Pope dedicated to ousting sexual predators

July 23, 2020

Pope Francis is telling Roman Catholic leaders they must do what most people — including the overwhelming majority of the church’s faithful — would do without being told: report cases of sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults to the police. A long awaited manual of guidance from the Vatican, directed toward Catholic bishops, has been released. It accomplishes two important things. First, the directive makes no bones about it: Bishops must report sexual abuse to the authorities, whether they are required by law to do so or not. Here in the United States, virtually ...

Federal assistance for schools needed now

July 22, 2020

School, both public and private, will be quite different this fall. In many states, classrooms that normally would have been open by mid-August will not be occupied until September or October, if then. Whether the education process for millions of children will involve in-person teaching or “distance learning,” both public and private schools will have to do things that cost more money than in a normal year. Having students in school will require health safeguards such as social distancing, possibly use of face masks and screening to keep children from bringing COVID-19 to ...

Congress needs to pay for mail-in election

July 21, 2020

Of all the irrational debates Americans should be having about the upcoming November elections, one reported last week takes the cake. Beyond any doubt, many voters will be leery of casting ballots at polling places. That has renewed the debate over absentee ballots cast by mail. Indeed, there is genuine reason to have some concern about mail-in ballots. Will everyone desiring to vote that way have access to the process? Will the unscrupulous attempt to use fraudulent ballots? But the answer to one question some are asking has an obvious answer. The issue — not one, really ...

Good law enforcement personnel should be remembered, too

July 20, 2020

Much of the public’s attention to law enforcement personnel during the past several weeks has focused on the tiny minority of them who deserve to be called “bad cops.” The enormous number of good officers, deputies, troopers and agents ought to be remembered, too. One of them, Toledo, Ohio, police Officer Anthony Dia, wrote a letter to his family. They opened it after he was shot and killed last weekend, by a drunk who later took his own life. Dia was just 26. He had been a policeman for two years. He left behind a wife and two young sons. “Tell my family I love them,” were ...

Disabled veterans need our support

July 18, 2020

Some of the men and women who serve us in uniform suffer wounds or other injuries that lead to a lifetime of sacrifice for us. In return, taxpayers help the most severely affected purchase specially adapted motor vehicles — once. U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, want to rectify that. They have introduced the Advancing Uniform Transportation Opportunities for Veterans Act. Under current law, the Department of Veterans Affairs can provide eligible injured veterans with one-time grants of about $21,400 to purchase vehicles adapted so they can drive. If ...

Congress should demand answers from the VA

July 17, 2020

Reta Mays’ spree as a serial killer ended in July 2018 — but only after she got away with murdering military veterans for a year. Now that she has been unmasked, the question of how Mays got away with her evil for so long needs to be answered. On Tuesday in U.S. District Court at Clarksburg, West Virginia, Mays pleaded guilty to seven counts of murdering veterans who were patients at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in the same city. Mays, 46, of Harrison County, West Virginia, also pleaded guilty to a count of assault with intent to murder. Her pleas end months of ...