Cheers & Jeers
Submitted photo
Brownsville蘑菇视频 Kaden Wimmer (6) runs for the winning touchdown in overtime to give the Falcons a 36-30 win over Carrick at George K. Cupples Stadium Sept. 22. The win halted Brownsville蘑菇视频 33-game losing streak.
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
California Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses three gun control measures he signed during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday.
Cheers: Kudos to Brownsville蘑菇视频 football team for snapping a 33-game losing streak, which was the longest among WPIAL-area teams. The Falcons defeated Carrick 36-30 in overtime at George K. Cupples Stadium last Friday afternoon. The Falcons trailed 30-22 with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter, but Kaden Wimmer threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Harlan Davis, who ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game and force overtime. Neovae Jordan蘑菇视频 interception in the end zone prevented Carrick from scoring on its first possession of OT and then Wimmer won the game two plays later for Brownsville with a 6-yard touchdown run. The community showed its support by cheering on the team bus as it drove through downtown Brownsville and reportedly over 100 fans greeted the squad at the high school. It was the Falcons鈥� first win since Sept. 6, 2019, when they won at Beth-Center, 27-26.
Jeers: In at least a couple of Woody Allen movies, the character he plays laments the fleeting nature of life, fretting that the sun will eventually burn out and humanity蘑菇视频 greatest achievements, like Shakespeare蘑菇视频 plays, will be gone. The sun is forecast to be around for another 7 billion years, but humans will almost certainly not witness its end. According to an article in The New York Times this week, mammals 鈥� and that includes us 鈥� may only have another 250 million years left, meaning that mammals are at about the halfway point of our existence (human beings have only been around for 2 million years, scientists say, a little less than 1% of that time). According to The Times, a team of scientists believes the planet will become uninhabitable for mammals as the continents crash back into one another and form one massive continent, which will be packed with active, lava-spewing volcanoes. The atmosphere of Earth will also be really, really hot at that point. The fact that humanity has an expiration date puts some of our day-to-day problems in perspective, but we should probably concentrate much more closely on making it through the next 250 years and let others worry about the state of play 250 million years hence.
Cheers: Pennsylvania and much of the country was captivated by the jailbreak last month of convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante, who crab-walked up a couple of walls at a Chester County lockup while awaiting a transfer to a state prison. It seemed like the stuff of movies, which is part of the reason why it was such a compelling news story in the two weeks he was on the lam. But it also earned its headline coverage because it蘑菇视频 so rare. In an investigation that appeared this week, Spotlight PA pointed out there have only been 14 鈥渁ctual escapes鈥� in the past eight years from jails in the commonwealth, and only two escapes from state prisons in the last 25 years. Prison breaks as we think of them, with inmates scaling walls with sheets tied together, and spotlights scanning the landscape as they make a run for it, are mostly a thing of the past, thanks to tools that are used every day by wardens and guards 鈥� cameras, facial recognition technology and infrared sensors. Spotlight PA also points out that escapes that do occur are either the result of human error, or an inmate who leaves a jail through something like a work release program and simply doesn鈥檛 return. The bottom line is that Pennsylvanians can be confident that once a dangerous criminal is behind bars, he or she will stay there.
Cheers: Anyone who attended a public school decades ago is struck when they enter a school building now by how much things have changed 鈥� they are locked up tight and have fortress-level security. This has all become necessary due to the number of deadly school shootings during the last couple of decades. The money for all the security measures just doesn鈥檛 tumble out of the sky, and California has found a new way to pay for them. This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law placing an 11% state tax on the sale of guns and ammunition to help pay for school security and programs to prevent violence. While there is already an 11% federal tax on the sales of guns and ammunition, California has become the first state to impose its own tax. The federal tax pays for hunter education programs and wildlife conservation, and Jesse Gabriel, the member of the California General Assembly who wrote the bill, made this observation: 鈥淚f we can have a tax that protects wildlife, we can have one that protects people.鈥