Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania:

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BRAZEN IN BRAZIL: ENDLESS CORRUPTION AT TOP IS REVERSING PROGRESS, May 31

Brazil, Latin America’s largest country in population and area, appears to be coming unstuck politically in the face of persistent corruption among its leaders.

Brazilians impeached their elected president, Dilma Rousseff, last August, based on what was for Brazil minor budgetary sleight of hand. Now her successor, Michel Temer, 76, is under heavy fire, including vigorous action in the streets, in response to the appearance of a tape in which he appears to approve offering bribes to another jailed politician.

Impeachment is being talked about again, but that possible remedy is sullied by the thought that his possible successors are no walk in the sun either. If Mr. Temer were impeached, his constitutional successor would be the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the equivalent of America’s Paul Ryan. The occupant of that post is Rodrigo Maia, under investigation for graft. The head of Brazil’s senate, Eunicio Oliveira, is accused of taking bribes. Former President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, once a “man of the people” political hero, is considered a possibility if Mr. Temer is pushed out but is facing criminal charges for graft.

All in all, it is such an ugly picture that some Brazilians are wondering if democracy and elections offer them any possibility of putting their country back on a right track. The economy is also not benefiting from the political nightmare.

There is even faint, unrealistic talk of restoring the monarchy. The last emperor, Dom Pedro II, was forced out in a military coup d’etat in 1889, resulting in the establishment of a republican form of government. Brazil has had military governments, most recently in the 1964-85 period. Its current military leaders have indicated that they are not interested in ruling again, wishing not to court the unpopularity that forced them out last time and looking at the formidable economic problems Brazil faces.

They also look at the absolute chaos in neighboring Venezuela, which pits President Nicolas Maduro against an increasingly angry, hostile population.

In the meantime, Mr. Temer had to use the military briefly already to counter violent demonstrations in Brasilia, the capital. Also, in the meantime, Brazil’s courts, its states’ authorities, some members of the legislature and the threat to him inherent in Brazil’s constitution limit him in what he can do as a probably corrupt, not very skillful and unpopular president of a nonetheless very important country.

__Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Online: https://bit.ly/2qBqFVY

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CORONER’S ROLE IS NOT THAT OF FUNERAL DIRECTOR, May 28

The Times has been involved in disputes over access to public information in the past, and will likely have many more in the years ahead. The fundamental issue in all of them is fairly simple: We believe the public has a right to such information, and the government officials charged with maintaining the records disagree.

Such is the case with the current dispute between The Times and Beaver County Coroner David Gabauer. The Times filed a Right to Know request in January seeking specific information on the 102 drug overdose deaths in the county last year. The county solicitor’s office, on behalf of the coroner, denied the request, citing, among other things, privacy issues. The Times appealed to the state Office of Open Records, which asked for legal arguments from the county regarding its denial and then ruled in favor of The Times in April.

In May, Gabauer’s office petitioned Beaver County Court to overturn the Office of Open Records decision and deny access to The Times. Both sides will now make their arguments before a county judge.

As we said, this isn’t the first time The Times has fought this fight, and it won’t be the last.

What is disturbing about the situation, however, is Gabauer’s response to information requests made since the dispute began. Reporter Kate Malongowski had repeatedly sought year-to-date drug overdose numbers, which the coroner declined to provide, citing the Right to Know action taken by The Times. He had previously provided them on an as-requested basis.

It was only after The Times reported the lack of information coming from the coroner that he released drug overdose numbers for the first quarter of the year.

At the heart of the matter is Gabauer’s belief that his role as coroner is to protect the families of the deceased. Gabauer, who has been a funeral director for many years, took issue with a Times story in January regarding charges filed against a man in relation to overdose deaths. He wanted the names of the deceased removed from the story. When The Times refused, he sent the following text message: “This is very upsetting to the family and adds no value to the story. I will have fewer comments from today moving forward.”

While assisting and comforting the families of a deceased loved one is certainly the role of a funeral director, it has nothing to do with the duties of a county coroner. The coroner’s job is to collect, record, maintain and disseminate information related to deaths in the county. Gabauer doesn’t seem willing or able to draw that distinction.

As to why The Times asked for specific information on overdose deaths in 2016, it was made to explore an oft-heard claim from health-care and law-enforcement officials: that the ever-growing number of overdose deaths caused by opioid addiction affects every community in the county, regardless of size or affluence.

