Editorials category, Page 26
Editorial: Does political party mean what it used to in Pennsylvania?
Laurie MacDonald will not be the next representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. After a challenge to the Mt. Washington resident’s nominating petition, MacDonald was off the Democratic ballot for the April primary. That leaves the first round of the election to a battle between incumbent U.S. Rep. Summer Lee,...
Editorial: Who do we thank for freedom of information?
Ask who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and most people will promptly respond with Thomas Jefferson. Ask about the Constitution, and Broadway enthusiasts and history buffs may wax poetic about Alexander Hamilton. But who do we credit with the Bill of Rights? That honor goes to James Madison. The fourth...
Editorial: Fraud can affect anyone
Fraud is one of those things that happens to other people. That’s what we want to believe. That’s true of plenty of bad stuff in life. Fires, crimes, cancer — all of that is easier to accept when we distance ourselves from it. But fraud carries a little something extra....
Editorial: Why weigh in on international issues?
Allegheny County Council has reason to get involved in a lot of issues. It can take actions that impact the environment. It can do things that affect the economy of the state — even a few states given the area’s proximity to Ohio and West Virginia. It can make a...
Editorial: Another chance to say Marc Fogel’s name missed
After the State of the Union address, much about the annual speech is dissected. What were the highs? What were the lows? What were the priorities set or the challenges made? What gets less attention is what wasn’t said. On Thursday, President Joe Biden hit a lot of the expected...
Laurels & lances: Letters and bills
Laurel: To an elegant return. Some schools are making sure that in a world of texting, the time-honored skill of handwriting doesn’t get lost. State Rep. Joe Adams, R-Wayne/Pike, has introduced a bill that would require public schools to teach cursive. While some schools — like Mary Queen of Apostles...
Editorial: Does the presidential primary matter in Pennsylvania?
The Super Tuesday dust still is settling. On one day, 16 states and one territory had a caucus or primary — in Utah, both were held. People decided which candidates would receive the Democratic or Republican delegates toward the nomination of a presidential candidate. There had been similar contests in...
Editorial: Last-minute Monroeville Convention Center save is a community and economic win
A convention center serves an important role for a community. Actually, it serves more than one. It’s a gathering place for significant events that require large spaces. Those can be within a specific population like a trade or business interest. It might be broader interest like a bridal or home...
Editorial: Fern Hollow victims expose shameful shortcomings in state law
The law is supposed to be fair. It is supposed to be rendered equally, no matter who the parties are. If you sue your neighbor for crashing into your car, the court shouldn’t find more fault than it does for a stranger. If the company behind the product that hurt...
Editorial: Only Congress can (and must) tap the brakes on AI
You could almost hear palms smacking onto foreheads all over the techier corners of the internet this week, after a Google artificial intelligence program began generating pictures of Black founding fathers, a female Pope and other notions that would exist only in the most fringe-progressive alternate reality. No, the culprit...
Editorial: Election security task force can only do so much
Among the most important events to happen in Pennsylvania this year will be the primary election in April and the general election in November. It is important to every person in the state, as every state House of Representatives seat and a number of state Senate seats will be on...
Editorial: Pittsburgh bag ban has good intentions, bad rollout
A plastic bag ban may sound like a good idea. At the very least, it may sound like a good intention. The purpose is to pull plastics out of the environment. Although people may differ in opinion over climate change, it’s harder to deny the impact of plastics on our...
Laurels & lances: Financial aid and fire
Laurel: To taking some time. There is no reason universities can’t take steps to make up for problems that affect their students. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — system was updated last year. While “update” might seem like a good thing, the process is creating...
Editorial: Supreme Court’s sticky web: The First Amendment protects social media
The nation’s highest court Monday heard oral arguments in challenges to Florida and Texas laws in which state governments seek to force social media companies to let more people say more things on their platforms — in other words, to behave less like publishers and more like free-for-all public squares....
Editorial: Does Robert Morris University need state money for a hockey arena?
Public money always seems to make its way into sports venues. The story is always the same. This field will be good for the community. It will generate income. It will provide value. As with so many other cities, the Pittsburgh landscape is defined by these venues. One also could...
Editorial: Billionaire, small businesses and bipartisan lawmakers sick of pharmacy benefit managers
So much of American health care can be summed up with drugs. We often go to the doctor less to find out what is wrong than we do to get a prescription to fix the symptoms. While the long-term goal may be figuring out the underlying cause, the short-term objective...
Editorial: Your air quality may be more dangerous than your phone is telling you. The EPA is fine with that.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s adoption of a more stringent annual limit on fine particulate matter, or soot, fulfills an overdue obligation to curb a deadly type of air pollution that triggers asthma, heart attacks, strokes and a host of other health problems. But the agency made a serious mistake by...
Editorial: School security is too important to neglect
There are places that a school district can cut corners. None is pleasant. Trim things off the maintenance budget, and you can set up bigger building projects later on. Short the curriculum, and you get poor test scores and unprepared students. Whatever gets cut one place costs in another. But...
Editorial: Penn State president’s retention bonus is out of touch amid cuts
Penn State is doing a lot of cost cutting lately. Under President Neeli Bendapudi, there has been a real campaign to slash what many might see as a bloated budget. The 2023-24 budget is $9.5 billion. Educating on the scale Penn State does is expensive. In addition to the sprawling...
Laurels & lances: Caps, meetings and closings
Laurel: To help in healing. Sometimes it takes a mom to recognize what’s going to make someone feel better. Heather Shuker, 49, knows what doctors have done for her daughter, Hannah, who has battled severe seizures for 20 years. But being there through it all gave her a perspective a...
Editorial: Fern Hollow Bridge collapse was human fault, not an act of God
An act of God might sound biblical, but it has a legal definition. When it comes to contracts and liability, an act of God is the kind of calamitous natural event that is unpredictable and unavoidable. It’s something that is outside of human control. And it is not what happened...
Editorial: Snow story gets cold shoulder from haters
TribLive shared a story Sunday about kids getting a chance to try something out of the box for them. Children from Pittsburgh were getting an opportunity to try an outdoor activity. They were learning to ski and snowboard. This isn’t a controversial topic. We know controversy. We see it all...
Editorial: The fight over cyber charter money
Cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania are a different animal from the run-of-the-mill public school. A charter school is still a public institution. It doesn’t play by the same rules, however. It could have a different goal or a different method — like focus on a nontraditional curriculum or an unusual...
Editorial: How reliable are corporate sale promises?
The importance of knowing what you are getting into was illustrated Thursday in West Virginia. That was when Cleveland-Cliffs announced the shuttering of a tin production facility in Weirton. Cleveland-Cliffs is one of the largest producers of steel in the United States. It has plants across multiple states, including a...
Editorial: Spotting the problems with ShotSpotter responses
Chicago is discontinuing its use of ShotSpotter, a sound technology used to identify and locate gunfire in a community. Mayor Brandon Johnson didn’t like the program or the money that went toward it. Since signing a contract in 2019, Chicago has given software company SoundThinking about $9 million a year...
