A Fine Point

Home casualties: The Fort Hood tragedy begs for answers

2009-11-07T10:00:00Z

The killing of at least 13 people in the heart of America's military network in Fort Hood, Texas, is very hard to bear.

Losses in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now surpassing 5,000, are deaths also, endured and grieved by families, friends and citizens. But Thursday's events, occurring in what passes for home for hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, is sharply inflicted pain.

Making sense of what happened -- if that is possible -- will take time and require further knowledge of the apparent killer and the circumstances that led to this disaster. It will not help the country that Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan, the person who likely will be charged with the killings, is apparently a fervent Muslim, with family roots in the Middle East, the locus of the two wars and the scene of some of the most severe violence that has afflicted the world for the last six decades.

Another factor to examine in trying to understand what happened is the degree to which members of America's professional army have been stressed and stretched by a six-year war in Iraq and an eight-year war in Afghanistan. Soldiers have been sent on repeated tours of duty in difficult, hostile circumstances with only brief respites at home between deployments.

This overuse of the volunteer military is due to the fact that the nation's elected leaders know Americans would not tolerate a draft to supply troops for the two wars.

While Maj. Hasan had not served in Iraq or Afghanistan and was deeply opposed to the U.S. role there, he was on the eve of his first deployment -- to Afghanistan. As an Army psychiatrist, he worked for six years, until last July, as a liaison between wounded soldiers and psychiatric staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He heard their stories and was well acquainted with their pain.

There is no justification, however, for the injury and death that he apparently perpetrated, and his family was right to denounce the act as "despicable and deplorable."

There is no point in criticizing Fort Hood. It is considered to be a model of a military base. At the same time, Killeen, Texas, where it is located, is a typical military town, with streets of payroll loan, pawn and gun shops serving a largely transient, not well-paid population.

At this point, Americans can only regret what happened at Fort Hood and grieve for those lost and their loved ones.

Shame on them: A Bedford prosecutor tries an outdated punishment

2009-11-07T10:00:00Z

Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the greatest American writers of the 19th century, would have felt right at home this week in Bedford County.

The author of "The Scarlet Letter" wrote brilliantly about private guilt and public shame. If he were still with us, Hawthorne would have recognized the scene Tuesday outside Bedford's courthouse square for what it was -- a sequel to his novel about sin in Puritan Boston.

In a deal reached with the district attorney's office, Evelyn Border, 56, and her daughter, Tina Griekspoor, 35, agreed to spend nearly five hours holding large signs in public that read: "I stole from a 9-year-old on her birthday! Don't steal or this could happen to you."

Both were arrested for trying to redeem two Walmart gift cards they claim they found at the store. The cards -- $50 and $30 -- belonged to a 9-year-old who misplaced them while shopping.

While some facts of the case are still in dispute -- like whether the women knew the cards belonged to the 9-year-old -- the public defender representing the defendants thought a few hours of humiliation instead of jail time too good a deal to pass up. In exchange for their guilty pleas, the DA will ask for probation.

Shaming criminals in the public square is as old as the Bible, but it is not an effective deterrent to crime. Public humiliation is about spectacle and revenge, not justice. It is moralistic without the virtue of being balanced, logical or proportional. That's why Hawthorne used it as a metaphor for larger injustices. He would have seen what happened in Bedford as more of the same.

UPMC's call: The under-use claim at Braddock rings hollow

2009-11-06T10:00:00Z

That crashing sound you just heard was UPMC's argument to close its latest hospital falling to pieces on Braddock Avenue.

Executives of the health-care system have maintained that they decided to shut down UPMC Braddock not because it was losing money but because it was underutilized. Yet a report Saturday by Post-Gazette staff writer Steve Twedt showed that recent utilization numbers for the hospital were higher than six others in Allegheny County.

Based on UPMC's own reports, Braddock's occupancy rate in 2007-08 was 72.4 percent -- better than UPMC Mercy, West Penn, Ohio Valley, Heritage Valley in Sewickley, Alle-Kiski and West Penn Forbes Regional. In fact, Braddock's occupancy rate, as reported in data collected by the state Department of Health, was only a hair below the county average, 73.7 percent.

UPMC cautions, however, that Braddock's use rates include behavioral health beds for drug and alcohol, sober living and detoxification programs. The health system says a better index of a hospital's health is medical/surgical utilization.

