Hits and Misses
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Central Greene School District’s Director of Academic Accountability and Innovation Sean VanEman plays the role of the “shooter” during ALICE active shooter training at Waynesburg Central High School. Teachers were armed with balls to use as tools to distract and overwhelm the attacker.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
The Cracker Barrel in South Strabane Township was blocked from receiving a liquor license by the board of supervisors.
Biscuits and sweet tea are in no danger of being displaced on the menu at Cracker Barrel outlets, but the proprietors of the fast casual restaurant chain are looking at serving a limited number of alcoholic beverages at their locations, and had hoped to make the restaurant at Trinity Point one of the first in Pennsylvania. However, supervisors in South Strabane threw cold water on the plan by voting down the restaurant’s request for a liquor license. The objections of three supervisors mostly rested on the belief that Cracker Barrel is a “family” restaurant, the kind of place where you can tuck into some chicken and mashed potatoes on a Sunday. Supervisor Richard Luketich said “a lot of older people in the community” go to restaurants like Cracker Barrel and was aghast at the idea that beer would be available for purchase after church. But Cracker Barrel officials were adamant that they were not going to transform the restaurant into another sports bar. Odds are, most area residents who eat at Cracker Barrel wouldn’t mind seeing select alcoholic beverages on the menu, and if they don’t want them, they won’t purchase them. And, let’s be honest, is anyone looking to get roaring drunk going to stop at Cracker Barrel? Why should Cracker Barrel be prevented from getting a liquor license based on South Strabane supervisors’ vision of what the restaurant should be?
In the decades since the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, its final leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, largely languished in the twilight of lecture tours and memoirs, with at least two generations having no memories at all of when he was a titan on the world stage. His death this week at the age of 91 served as a reminder of just how crucial Gorbachev’s leadership was and how it has shaped the world we live in today. During the six years he led the Soviet Union, he spearheaded a fearsome effort to reform a nation that had been strangled by seven decades of Marxist-Leninism. This allowed Eastern European nations to shake loose from the Soviet orbit and go their own way, with countries like Ukraine and the Czech Republic embracing democracy and East Germany being absorbed back into a larger Germany. It may not have been his intent, but communism fell because of Gorbachev. His lengthy New York Times obituary stated, “Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time.”
A story in last weekend’s edition of the Observer-Reporter outlined safety procedures area school districts have in place as the 2022-23 academic year gets underway. In fact, in the Central Greene School District, teachers went through active shooter training on their first in-service day. The training, the police presence and the heavily secured buildings are all a necessity. According to Education Week, there have been 28 school shootings this year, with 84 people killed or injured. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May took 21 lives and injured an additional 16 people. That such stringent security measures are needed at our schools is a byproduct of the unhealthy American obsession with guns.
In July, Charleroi council approved a measure limiting what they described as “excessive” right-to-know requests. There was just one problem, though – state law does not allow municipalities, or any other governmental agency, to withhold information based on what they have arbitrarily determined are “excessive” requests. Last week, the state’s Office of Open Records underlined this in an opinion it released. Elizabeth Wagenseller, the executive director of the office, wrote, “Because of the clear statutory prohibition against such a policy, it is unnecessary to evaluate any constitutional concerns.” She also said that any governmental body that has a policy in violation of its rules may be subject to civil penalties, court costs and attorney fees. The law, frankly, could not be much more clear.