Editorials category, Page 51

Not all hall passes look alike. In some schools, they are slips of paper that detail exactly where a student is allowed to go, at what time and why. In others, they are physical objects — sometimes comically large or obvious — that not only tell other staff members the...

Laurel: To having your say. The people turned out and made their wishes known. Because of that, there will be a lot of change in the area come January. Pittsburgh will have its first Black mayor in Democrat Ed Gainey, something not exactly surprising as the city hasn’t seated a...

Every elected official has good causes they would like to pursue and good ideas to get off the ground that are restrained by two things. First, you need the money to accomplish the task. Second, doing so has to be part of your job. Gov. Tom Wolf has problems with...

Last week, Westmoreland County officials were spouting optimism and confidence when it came to the general election. “We’re not getting the same calls and don’t have the same concerns we did,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said. “Overall, our customer service has increased, and it just shows we now have the proper...

Anyone who paid attention to the 2020 presidential elections can tell you that more people voted in that race than have ever voted before. Nationwide there were more than 158 million ballots cast. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 9 million people were registered and 76.5% showed up at the polls...

It used to be the Applewood Personal Care Home, but a building in Brackenridge might see new life giving shelter to people who have no other home. The Allegheny Valley Association of Churches received a green light from the municipality’s zoning hearing board to use the property it is trying...

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has several ins and outs as it winds its way through Westmoreland County. On Thursday, another one was announced after years of lobbying by locals. The Turnpike Commission gave the official go-ahead to an interchange in Penn Township at Route 130. The specifics of when the project...

Getting a kid to take a shot can be more stressful for parents than for the children themselves. Don’t believe it? Watch a mom or dad holding a baby getting an injection at a six-month appointment. It’s clearly a bullet that the parents would take themselves if they could. It’s...

Laurel: To unintentional stardom. It is rare that the people behind the scenes in a production get a moment in the spotlight, but senior Noah Kessler did just that when it became his job to clean the microphone between acts at the Highlands High School “Fall Follies” talent show. Little...

What does a freelance worker have in common with an exotic dancer? Maybe more than than you think. This isn’t about the work itself. It’s more about how the work is viewed in a strictly business sense. The law, after all, doesn’t care about what we do per se. The...

High gas prices are not exactly new to Pennsylvanians, but this is ridiculous. Maybe back in September, $3.33 a gallon seemed like the highest they could get, but here we are in October with prices up to $3.50 a gallon. For those wondering, it hasn’t cost that much to fill...

There is a time-honored, court-supported concept of privacy when it comes to dealings between a person and lawyer. It’s an idea that extends to lots of areas of the law. You are guaranteed that your conversations with counsel will be as sacred as a Catholic confessional booth whether you are...

Some things are just so obvious that it seems ridiculous they weren’t recognized sooner. The wheel. Fire. French fries and slaw on a corned beef sandwich. How did it take human beings so long to figure out what was right in front of them? Now there’s one in Westmoreland County....

It used to be that a 100th birthday was almost a tall tale. Celebrating 100 years was the kind of thing that a country or a city did, not a person. A well-loved business or a landmark institution might hit that milestone, but the list of people who reached it...

How much is your life worth? Is it worth as much as your neighbors’ house? Their car? Their kids? Is it worth coming between a downed power line and a child on a bike? Is it worth the difference between a kitchen grease fire and the smoking ruin of a...

Westmoreland County has a new watchdog. The actual position is called quality assurance manager, but the general description of that kind of job is usually to watch what is happening and make sure it’s going according to plan. In a factory, quality assurance makes sure the computer or camera or...

Laurel: To announcing a departure. U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, announced Monday that he will finish his term, which runs through 2022, but not seek reelection in the midterms. “I believe the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation,” he said. It would be nice...

A summit meeting is usually something seen between warring nations — or at least tense nations that could erupt into attack mode at the drop of a hat. Summit meetings are a way to broker a peace or defuse hostilities. We seldom think of them as something that happens in...

Public schools don’t just teach the rules. They have to follow them, too. School districts have to fall in line with federal requirements regarding students with disabilities and equal opportunity for male and female sports teams. They have to measure up to state Department of Education demands about curriculum and...

Burrell School District is losing out on $403,000 in tax money because of one large property owner’s appeal. Arconic has negotiated a lower assessment for its property in Upper Burrell because it just isn’t worth what it once was. School district legal counsel Anthony Giglio of Andrews & Price in...

For the past three years, how Pennsylvanians vote has been discussed in committees, debated on the floor of the Legislature and taken into court. It’s been just as hot a topic on television, in corner bars and at the dinner table. A big part of that has been about no-excuse...

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education made a long-awaited announcement. The three Western Pennsylvania schools being merged into one multi-campus university had the new name made official. In a triumph of the obvious, PASSHE selected Pennsylvania Western University — PennWest for short. The names of the original...

Laurel: To one man’s best friend. Tom Kissel of Mars is not the first person to be saved from catastrophe by a dog. He may not even be the first person to be rescued by a ball of fluff that is half Pomeranian and half Jack Russell terrier. But he...

Transplantation surgery and the illnesses that can precipitate it come with a lot of baggage. There may be years of health problems that build up to a transplant. Patients and their families can be so steeped in the language and procedures of their hospitals that they develop an almost professional...

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It’s an opportunity to not just put up fliers and circulate hotline numbers, but to talk about things that are too frequently unsaid. It is a chance to say the quiet part out loud. Domestic violence is most often equated with battered wives or...