To do that, we requested address information of the overdose victims so that we can identify specific communities, rather than just mailing addresses. Otherwise, victims who lived in Hopewell Township might be listed as Aliquippa; those from North Sewickley Township could be listed as Beaver Falls; someone from Economy could be listed as Ambridge. If you go only by a mailing address, it distorts the numbers to unfairly show larger incidents in communities whose post office serves larger areas.

Whether the county court agrees with us that the information is public record and should be released remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that we will continue to press government officials for information that we believe is important to the public.

Gabauer will be one of those we will continue to contact for public information. We hope he will realize we are making those requests to the county coroner, not a local funeral director.

__Beaver County Times

Online: https://bit.ly/2qBMBEF

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MUST GO AFTER STRAW BUYERS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE IN PHILLY, May 31

Memorial Day couldn’t end without yet another gun death in Philadelphia. A 14-year-old boy was killed in a double shooting in Kensington, but the city took little notice.

Philadelphia has become inured to gun violence. That was evident last week when three people were shot and killed in a 24-hour period. It was evident on May 20, when nine people were shot, two critically, at an outdoor graduation party.

“It’s sad,” the Rev. Clarence E. Wright, pastor of Love Zion Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, told staff writers Stephanie Farr and Chris Palmer. “There’s so much violence around the area, to hear of a shooting is unfortunately not out of the ordinary.”

Mayor Kenney rightly blames the easy access to guns, many obtained illegally through straw purchases. The city needs to be more aggressive in using the Brad Fox Law, which was enacted in 2013 to stop people from buying guns for felons who can’t.

Delaware County officials have used the law named for a slain Montgomery County policeman to prosecute at least six people. In one case, a Chester woman charged with buying nine guns that she sold illegally to her nephew, a convicted felon, faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison.

Another Delaware County woman was sentenced to 6 to 12 years for buying guns for her boyfriend and another man, both felons. The boyfriend was shot and killed in August 2013. The other man was arrested on drug charges with the gun the woman had purchased. But his sentence of 3 to 6 years was less than what she received.

Delaware County District Attorney John Whelan said most illegal guns on the street used in violent crimes came from straw purchasers.

A study by the Journal of Urban Health concluded that women are disproportionately involved in the sale of guns that end up in the hands of criminals. Another study by Criminal Justice Policy Review found that most guns sold and quickly used in a crime were purchased by minority women.

Operation Lipstick (Ladies Involved in Putting a Stop to Inner-City Killing) wants to help women say no to the men in their lives who get them to become straw buyers.

Nancy Robinson, Lipstick’ executive director, said many women succumb to pressure by a boyfriend, brother, or friend to buy guns for them. “They’re not connecting the dots and understanding that it’s these guns that are turned on themselves, their children, and their neighbor’s children,” she said.

Raising the level of public awareness about the link between straw purchasers and gun violence is another way Philadelphia could curb the daily shootings. More broadly, city leaders must work together to create a more comprehensive, sustained approach to the problem. Accepting daily shootings as a fact of life isn’t the answer.

__The Philadelphia Inquirer

Online: https://bit.ly/2qGLE95

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KEEPING YOUNG DRIVERS OFF THEIR CELLPHONES MAKES SENSE, May 30

Distracted driving is a dangerous habit - good reason to support a proposal in Harrisburg that would ban cellphone use among 16- and 17-year-olds hitting the road for the first time.

Last year, 69 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in Pennsylvania, according to PennDOT statistics. Over the past 10 years, 590 people have died in such accidents.

Berks County residents - and many others across the nation thanks to the activism of Jacy Good - are aware of one of those crashes. Good lost both her parents in a crash at Route 222 and Genesis Drive in Maidencreek on May 18, 2008, two of that year’s 53 victims of distracted driving.

An 18-year-old talking on his cellphone drove through a red light in his minivan, forcing a northbound tractor-trailer on Route 222 to veer into the southbound lane, colliding head-on with the car carrying Good home from her graduation at Muhlenberg College.

Eileen Miller, the mother of Paul Miller Jr., who died in a crash at age 21, on July 5, 2010, also blames distracted driving for her tragic loss. Paul’s car collided with a tractor-trailer on Route 33 near Saylorsburg; the tractor-trailer driver, who served time for involuntary manslaughter, denies having been distracted by a cellphone.

But Miller is convinced and that’s why she’d like state lawmakers to take a baby step toward ending distracted driving with a measure to be sponsored by Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr., a Montgomery County Republican who represents part of Berks, and Sen. John Sabatina Jr., a Philadelphia Democrat.

