Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from Pennsylvania’s newspapers:
Representatives should reverse whitewash of political corruption
Altoona Mirror
Aug. 4
Area representatives should push their new House speaker to quickly reverse a quiet whitewash of corruption made by Mike Turzai on his way out the door.
Turzai resigned as speaker and his seat in June to take a job in the private sector.
Prior to his departure, he ordered plaques placed on the portraits of three former House speakers who were convicted of corruption in office that listed their crimes, removed and replaced with old plaques that just list the former speakers’ years of service.
Portraits of former House speakers and Senate president pro tems hang in the Capitol.
But there is a big difference between most former speakers and three who wound up in prison because of their actions as a public officials.
Adults likely remember the scandals a few years ago that landed Republican John Perzel and Democrat Bill DeWeese in jail. Other officials and staff were also convicted for their roles, but their portraits are not hung in the Capitol.
Perzel pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy, conflict of interest and theft charges for heading an illegal scheme to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to consultants to develop massive voter databases and customized software to aid Republican legislative candidates.
DeWeese was convicted of five felonies, including using state workers during work hours and state resources for political campaigns.
Democrat Herbert Fineman resigned in 1977 after being convicted of obstruction of justice for accepting payments from parents trying to get their children into schools.
Pennlive.com broke the story of Republican Turzai’s instruction to remove the plaques without public notice.
House Chief Clerk Dave Reddecliff told Pennlive.com that Turzai “said it’s my understanding that the prior speaker put them up. I’m making a decision to take them down. So I’m asking you to remove them.”
The plaques were installed in 2014 by the heads of the House and Senate after Pennsylvania was rocked by legislative corruption scandals.
Some question whether their portraits should be removed entirely, something still not out of the realm of possibility given Turzai’s action that will revive the debate.
The Senate commendably has left the plaque listing the crimes of former Senate chief Robert Mellow, who pleaded guilty to corruption and tax evasion on his portrait.
Representatives will be asking for your vote in the coming weeks. Voters should ask them about whether they will act to restore the plaques listing the former speakers’ crimes.
With the election close, the public has the greatest power to pressure their representatives to reverse Turzai’s whitewash, which brings dishonor on the House.
And if representatives don’t act, voters will have to weigh that in their decision at the ballot box.
Online: https://bit.ly/2C5gAf4
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Independent review of Philly’s response to protests is best bet to answer questions
The Philadelphia Inquirer
July 31
The Philadelphia Inquirer
City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s review of Philly’s calamitous response to several days of protests and civil unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd has barely begun. But the controller’s announcement this week that a “Community Advisory Accountability Council” will participate in the process is a promising start. The savvy choice of Rev. Mark Tyler, who pastors the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, and Jeff Brown, the owner of two city supermarkets, to co-chair the council also sends a clear signal. Communities profoundly impacted by City Hall’s mistakes will get a chance to help figure out what happened and what solutions are needed.
Rhynhart announced the review, to be undertaken by the law firm Ballard Spahr and the AT-RISK International consulting company, on June 4. Five days later, Mayor Jim Kenney issued a statement that promised policing and policy reforms of the sort that have been promised for generations. And on June 15, the mayor and police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw announced the city would launch an “independent after-action investigation’ - of itself.
The Kenney administration says it has hired outside experts to perform the actual work. But how “independent” can a consultant paid by the administration to investigate the administration be? Will the process of this “independent after-action investigation” be off-limits to public participation and scrutiny? And finally, getting answers to the pressing questions of how the city failed to plan and why police acted so aggressively shouldn’t require an investigation; it just requires the administration to be transparent about what it already knows.
The controller’s office has the statutory independence, the wherewithal, and the will to conduct an impartial review of the Kenney administration’s decisions and actions. As the Inquirer reported, despite widespread rage over Floyd’s brutal death at the hands of a Minneapolis cop, a Philly police plan to scale up resources and deploy the sort of peacekeeping response that served the city well during previous mass demonstrations was mysteriously shelved.
