Hits and Misses
MISS: “I wonder if this is what the Black Death was like.” That’s what a commentator for the British magazine The Spectator wrote earlier this week when describing the ungodly fiasco that Brexit has become for her and her fellow countrymen. To recap: Voters in the United Kingdom narrowly approved a referendum two years ago that would withdraw England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the European Union. But attempts by Prime Minister Theresa May to come up with terms that are palatable to both members of her own restive Parliament and the European Union have proven to be futile, and a vote on an exit agreement was postponed earlier this week when it became clear that May would lose. Then, May survived a confidence vote that could have led to her ouster. What will happen next? The possibilities include another general election, another referendum that could overturn Brexit, a last-minute deal or Britain simply leaving the European Union without any agreement at all. Forecasters have said the latter scenario could lead to food shortages, border chaos and tumbling currency. Anyone who was thinking about visiting Britain after March 29, when the official withdrawal is set to happen, might want to rethink their plans.
HIT: Kudos to Peters Township Council for signing a new deal that will continue the use of body-worn cameras by the township’s police officers for the next five years. During this year, the Peters department has used the cameras as part of a no-cost trial, and township officials have been impressed. “The equipment and the software have proved to be reliable,” township manager Paul Lauer said at a recent meeting. “It’s already helped us in a couple of cases where police officers and the people they interact with have different recollections about what happened.” Of course, when the public sees body camera footage, it’s usually part of a major story in which an officer is accused of some terrible wrongdoing. But in most cases, we believe the cameras will find good police officers doing good police work, and their use will serve to protect the vast majority who are conducting themselves in the proper way.
MISS: Last month, Democrat Lindsey Williams won the state Senate seat in Pittsburgh’s North Hills that’s being vacated by Republican Randy Vulakovich by fewer than 800 votes out of more than 120,000 cast. But a win is a win, and that’s how things work in a democracy. However, the Republicans who hold the majority in the state Senate are threatening not to seat Williams because, they argue, she might not have met Pennsylvania’s residency requirements when she was elected. Williams has countered that she accepted a job offer from the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers before Nov. 6, 2014, and was in the process of moving from Maryland back to the Pittsburgh region at that point. She then changed her voter registration the following month. Now, let’s be honest: Do you think Republicans in the state Senate would be so profoundly concerned about residency requirements being met to the hour if such questions centered around one of their own? Of course not. If the GOP refuses to seat her, there would be a costly special election in that district that Williams could well win. This is a fight that Republicans would be well advised to walk away from.