Their bill would make it illegal for novice drivers ages 16 and 17 to use cellphones while driving.

It says something for the measure that representatives of the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police and the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association were among those at a recent news conference promoting the bill. Their members are often the first on the scene for tragedies such as the ones that befell Jacy Good’s parents and Eileen Miller’s son.

While the state Legislature has rejected previous efforts to ban using a cellphone behind the wheel, we hope they’ll give this measure a fresh look.

The argument that a ban would infringe on civil liberties is an odd one, given the many restrictions placed on drivers based on the rationale that driving is a privilege, not a right.

Driving is a privilege that comes with restrictions aimed at safety: You must drive sober, wear a seat belt, stay under the speed limit and get your car inspected.

Citing civil liberties is a particularly weak argument against the bill Rafferty and Sabatina plan to offer.

Young people just learning to drive are particularly prone to distractions, a cellphone being a totally unnecessary one. Keeping them off the phone while driving could have the added long-term benefit of making driving without such a distraction a lifelong habit.

The General Assembly should pass the cellphone ban on young drivers and, if it reduces traffic accidents, consider expanding it to all handheld devices. In the meantime, everyone who drives should keep in mind that they’re operating heavy machinery and should therefore keep their eyes, and full attention, on the road at all times.

__Reading Eagle

Online: https://bit.ly/2rcikLd

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6 STRIKES ARE WAY TOO MANY FOR UNLICENSED DRIVERS IN PENNSYLVANIA, May 31

It’s hard to fathom, especially if you’re one of those people who gets night sweats if your state inspection is a day or two overdue or you just realized your driver’s license is about to expire.

Not to worry, license scofflaws. Pennsylvania - at least when it comes to license renewal - is most forgiving.

Grace is good, but not in this case.

If anything positive has come out of the recent crash - Irvin allegedly slammed into a Lancaster Mennonite school bus and took off - it’s the attention Pennsylvania’s law has generated.

“I’m shocked, and I’m appalled he had that many citations and he was still driving,” Republican state Rep. Keith Greiner told LNP on Friday. “We need to try and get these people off the road.”

Greiner is working on a comprehensive rewrite of the state’s DUI laws. On Tuesday, he told LNP that he would like the issue of unlicensed drivers addressed in either his pending legislation or a standalone bill to reduce the penalty threshold for repeat offenders.

Once again, the commonwealth finds itself behind the curve. In 44 other states, drivers can be imprisoned on the first or second offense for driving with a suspended license.

The current “six-strike” law is simply unacceptable and needs to be amended.

As LNP’s Susan Baldrige reported, people who drive with suspended licenses are many more times likely to be in an accident and about three times more likely to cause a fatal crash than those who are properly licensed, according to data collected by the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In the past five years, at least seven people have been killed in Lancaster County by drivers whose licenses had been suspended.

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman told LNP that 50 to 75 percent of Pennsylvania drivers who have had their licenses taken away for reckless driving or DUI continue to drive.

That is an outrage. And Greiner is right. These people need to be off the road.

A handful of states go a step further and impound a violator’s car. This, along with possible imprisonment after the first or second violation, is a sensible approach. It’s not a guarantee - Irvin’s car was registered to his parents - but we need to construct as many obstacles as possible between an unlicensed driver and the road.

Instead Pennsylvania law, as it stands, paves the way to potential disaster.

Chris Demko, whose 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, was killed in 2014 by an unlicensed driver who was also drunk and high, told LNP that he wants penalties for those who harbor unlicensed drivers and enable them to keep driving.

“There has to be some penalty for knowingly allowing a person who is not licensed to drive a car,” Demko said.

All potential remedies - prison, vehicle forfeiture, penalties for enablers, computer tracking systems that could be used to identify drivers who have had their licenses suspended, as Demko suggested - need to be considered here.

It is sad that it has taken an accident in which 16 people, 14 of them children, were injured to get everyone’s attention.

And it’s tragic that Chris Demko has to wonder what might have been had the Legislature acted sooner to keep off the road people like the man who killed his daughter.

Pennsylvania can right a long-standing wrong by putting a system in place that holds accountable unlicensed drivers who disregard the law. And we hope lawmakers from both parties can work together to come up with legislation to that end.

If the image of a battered school bus - windshield shattered, lying on its side - doesn’t inspire change, nothing will.

__LNP

Online: https://bit.ly/2rcdi1d

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