Letters to the editor
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While UPMC's decision to support the education of students of Pittsburgh city schools ("UPMC Gives Huge Grant for Tuitions," Dec. 5) may be admirable on the surface, its financial position to do so should not be overlooked. Its ability to provide this speaks to the overall concern of the insurance industry that supports UPMC.
Insurance premiums for most small businesses and even large corporations are experiencing 10 percent to 20 percent increases in their premiums this year. This is a result of the continued high cost of medical expenses being passed on from places like UPMC, which ultimately we pay for as individuals through our copay premiums.
Let's not be quick to give UPMC a hall pass on this area. The cost of providing insurance to employees is becoming more and more difficult with the yearly cost now exceeding $12,000 for most common plans. A 10 percent increase is $1,200 per employee per year, which is either absorbed by the business or shared with the employee. Nonetheless, it is an unrealistic increase.
The insurance and medical business is broken. The cost of insurance for employees is becoming unmanageable. This is one more example why. I agree with educating all youth, if possible; however, this grant is not all that it is made out to be. Maybe the city of Pittsburgh schoolteachers who do not pay for their insurance should consider paying 30 percent of their premium like most of the public to help lower property taxes. That might help attract people with kids back to the city as well, or at least encourage those there already to stay, which is what UPMC is trying to do with this grant. Not sure that is its complete motive.
KEITH EGYED
Avalon
I am happy to see Pittsburgh City Council beginning to take a stand on officer-involved domestic violence ("Law Takes Serious Steps Against Police Accused of Abusing Their Family," Dec. 5). I applaud not only the council members who approved a new ordinance, but also the Citizens Police Review Board, women's groups and others who have promoted this action. It is a first step in the right direction.
We should urge council to take the next step and restore the important pieces it deleted from the ordinance in order to move it forward. What protection is there for the abused spouse or partner of an officer who is allowed to carry a weapon while accusations of abuse are being investigated?
Let's hope that there is much more oversight to come, on this and other issues that have been hidden behind the "blue wall" and allowed to continue for years by mayors and council members (supported by apathetic voters) unwilling to take charge. Police should be eager to cooperate with council and the citizens review board to improve their standards and their credibility.
It is long past time to tear down that blue wall and make police, and all city personnel, accountable to their employers, the taxpayers. It just makes good, common sense to clean up the mess and try to re-establish levels of mutual trust, respect and cooperation between police and citizens so that good cops can do their jobs well and we all can enjoy safer communities.
TRIS OZARK
Wilkinsburg
Here we go again! A cost-of-living raise for our beloved state legislators and others ("Cost-of-Living Raises Kick In for Legislature," Dec. 1).
I'm on Social Security and I get a cost-of-living raise in January, which is approximately a whopping $3, then it's taken away as my Medicare increases.
Wake up, public. Band together to stop the lining of the pockets of our legislators with our money. Write your legislator and voice your displeasure as to what's going on in Harrisburg. Support the many organizations in Harrisburg that are trying to get major changes in our state government.
THERESA CIOLLI
Hays
I read in the paper where lawmakers got a cost-of-living raise ("Cost-of-Living Raises Kick In for Legislature," Dec. 1).
These people are making anywhere from $76,000 to $170,000 plus perks each year. They also get a generous pension fund and health care for life.
I worked in the steel mills for more than 30 years and I get a very small pension. Every month one-third of my pension goes to pay my health care, so why can't these people pay for their own health care?
JOHN SEAR
Aliquippa
Over the past 49 years a group of us have traveled to Pennsylvania to hunt on the opening day of the white-tailed deer season. We come from Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Florida. We hunt in an area near Kane in McKean County. We came for the beauty of the woods and the expectation of seeing an abundance of deer.
In 1980 I personally counted 104 deer in 2 1/2 days of hunting. During that trip some of us saw a black bear and an albino doe. I am sorry to say things have drastically changed.
Recently, I and six other members of our group hunted the same area we have been hunting since 1958 and we collectively saw 10 deer. Some of the hunters in our group did not even see one. The older gentlemen of our group who were the first to hunt the area since 1958 admitted that this past opening day would be their last in Pennsylvania.
For 49 years we have bought out-of-state licenses, paid for hotel rooms, rented cars, spent money in the restaurants and local stores and were glad just to be able to walk the woods with the certain anticipation of seeing deer. Pennsylvania needs to look real hard at its deer management policies.
The deer are gone, the out-of-state hunters are leaving, and what could be even worse would be that the residents would hang up their guns and not enter the field at all.
R. WADE THOMAS
Chesapeake, Va.
I read with much interest the Dec. 2 article about Shippingport celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first commercial generation of electricity from nuclear power in the United States ("50 Years On, 'Atoms for Peace' Is Remembered").
It was not, however, the world's first nuclear generation of electricity on a commercial scale, as claimed by FirstEnergy. I was a young nuclear engineer working at my first job in England in the fall of 1956 when the Calder Hall nuclear plant started generating significant electricity into the national grid.
Why do I remember this? I came back to my lodgings in the early evening to find total darkness. As I groped for the light switch, my landlady called out: "I'm glad you are here. I dare'nt switch the lights on because they said on the radio that there are now atoms in the electricity."
JOHN MELLOR
Plum
A telephone call to U.S. Rep. John Murtha could have disassembled Jack Kelly's contention that Democrats haven't noticed that the surge in Iraq has brought about successes ("Democrats in Denial," Nov. 25 column). Upon Rep. Murtha's recent return from there, he told the press the surge was working, militarily ("Murtha: Surge Is Working," Nov. 30). He's hardly a Democrat in denial.
Does Mr. Kelly seek a constructive end to this nightmare in Iraq? Or does he just want to attack Democrats to salvage his stubborn insistence that this occupation can possibly end in victory? Does he refuse to see that Iraq's politicians will not solve their country's problems while they enjoy the protection of our armed forces?
He's foisted a wartime myth upon your readers. He wrote that the mainstream media cower in their hotel rooms, suggesting their reporting is suspect.
He did notice that Newsweek reported improvements in the security of Baghdad. But Newsweek correspondents and, for instance, Anne Garrels reporting for National Public Radio, have been getting into the thick of the battles and reporting the news to us accurately. It's disingenuous for Mr. Kelly and his imitators on Fox News to deny the horror of this occupation by attacking journalists who are endangering themselves to report on this war accurately
Lastly, Mr. Kelly's suggestions that Democrats would keep our soldiers in harm's way so as to increase their electoral prospects is dishonorable and despicable.
JOHN BITTNER
Crafton
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First Published December 9, 2007 12:00 am
