Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: The Laurel Highlands football team clinched a winning record for the first time in 25 years, qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2015 after defeating Trinity, 39-34, at Hiller Field last Friday night. Rodney Gallagher ran for 283 yards and five touchdowns and completed all but one of his 11 passes for 96 yards and another TD as the Mustangs improved to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big Eight Conference. Laurel Highlands’ defense preserved the victory with a late defensive stand as Tahji Hooper stopped Trinity quarterback Connor Roberts short of a first down on a fourth-and-2 play resulting in Roberts tossing up a desperation pass before going down that was intercepted by Billy Barton.
Cheers: Turnout in Tuesday’s off-year election is bound to be tiny, especially in comparison to the contest last year with Joe Biden and Donald Trump atop the ballot. But even though the presidency doesn’t hang in the balance, there are a host of important contests for voters across the region to consider, from spots on school boards and borough councils to state and local judge seats, elections inspectors and more. None of the people who hold these jobs dominate the news day after day, but they do important work. Citizens owe it to themselves and their communities to find out who the candidates are, make choices about who they believe will best represent their interests and beliefs, and vote accordingly. The greater the level of civic participation, the healthier our communities are.
Cheers: Jim and Vickie Hopkins of Waynesburg and family and friends recently coordinated two fundraising events that raised more than $16,500 for Make-A-Wish of Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The family presented the donation to Make-A-Wish Director of Development Stephanie Pugliese at the conclusion of their chicken roast fundraiser last month. The other fundraiser, the family’s annual motorcycle benefit run, was held in August. Proceeds raised were given in memory of Linda Hopkins, Mike Hopkins and Keith Wright to help fund wishes of children with critical illnesses in the area. The Hopkins family and friends have been fundraising for Make-A-Wish in Greene County since 2009, raising more than $77,000 to help create life-changing wishes for 24 local children.
Cheers: School districts throughout the commonwealth need bus drivers, and the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf is hoping to get more of them on the road by expanding the hours of operation at 23 PennDOT locations so additional Pennsylvania residents can get the commercial driver’s licenses necessary to drive a school bus. It has also mailed a letter to the 376,000 Pennsylvanians who hold commercial driver’s licenses to see if they would be interested in joining the ranks of bus drivers. It would be a worthwhile pursuit for someone interested in helping their communities or schools. Ryan Dellinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association, pointed out that school bus drivers “are a critical part of the education system, and can set a tone for a child’s entire day at school.”
Jeers: U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been a ubiquitous presence in headlines recently due to his pivotal role in negotiations over the budget reconciliation bill being negotiated in Washington, D.C. Manchin scuttled some of the expenditures in the bill that would have helped combat climate change, and that could well end up being to the detriment of the state he represents. The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit group, released data a few weeks ago that found West Virginia was the most flood-prone state in America, due to its topography and the impact of surface mining. And yet Manchin and most other leading political figures in the Mountain State are disinterested in dealing with climate change even as West Virginia is hit with more and more drenching rainstorms. Stephen Baldwin, a Democratic state senator, told The New York Times, “Nobody wants to talk about the real driving factor here, which is the climate.”