Wows & Scowls
Wow: If things pan out as expected, Pittsburgh hockey fans will this fall hear announcer Mike Lange shout, “He shoots and scores!” The NHL owners and players have apparently agreed on a new contract that will put the sport back on ice after a year-long hiatus. Just as important as the deadlock’s end is the salary cap provision that should enable small-market teams like the Penguins to maintain some semblance of being competitive. That’s a welcome development for fans of a franchise that was shorn of many talented but expensive players prior to the lockout. Now if only baseball can become the last major sports league to adopt a salary cap … —
Scowl: Who is Dennis Nurkiewicz Sr. to insist that the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board, from which he recently resigned, make the Fayette Count Housing Authority pay more to Brownsville Borough as a condition for ZHB approvals that pave the way for upgraded public housing in Snowden Terrace and South Hill Terrace? Nurkiewicz made his request as a representative of the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp, which at the core is a private, nonprofit corporation. FCHA solicitor John M. “Jack” Purcell, whose knowledge of civics apparently far exceeds that of Nurkiewicz, said he didn’t think the ZHB could authorize such a stipulation. Like it or not, the cooperation agreements put in place when public housing was built mandate that the host municipality provide the same level of police, fire and street maintenance services as elsewhere. The FCHA in recent years has wrestled with the issue of upgrading its payments in lieu of taxes to municipalities in recent years. If anyone comes up with a new plan – one that assuredly would still require federal approval – it should alleviate the burden faced by all host municipalities, not play favorites. The ZHB was wise to turn a deaf ear to Nurkiewicz’ attempt to back-door some relief for a single borough.
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Scowl: The Redstone Township supervisors should embrace residents’ request to revive its local police force rather than tout the merits of free state police coverage. Sure, even having one township police officer on duty means a reduction in state police assistance, but this is one area in which less is definitely not better. The best solution for cash-strapped municipalities would be to consider forming regional police forces with their geographic neighbors. It’s an innovation that’s not easy to sell because of intense parochialism, but the concept of sharing costs and benefits outweighs those concerns.
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Scowl: President Bush apparently intends to stand by his man, in this case key political advisor Karl Rove, even as Rove is being fingered as the source of an administration leak that blew the cover of a CIA operative. Knowingly doing that is a federal crime, but you can expect a lot of verb-twisting to make this one fall beneath that standard. Democrats are calling for Rove’s head, and if Rove did the dirty deed, Bush should comply. You can’t defend the indefensible – and this one’s dirty politics at its worst, as the agent’s husband was an ambassador who drew the administration’s ire for penning an op-ed piece debunking the hype over Iraq’s reported nuclear threat. We wonder how Republicans would be reacting had this been a top advisor to President Bill Clinton in the last administration.
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Scowl: Pennsylvania hospitals reported 11,600 patient infections last year, and nearly 1,800 of them died, according to a state agency report as chronicled by the Associated Press. Granted, the number is small in relation to the 1.6 million hospital admissions that took place. But if preventive measures could have reduced the number, even by a little, those measures are worth taking. Pennsylvania is in the minority as a state that requires hospitals to report such infections. This should be a national requirement.
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Wow: Congrats to Chris Hunchuck for undertaking as his Eagle Scout project a most worthy cause: Collecting more than 2,000 old U.S. flags, which will be properly disposed of during a June 22 burning ceremony. Equally impressive is that 1,300 of those flags came from veterans’ graves in Fayette County, and that Hunchuck replaced them with new ones.