Toward that point, UPMC has been saying since it announced the closing last month that four out of five Braddock-area residents get their medical/surgical care at facilities other than UPMC Braddock. For that calculation it defines the Braddock community as six ZIP codes surrounding the hospital: 15035, 15104, 15112, 15120, 15145 and 15148.

That strikes us as a convenient and arbitrary zone that can be designed to support a multitude of arguments. It also presupposes that residents of a community are fed by their very geography into the hospital nearest their home.

For late-night stitches in the emergency room? Maybe. For cancer treatment or to deliver a baby. No way. And UPMC knows better.

What's become more evident, in the aftermath of UPMC's Braddock decision, is that the successful health-care giant is having a hard time defending its retreat from a hard-bitten community that depended on it for more things than medical care.

Profit-driven companies make calculated choices to protect the bottom line. Nonprofit institutions, which receive tax exemptions in exchange for services to the community, are bound by a higher call.

Buffer zone: Court makes city choose a way to protect women

2009-11-06T10:00:00Z

At first glance, a federal appeals court ruling last week that sent back to a lower court a city ordinance limiting the rights of anti-abortion protesters might seem like a defeat for medical facilities that offer abortions and their patients.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Pittsburgh's two-pronged ordinance intended to protect patients from harassment by demonstrators as they enter clinics was too restrictive on the rights of protesters. One provision created an 8-foot bubble around people approaching the clinics; the other imposed a 15-foot buffer from the centers' entrances.

But in ruling against Pittsburgh's use of both restrictions, the court said each method on its own was constitutionally appropriate and consistent with First Amendment rights to free speech and protections for religious expression. What the ruling means for now is that the status quo remains in effect until the city decides how to proceed.

It could appeal and ask the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the double layer of protection for patients entering clinics, but given the unpredictability inherent in that step, the more cautious approach would be to maintain the 15-foot buffer zone.

Giving up that insulation for the patients could be hazardous, with protesters able to come right to the threshold of the medical centers. With the 15-foot buffer, pickets and protesters still would be able to march, chant, pray, shout slogans and distribute literature near the clinics, but entrances would be kept clear, providing access for patients coming and going.

Although we also believe women shouldn't have to listen to aggressive and misleading lectures as they contemplate very personal medical decisions, something the 8-foot bubble helped alleviate, at least the buffer zone allows them to feel they are safe once they reach the doors of a clinic.

Unfortunately, it's too much to expect women to be able to seek legal health care without being intimidated and harassed in the process.

Who's in charge?: Defense spending raises a question

2009-11-06T10:00:00Z

President Barack Obama's position on defense spending is hard to understand -- or perhaps, misleading -- at the moment.

His administration's discussion last month of the new, fiscal year 2010 defense budget pointed to cuts of expensive programs the Pentagon wanted and didn't get, such as the F-22 fighter jet and missile defense. At the same time, the 2009 total stood at $654 billion and the 2010 sum announced Oct. 28 was $680 billion, $26 billion more than the year before, a 4 percent increase, not a cut.

A second, loudly trumpeted point of the Obama FY '10 proposal was that, rather than leaving out the portion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as was the practice during the administration of President George W. Bush, the new number includes it, at $130 billion. It was claimed that was all. There won't be the regular Pentagon requests for supplemental funding, including one for $83.4 billion this April, that characterized previous defense spending.

Then, just one week later, on Nov. 4, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, in a speech before the National Press Club reminiscent of U.S. Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's lobbying for more troops, said he imagined that the Pentagon would levy a "requirement" for more money for the two wars, on top of the $680 billion budget. Speculation runs that the military will ask for a further $40 billion or $50 billion. Adm. Mullen's statement would appear to be in direct contradiction of the White House contention of the week before.

The conflict raises the obvious question of who's in charge, the president or the generals, America's civilian or its military leadership? Is FY 2010 defense spending going to be $680 billion or $720 billion? And since when has a Pentagon request for money, normally made through the White House to Congress, become a requirement?

The voters' warning: Both parties nationally are taught lessons

2009-11-05T14:55:00Z

The results of Tuesday's elections invite several observations.

