Editorials category, Page 41
Editorial: Adult crimes and juvenile defendants pose unique challenges
In Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, significant charges have been pressed against kids who can’t even drive yet. A 14-year-old already on probation is charged in a fatal shooting in Carrick. A 16-year-old is charged with providing the gun to a 15-year-old for a planned robbery; the 15-year-old was subsequently shot...
Editorial: Why does Pa. Department of Health want to keep marijuana data secret?
Privacy and transparency can be natural enemies. People have an assumption of privacy when it comes to their information — financial, legal, business and especially medical. However, the public has a right to transparency regarding the decisions that are made in their name and the expenses that are charged to...
Editorial: In wake of train crash, Norfolk Southern reps must be seen to be believed
East Palestine, Ohio, is not the only place where Norfolk Southern has tracks and runs trains. The Georgia-based railroad company is the fifth-largest railway in the country. It operates about 19,500 miles of track crisscrossing the eastern United States. It pulled in $11.14 billion in revenue in 2021. The company...
Editorial: Is Pennsylvania a death penalty state or not?
Gov. Josh Shapiro is continuing the pattern Pennsylvania’s executives have perfected over the last 24 years. On Thursday, Shapiro said he will continue following in his predecessors’ footsteps by not permitting executions to move forward. Pennsylvania will continue being a death penalty state that does not put people to death....
Editorial: Calls for Marc Fogel’s release must continue until Russia sends him home
WNBA star Brittney Griner has been home for 10 weeks. It was Dec. 8 that she was released from a Russian prison after months in custody for possession of a small amount of medically prescribed cannabis. It took a concerted effort from the highest levels of the federal government. A...
Editorial: Was Westmoreland DA Ziccarelli’s crash really minor?
“Minor car accident” is one of those terms everyone has heard and yet is difficult to quantify. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department doesn’t have a measure for what makes a crash minor or major. An insurance company only deals in monetary amounts. There is no sliding scale. And so, when Westmoreland...
Laurels & lances: Loss, objection and dropped charges
Laurel: To a bittersweet farewell. On Tuesday, the community turned out to line the roads along a a twisting path from Baldwin to McKeesport, ending at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery on Curry Hollow Road. They were there to say goodbye to McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski, who was killed in the...
Editorial: Our children are under fire, and it’s time something gives
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey was stretched thin. Events called him in two directions. The funeral for slain McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski was scheduled for noon at St. Albert the Great Church in Baldwin. It was just a few hours later that he was speaking with media in...
Editorial: Is Westmoreland Republicans’ endorsement too early?
Endorsement is the stamp of approval that an organization — or an individual — gives a candidate in an election. Unions do it. Professional associations do it. Other elected officials do it. News organizations can decide to do it. Although the Tribune-Review and some other news agencies don’t believe it...
Editorial: Food banks need more support in face of SNAP benefit changes
Since 2020, the number of people depending on SNAP benefits — the government program previously called food stamps — has grown. In 2019, the number of Pennsylvanians was 1.6 million. Today, it is 1.8 million. The amount of money spent on the program in Pennsylvania has grown from $2.4 billion...
Editorial: Slamming shut the Medicaid and CHIP continuous enrollment door
The people who can least afford it are about to experience the blatant cruelty of a disappearing helping hand. The coronavirus pandemic prompted the Families First Coronavirus Act. In addition to things such as paid covid sick leave and testing, it also addressed additional SNAP benefits and continuous enrollment in...
Editorial: Pittsburgh’s bridge report needs to create urgent timeline
When Pittsburgh makes a bridge a priority, exactly what does that mean? In December, Mayor Ed Gainey released a comprehensive bridge report that assessed the spans that cross the city’s rivers, roads and valleys. The $1.5 million report was commissioned after the collapse of the poorly rated Fern Hollow Bridge...
Editorial: Government and media need to serve the people
The relationship between government and journalism frequently focuses on the adversarial. This is because there is a three-legged stool of public information. The government has the information, the people need the information, and journalists are the conduit for the exchange of that information. The adversarial nature comes about because, sometimes,...
Laurels & lances: Big save, big shame
Laurel: To co-workers you can count on. The people you work alongside can be just like family. That means they can be a confidante, a best friend or the person who bugs you more than anything. But sometimes they can also be real lifesavers. For Alexis Simon, a Penn-Trafford special...
Editorial: Pa. state House needs to get to work
It’s time for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to get to work. On Tuesday, the voters in three Allegheny County districts did their jobs. They showed up for the special election to fill the seats of the late longtime legislator Tony DeLuca, newly installed U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and Lt....
Editorial: Support police by giving room to grieve
If you want to know the toll that a line-of-duty shooting can take, look at the pictures of McKeesport police Chief Adam Alfer. On Monday, he stood alongside other officials making statements and giving information about the death of one of his own, Officer Sean Sluganski, and the injury of another,...
Commentary: How does the U.S.-China relationship continue after the spy balloon saga?
If you thought the Chinese spy balloon saga would deflate as fast as the balloon did over the Atlantic Ocean, you’re sadly mistaken. Days after a U.S. F-22 destroyed the device with a single air-to-air missile at 58,000 feet, the story continues to hover over the news cycle like a...
Editorial: Addressing blight requires planning and action
Eliminating blight isn’t a one-time task. Like weeding a garden, it’s a continual battle against recurrent attacks. As one industry rises, another one falls. Coal to nuclear to gas. Steel to banking to health care. The same happens with evolving lifestyles. Downtown shopping districts gave way to massive one-stop malls...
Editorial: Reserve audit tells only part of story
There is little doubt that, as state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor recently reported, some public school districts move around money to avoid reporting excessive cash reserves that would preclude them from raising local taxes. But that is only part of the story. Public school districts don’t operate in a vacuum...
Editorial: Let’s not forget what working at home taught us
It’s back to normal for Pennsylvania government. Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that 2,300 state employees will be heading back to the office. That move came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s decision that federal emergency measures related to the coronavirus pandemic will end in May. These are positive...
Editorial: Is Pennsylvania using anxiety as a gateway to marijuana?
Feeling anxious? You aren’t alone. The National Institute of Mental Health puts the number of people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at about 6.8 million adults. That’s more than 3% of the population. It doesn’t necessarily include those suffering from social anxiety disorder, panic attacks or phobias that also could...
Laurels & lances: Vaping, heating and smiling
Laurel: To adding new tools. As the song says, “Everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school.” That historically has been about cigarettes but has branched out to the modern version — vaping. It is illegal to sell any tobacco products, including vaping products, to those under 21 in Pennsylvania....
Editorial: Does Pennsylvania have a real-life ‘Groundhog Day’ problem?
In “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 Bill Murray movie, the holiday centered around a prognosticating Punxsutawney Phil is not the point. They are just the kick-off for the story about a weatherman trapped in the same 24 hours with the same events happening over and over again. There was never an...
Editorial: Is asking front line workers to train for crisis a good idea?
It would be great if everyone was trained to be a helping hand. But wishing doesn’t make it so. Neither does the vote of a city’s leaders. Last week, Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, put forward legislation that would create a training program to help people with crises...
Editorial: Museum commission needs to bring ideas for Bushy Run Battlefield
Teachers will tell you that finding a way to make a lesson come to life is the best way to make the material stick. It’s the difference between telling someone how to drive and putting them behind the wheel. There’s a reason that you take a book test to get...
