IN THE LAST WEEK
Given the rancorous, partisan atmosphere within the halls of state government in Harrisburg, it is rare to find unity on many topics, but Gov. Tom Wolf and legislators of both parties came together vowing to do more to combat the opioid epidemic.
Questions remain, however, as to what they’ll do and when they’ll do it.
In a gathering that typically takes place only for a governor’s annual budget address, Mr. Wolf addressed a joint session of the General Assembly convened on the drug overdose crisis. It occurred amid consensus that more state action is needed to confront a scourge that claimed nearly 3,500 lives last year in Pennsylvania.
The governor is hoping for new laws that, among other upgrades, would place limits on prescriptions of opioids for minors and emergency room patients, mandate opioid education in public schools and upgrade training of doctors and medical students concerning painkillers. It would be uncommon for the Legislature to approve significant measures in the few session days remaining this year, however, and the proposals may have to await consideration in early 2017.
Other big issues face Mr. Wolf and lawmakers in a manner they hadn’t anticipated: the state Supreme Court struck down two
major laws adopted in recent years. The court found provisions of both the 2012 law governing the expansion of gas drilling and the 2004 law that set tax rates for casinos to be unconstitutional. Agreement on new versions of both those laws will be necessary in coming months.
It also seems imperative that two sides find a meeting ground soon in a dispute that is silencing one of Pittsburgh’s cultural treasures: the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Its musicians went on strike Friday for just the second time in the orchestra’s 120-year history. The performers are reacting strongly to the orchestra management’s insistence on a 15 percent pay cut in a new contract to help cover deficits.
While another crucial part of the region, the Liberty Bridge, was back in service after a 24-day shutdown due to fire damage, Trib Total Media announced it would discontinue publication Nov. 30 of the print edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a competitor of the Post-Gazette’s for the past 23 years.
Western Pennsylvanians, as well as the wider sporting world, had a different cause for mourning in the death of Latrobe native Arnold
Palmer, one of the greatest sportsman ever to emerge from the region. He died from heart problems at age 87 while awaiting surgery at UPMC Shadyside.
The accolades came from far and wide for Mr. Palmer, a hero to many for keeping in touch with his common-man roots and treating everyone he met graciously even after becoming one of the most successful and wealthiest athletes of his era. A public commemoration of his life is planned at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Saint Vincent College.