The New Jersey and Virginia governorships passed from Democratic to Republican hands. An upstate New York congressional district seat passed from Republican to Democratic hands after an ugly squabble among the Republicans.

One observation could be that Americans still vote against the party in power -- in this case, in Virginia and New Jersey, the Democrats -- when they don't like what's going on. What they don't like is clearly the economic picture, the continuing bloodbath of jobs and what the administration of President Barack Obama is doing about it. They don't like the slight impact so far of the economic stimulus money or the juicy bailout of greedy bankers and moguls. The congressional tangle over health-care reform is also driving them nuts.

The message to the Democrats of Tuesday's elections is that if they don't get their act together by next year's elections, there will likely be a slaughter of incumbents, Republicans and Democrats. That would mean a reversal of the Democrats' majority in the Senate and big losses in the House.

Tuesday's results are clear evidence that the voting population is by no means averse to change, even in the wake of the warm "Yes, we can" promises in which Mr. Obama's victory bathed them, at least briefly. Words are not enough, even delivered with Mr. Obama's eloquence. Voters want to see action, including on health care, withdrawal from the two expensive foreign wars, and, most of all, his full concentration on meeting the problems of the people, starting with jobs.

Another question that Tuesday's results address is the state of the Republican Party. In New York state's 23rd District, the Republican candidate was driven out of the race by Republicans for being insufficiently conservative, in favor of Doug Hoffman, running as a Conservative. The Democrat, Bill Owens, then beat him and the seat was lost for the purer-than-thou Republicans to the Democrats.

House Minority Leader John Boehner maintains that the Republican Party still welcomes moderates. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who endorsed Mr. Hoffman, apparently thinks not. The result was a lost seat and the party looking dysfunctional.

The state of play: Voters give Democrats cause for worry

2009-11-05T14:54:00Z

For the first time in his three years as mayor, Luke Ravenstahl has time to savor an election victory, albeit something of an underwhelming one. Yet for him and Democrats statewide, the results of Tuesday's general election offered a warning.

Soon after he rose from City Council president to mayor upon the death of his predecessor, Mr. Ravenstahl had to start running for a two-year term, which he won with 63 percent of the vote over Republican Mark DeSantis. Eighteen months later, he faced and bested two challengers in the Democratic primary, and on Tuesday, he beat back another dual challenge.

This time, Mr. Ravenstahl's share was lower than in his two prior elections, 55 percent. True, he did collect the highest number of votes in every one the city's 32 wards, even the East End, the incubator for his strongest criticism, but against inexperienced opposition he should have done better.

Clearly, Mr. Ravenstahl can't rest on his laurels going forward to meet the challenges that include an underfunded city pension plan and a more independent City Council.

In the meantime, Republican candidates statewide captured six of the seven seats that were on the ballot for Pennsylvania's appellate courts.

Joan Orie Melvin of Marshall became the first Republican elected to the Supreme Court in the past four races for that court, despite having less money to spend than her opponent. Republicans Kevin Brobson of Dauphin County and Patricia McCullough of Upper St. Clair took both seats open on Commonwealth Court, and three of the four seats up for election on Superior Court also went to the GOP.

In part, the elections follow a long-standing pattern of success by female candidates for statewide judicial offices -- Superior Court victors were Republicans Judy Olson, Sallie Mundy and Paula Ott plus Democrat Anne Lazarus, who is ahead in unofficial returns. But there was more to it than gender. Without an organized, statewide campaign, Ms. Mundy -- from the tiny town of Tioga in north-central Pennsylvania -- would have faced insurmountable odds, for instance.

So there are congratulations today for the winners -- including those for other judicial, county, municipal and school board seats -- and a heads-up for the state's Democratic leaders as they prepare for next year's gubernatorial and legislative races.

Climate comments: The state wants public input on action plan

2009-11-05T14:53:00Z

While climate change unfolds on nature's own inscrutable schedule, political events on this pressing issue are now moving with more urgency.

Next month, the U.N. Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen, and in advance German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed Congress on Tuesday to urge its members to unite on a plan to combat global warming. Democrats applauded; Republicans sat in silence.

Republican senators had been equally stubborn earlier when they boycotted the Environment and Public Works Committee as it began to consider amendments on the Democratic bill to curb greenhouse gases. Supposedly, they were protesting that the bill's cost to the economy had not been fully examined.

