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Congressman’s efforts on banking insurance appreciated

Editorials

We applaud U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser’s efforts to adjust the perimeters for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage of Americans’ bank deposits. Regardless of the sources and contributing factors — and we suspect both the far left’s scapegoating of “greedy corporations” and the far right’s insistance that “government spending” was the primary culprit are largely wrong — the impact of inflation and rising costs of living deserved careful, detail-oriented responses by our elected officials. We’ve, in fact, repeatedly called on officials in both Washington and ...

Smells and sights of early spring continue in April

Local Columns

by David Thompson Signs of spring were evident well before March 20 when spring officially started. One sign that wasn’t visible was the unmistakable smell of a striped skunk whose mating season was underway. It may have sprayed an attacker with potent musk in self-defense while searching for a mate at night. Rarely seen because of being nocturnal, skunks begin to mate in February. Then and more often in March, their odor spreads across my neighbor’s open field bordered by large oak trees and conifers. Among the trees at the top of a creek’s steep bank are numerous burrows dug ...

The cost of waiting to protect children

Editorials

Pennsylvania has spent years trying to atone for child welfare failures. There were generations of abuse in churches. The Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal put the state under a national lens. There have been persistent questions about ChildLine hotline reports that went unanswered. There was also the moment nearly 20 years ago when a grand jury delivered a clear recommendation: The state needed an independent watchdog for children in its care. And yet, it still does not have one. The obvious question when looking at that lag is what the cost has been. The cost has a name: ...

Pittsburgh’s place in the new space race

Editorials

We don’t know who invented the first wheel. We do know everything that came after it — SUVs and bicycles, gas stations and turnpike exits clustered with fast-food drive-thrus. We know a lot about space travel. We know how it evolved from flight and rockets and an insatiable curiosity about what lies beyond our reach. A challenge issued in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy was realized in 1969 when Neil Armstrong left his boot prints on the moon. Since then, our interest in space has ebbed and flowed, although our instinct to utilize it hasn’t. Rockets gave way to shuttles and ...

Nostalgia for a bad habit

Editorials

I miss smoking. There. I've said it. Now, I don't miss it enough to go out and buy a $17 pack of cigarettes -- which is apparently the lunatic price these days -- and sit down and smoke them, but I certainly miss it enough to hope that if I'm ever on a plane that's about to go down in a fiery ball the Bermuda Triangle, some kind soul on board will have, and agree to bum me, a square. God help me if the only combustible on offer is a vape, which won't precisely do the trick. I don't blame anyone who's trying to preserve their health, however dubious the method, but I always ...

Politicians don't own you or me

Editorials

Politicians tax what we earn, regulate what we build and often decide what we can do with our bodies and our money. I like to think I own myself. But politicians increasingly act as if they do. "People should not have power over other people's lives," says Timothy Sandefur, author of the book "You Don't Own Me." In my latest video, Sandefur challenges the attitude that "freedom belongs to the government and it can parcel it out to us." He starts with building permits. "A building permit really says, you're not allowed to build on your own property until the government ...