Breaking News

Opinion

Take political pay raises off autopilot

Editorials

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Wouldn’t it be great if your income automatically increased based on the cost of living? Higher food, gas or electricity prices would sting less. Rent increases might still hurt, but not nearly as much if paychecks rose alongside them. That is the reality for some in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers and other elected officials see their salaries rise annually based on the Consumer Price Index. So do those elected in Westmoreland County. But Westmoreland officials may not see that continue. TribLive has been pushing for years to take elected officials’ ...

Hope springs eternal despite struggles

Editorials

This Christmas, many people here and around the world continue to wonder what percentage of humans on this planet really believe that Jesus Christ came to Earth to save the souls of mankind. Likewise, there no doubt is great wonderment also as to whether the phrase “fear of the Lord” really is believed and practiced as a real part of people’s lives. Thinking about happenings such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the destruction of — and suffering in — Gaza, the mass shootings witnessed in this country and the general turmoil that is inflicted on the lives of many innocent and ...

Who deserves trust in Lakemont feud?

Letters to the Editor

Blair County residents should consider a few things about the feud between the Blair County Commissioners and the Lakemont Partnership. On the one hand, we have the Devorris family, as leaders of the park, who have been one of the biggest philanthropic families in the surrounding area. This is a family who has saved many jobs in the area, and has made Blair County a better place to live by their investments in housing, entertainment and education. Now let’s analyze the county commissioners. One of the first acts after their recent election was the firing of the county solicitor ...

Lawmakers need to eliminate corruption

Letters to the Editor

Throughout the budget process in Pennsylvania, the worst difficulty was finding ways to pay for programs and meet fiscal obligations. I have a wild, off-the-wall, crazy solution. Imagine (I hope the reader has a fantastic imagination) if our public servants eliminated corruption in government. We are the sixth most corrupt state (Google it) in the nation, and our state representatives and senators turn their heads and ignore it. Corruption is a dirty word; we haven’t even heard it mentioned in a campaign speech in decades. But think of the money that would be available if ...

It’s time for cameras in Pa. courts

Editorials

Those who follow news reports of criminal cases have likely seen photographs and/or video captured during out-of-state court proceedings and wondered why they don’t see similar scenes from inside Pennsylvania’s courtrooms. The short answer is: Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 112 prohibits cameras in courtrooms. The longer answer begins: Pennsylvania is only one of five states in the nation with very rigid restrictions that need to be updated for the sake of transparency and accountability. During the recent preliminary hearing held in Manhattan for Luigi Mangione, ...

Lawmakers need to answer tough questions

Editorials

Pennsylvania lawmakers’ immediate first order of business after giving approval to a 2025-26 state budget — more than four months after the June 30 budget deadline — should have been approval of a process to repay counties and school districts for their interest costs necessitated by the budget impasse. For the benefit of anyone who has forgotten, lawmakers’ budget irresponsibility necessitated borrowing by counties, school districts and others in order to continue operating until legislators abandoned their political game-playing at others’ expense. Actually, the only ...