So on Saturday, May 30 in Center City, too-few officers were deployed or available as peaceful demonstrations turned violent around City Hall. Witnesses said they spotted few police in the shopping areas east and west of Broad Street as looting erupted and continued for hours. The following day, as looters struck 52nd Street, police fired teargas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets at neighborhood residents, bystanders as well as protesters. Monday, June 1 brought the debacle to I-676, when cops wantonly teargassed demonstrators who had been herded onto an embankment. Three federal lawsuits have been filed against the police for those actions.
If the end result is to have more enduring impact than whatever emerges from the Kenney administration’s self-examination, the community advisory accountability council will be key. The controller’s office is accepting applications through Aug. 9 and will unveil the full membership of the council on Aug. 19. Recommendations are expected before the end of the year, as are results from the administration’s investigation.
If the controller’s report is truly informed and shaped by community leaders, business people, and residents, it’s the one we’re betting on for raising the questions needed to bring long-overdue reforms to Philadelphia policing.
Online: https://bit.ly/30wmAqp
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No school, no sports
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Aug. 5
Just as Pennsylvania’s education officials are struggling with how to safely reopen schools this fall, so too are high school sports administrators grappling with how to conduct sporting events while adhering to safety protocols.
But this much should be clear: If it’s not safe to put students in the classroom because of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s not safe to have them competing on the athletic field.
Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association approved a plan to move forward with fall sports, albeit with guidelines and protocols that include no spectators at games and the shutdown of a team for two weeks if an athlete tests positive for COVID-19.
The only thing that will halt the fall sports schedule, PIAA officials said, is if Gov. Tom Wolf orders a shutdown - a move that would take the heat off the PIAA board. It’s easier to have the governor serve as the lightning rod for criticism that would surely follow a halt to high school football and other fall sports.
For now, with so much uncertainty about whether schools will open for in-person classes or resort to online instruction - or a combination of both - it makes sense that the PIAA would proceed with a plan for fall sports. The association produced a 25-page document of protocols and guidelines that are both general and sports-specific.
As much as many students, parents and coaches would like to see fall sports played, however, there has to be a consistency in establishing safety measures. School administrators are developing plans that include requiring students and staff to wear masks, rearranging classrooms to adhere to social distancing and installing hand-sanitizing stations throughout the buildings.
It would be absurd to ask student athletes to compete while wearing a mask, or to maintain social distancing on the football field, the soccer pitch or the cross-country course. But don’t those student athletes then run a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and possibly passing it on to others? Younger people have shown a greater ability to deal with the virus without hospitalization, but the infections could easily spread to parents and older relatives who are more at-risk.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing if fall sports were put on hold. Five states have already moved fall sports to spring, and 23 states have delayed their starts.
The next few weeks will be critical for school districts to decide how instruction will be handled this fall. But if student safety is the priority, as it should be, that must include sports as well as education. If students aren’t in the classroom, they shouldn’t be on the field.
Online: https://bit.ly/3gwO8ld
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School and safety first
The York Dispatch
July 31
After this week, it seems the PIAA might not be in the same ballpark with Pennsylvania’s health experts and school administrators on the question of whether it’s safe to play high school sports this year.
As school boards across the state wrestle with whether they can safely bring students back to class while COVID-19 still rages - and some deciding they can’t - the athletic association’s board of directors Wednesday approved a plan for fall sports to start with a normal schedule, albeit with precautionary measures.
“Our schools are doing a terrific job with their health and safety plans,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi told the (Greensburg) Tribune-Review’s Chris Harlan, noting recreational leagues are managing to compete. Schools are “creating a safer environment than those recreational programs. So, why shouldn’t the safer environment get the opportunity to play too?”
Well, for one thing, it’s not clear at all that school officials feel they’re doing a “terrific job” with their back-to-school (or not) plans.
The Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators earlier this week asked the Wolf administration for specific recommendations as superintendents and school boards mull whether to bring students back, hold classes online or offer some combination of both.
“No tools have been given to school districts. Guidelines are best practices and suggestions and ideas. They are not specific recommendations,” Mark DiRocco, the association’s executive director, told the Associated Press after a call with administration officials.
He noted school officials do not have the expertise to make these decisions.
“We’re going to do the best we can to keep our kids and our staff members safe, but if something happens down the line, we learn a month from now we should’ve been doing ‘X’ instead of ‘Y,’ we want it to be known that you put that decision in the hands of your local superintendent and your local school board members to make those calls, and they’re not public health experts,” DiRocco said.
For her part, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, who was on Monday’s call with the school administrators, said the return of sports and the return to the classroom should be based on the same data, Harlan reported.
The administration has given the state’s 500 school districts permission to restart in-person instruction with school board-approved plans that will be provided to the state.
With the first day of school just weeks away for some, one of York County’s 16 districts, West Shore, is planning to begin the school year with online-only classes. The others are planning hybrid models, although one superintendent noted state guidance can turn on a dime.
“(I)t actually changes by the minute,” York Suburban Superintendent Timothy Williams told his school board Monday.
In approving their fall sports plan, PIAA officials said it’s up to schools to provide a “reasonably safe environment” for competition, but district seem iffy if they can keep children safe in classes, hallways and lunch lines, much less on fields and in locker rooms.
And as we’ve seen this week in Major League Baseball, even the most cautious plans can quickly fall apart in the face of this virus.
We can understand folks wanting to give kids something to look forward to, especially after they’ve missed out on so much already this year.
But the most important thing right now is protecting their health and stopping the spread of COVID-19.
The games can wait if they must.
Online: https://bit.ly/33HYs6v
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PIAA and WPIAL set good examples for playing by coronavirus rules
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Aug. 1
Are you ready for some football?
Well, you have to wait. Thanks, covid-19. And even when it starts, you probably won’t get to see it in person. At least not for high school games. The same goes for other fall sports like soccer and cross country.
This week, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association unveiled some guidelines for the coming seasons. Social distancing is a given - at least as much as possible when dealing with contact sports. Masks should be kept on when off the field, although they aren’t required during play.
That friendly, sportsmanlike handshake? Not this year. Let’s go with a meaningful glance and a nod, maybe?
Cleaning, distance, not sharing equipment, not switching benches. All of it is an attempt to abide by Gov. Tom Wolf’s guidelines and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines and still have a way back to some kind of sports activity in 2020.
“We tried to create a shell, not every little detail down the rabbit hole,” PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi said. Instead, the hope was “to give guidelines and guidance of high-consideration items that need to be done on a daily basis.”
On Friday, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League followed with its own plans. It pushed back the start of seasons for several sports, including those big football games on Friday nights, from August to September.
And when those games do start up, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, there shouldn’t be anyone watching.
The state’s 250-person cap on gatherings means once you put all the students and their coaches and the officials and the other people that have to be on the sidelines or standing nearby, there is precious little room left for football fans or volleyball enthusiasts.
PIAA and WPIAL both generally go less for guidelines and more for regulations. Whehttps://bit.ly/3fz2b8xn it comes to advancing the ball or measuring the score, it’s best to deal less in fuzzy what-ifs than well-defined lines.
That is harder to achieve when state requirements can change from day to day and all those individual school districts fielding the teams are trying to figure out exactly how they will move forward in the coronavirus pandemic.
There is still a lot to figure out about what that means for this school year. How will it impact Title IX eligibility if some programs move on and others are restricted? How will sports survive if their booster clubs can’t do fundraisers like concession stands and raffle ticket sales at games?
But it’s a start.
Is it ideal? No. But it’s an attempt to do everything the way both organizations like to do things - according to the rules.
Online: https://bit.ly/3fz2b8x
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