties went into the...

On Friday, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage by a Russian court. He was sentenced immediately. The penalty was 16 years in a maximum-security prison. The sentencing has given rise to speculation about negotiation for Gershkovich’s release. Russia likes to trade prisoners only after they have...

On Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden posted to social media a letter that was both surprising and anticipated. He bowed out of the presidential election. It was surprising because it is really unheard of at this point in an election year. The closest analog is when Lyndon B. Johnson stepped...

Paying for health care in America is a complicated business. In recent years, the government has taken valuable steps to reduce the harm that unexpected medical bills and unscrupulous debt collectors inflict on consumers. But a newly proposed rule, which would strip all health care bills from credit reports, is...

Butler County has been Trump country from the beginning. North of the Democratic island of Allegheny County, Butler County is not hesitant in its support of former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump. In 2016, 66.7% of the county picked Trump over Hillary Clinton. In 2020, support barely wavered, dropping...

It might seem like the dysfunction in the Westmoreland County Register of Wills Office is a new thing. The department — responsible for filings and services regarding estates, wills, adoptions and more — has been in the spotlight all year. There was a hearing in January that saw Register of...

Every week in this space, we give a spotlight to some of the best and worst news. Sometimes it’s a smaller aspect of a bigger story. Sometimes it’s a piece from one community that might have been missed by others. This week, we know what the lance is. Everyone knows...

The shooting Saturday at the Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler County will be a dark day in American history. But amid the finger-pointing about what went wrong with law enforcement and how the Secret Service should have been better prepared, there are things being neglected. Namely, there should be...

Investigations give us answers. They do not necessarily make us feel better. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission delivered an answer to a question lingering since August. Did the Peoples Gas service lines play a part in the Rustic Ridge explosion that claimed six lives, obliterated three homes and...

There has never been a time when it was this important to consume the news critically. It is important to know what is happening. This is an Olympic year and an election year. There are wars raging in Israel and Ukraine. Governments are being upended in Europe and South America....

An unprecedented strain of bird flu is spreading among dairy cattle in the U.S. An outbreak of a flesh-eating bacteria has infected more than 1,000 people in Japan. At least 13 communicable diseases including measles, dengue and polio have surged past pre-pandemic peaks in regions across the world. The threat...

Violence and democracy cannot exist in the same arena. On Saturday, former president and GOP candidate Donald Trump was struck by a bullet as he spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in Butler County. Trump, bloodied and defiant, was quickly removed from the stage. Despite the injury to his...

Pennsylvania’s history as a swing state always gets attention during presidential election years. In the last two such elections, it has made all the difference. Suburban voters in Beaver, Butler and Chester counties helped put the Keystone State in Donald Trump’s column in 2016. Erie and Northampton counties switched to...

Pennsylvania has a 2024-25 budget. Hallelujah. The budget came in a mere 11 days late. In Pennsylvania political time, that’s practically early. The 2023-24 budget overshot the June 30 deadline by almost half a year. The last parts were signed Dec. 14, making it closer to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s February...

Laurel: To furry friends. You might want to dismiss Anthrocon as a bit silly. When you have thousands of people dressed like stuffed animals, the jokes do tend to write themselves. But the convention is serious business, too. VisitPittsburgh’s senior director of communications and public affairs Emily Hatfield said this...

We lose children every day. There are a million ways every year that our most precious resource slips through our fingers. All of them are heartbreaking. All of them are terrible. Nationwide, the total is about 37,000 annually, according to the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention. In Pennsylvania,...

Residents of Kiski Township know one thing about the resignation of Lee Bartolicius from his position as police chief: Township supervisors accepted it. Do they know why he resigned? No. Do they know if there were problems to be resolved? No. Do they know what he received in a severance...

Among the many rulings the Supreme Court handed down this term, a decision on so-called Chevron deference could prove especially consequential. The question at issue was whether the courts or government agencies should determine the meaning of ambiguous laws. The new ruling unsettles a 40-year-old understanding by shifting some of...