Pennsylvania has its own special stake in this debate. Because of its array of coal-fired power plants, it produces more global warming than most other states. But with its abundance of streams and woodlands, it also stands to lose flora and fauna to global warming.

To meet this challenge, the state Legislature last year established an 18-member Climate Change Advisory Committee. One of its charges was to assist the state Department of Environmental Protection in the development of a Climate Change Action Plan, a draft of which can be found at www.depweb.state.pa.us.

Written public comments via mail or e-mail are invited, but they must be received by Monday. A return name and address must be included with each e-mail transmission, which should go to epclimatereportcomments@state.pa.us. Other correspondence should be mailed to Joseph Sherrick, Department of Environmental Protection, Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, Pa. 17105. (Faxes are not accepted.)

As the saying goes, all politics is local -- but at the end of the day so is climate.

Waiting games: Worthy agencies are left hanging by the Legislature

2009-11-04T10:00:00Z

Students at the University of Pittsburgh are selecting their courses for next semester, but administrators still don't have state dollars allocated for the current term. Similar scenes are unfolding at the Carnegie Museums, the Children's Institute of Pittsburgh, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities and two dozen other organizations across Pennsylvania.

Four months after their fiscal status should have been resolved with enactment of a state budget, these institutions are waiting for their funds to be released As anyone who has ever heard the phrase "The check's in the mail" can tell you, that's not the same thing as having the money in hand.

In Pitt's case, according to budget documents, it is due to receive $168 million; Penn State is slated for nearly $334 million; the Carnegie, $226,000; and the Children's Institute, $431,000.

The problem is due to a peculiarity in the state budgeting process. Even though funding to the institutions is included in the $27.8 million spending plan for fiscal year 2009-10, they are what's called "nonpreferred appropriations." The authority to spend that money must come in separate legislation for each institution, and it must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.

That's not going to happen until members, who have agreed to allow the addition of table games to the state's slots casinos, work out the details on that legislation.

Balancing the budget was dependent on the additional state revenue that would come from licensing table games in existing casinos, but that remains a complicated proposition. Competing proposals in the Legislature would set the licensing fee for each casino as low as $10 million or as high as $20 million. The tax rate on the money hauled in from poker, blackjack, roulette and other table games would be as low as 12 percent or as high as 35 percent. In addition, details must be worked out on how that new state revenue would be used and how much, if any, would go to the municipalities where the casinos sit.

When lawmakers return to the Capitol next week, that must be their first order of business. Worthy recipients of state dollars have been waiting long enough for what they are due.

Derry's tragedy: There's no higher use for public dollars than safety

2009-11-04T10:00:00Z

Last Friday, Sheila Singer and her 2-year-old son were struck and killed while taking a shortcut across railroad tracks in Derry. Two of the 37-year-old mother's children who were with her watched in horror.

In July, a 15-year-old was killed at the same crossing. As the body count mounts, officials of the Westmoreland County community are justifiably concerned. Three accidental but avoidable deaths within several months are three too many -- and more than a borough of 2,900 should have to absorb.

But it isn't the fault of Norfolk Southern that Derry has seen a spike in railroad-track deaths. For generations, pedestrians have taken the shortest and most convenient route between the northern and southern parts of town by taking their chances crossing the tracks.

Since last week's tragedy, local police have stepped up their patrols of the crossing. They're writing citations for trespassing, which carry a fine of up to $300, but they can't get everyone. When the police move on to deal with real law enforcement, the flow of foot traffic across the tracks resumes.

A taxi or shuttle service has been suggested as one solution, but that's impractical. Derry needs an overhead walkway. The people traffic across the tracks justifies it, but the expense -- up to $1 million -- strikes fear of a tax increase in some residents.

It is hard to imagine that state and federal money would not be available to cover a large part of the cost. This should be a top priority for lawmakers like U.S. Rep. John Murtha, state Sen. Kim Ward and state Rep. Joseph Petrarca.

Such aid plus local dollars could address this community safety problem of the first degree.

Police officers should be deployed elsewhere in the borough, not in patrol cars parked at the crossing, and $300 citations are the last thing needed by Derry residents of modest means.

It's time for the borough to start planning its way out of this hazard. And if public money has to be spent, what can be a better use for it than keeping mothers and children safe?