Hits and Misses
It’s hard to fathom after all the suffering and death many have seen as a result of COVID-19, but about 12% of nurses in the United States say they have not yet been vaccinated and don’t plan on getting their jabs. So far, only about 1 in 3 hospitals are mandating vaccines for their employees, and according to an article last week in Bloomberg Businessweek, hospital administrators are facing a dilemma: “Mandate the vaccines and some nurses will quit. Don’t mandate the vaccine and some of your nurses will get COVID, rendering them unable to work, or even landing them in the very intensive care unit where they normally work.” If these nurses continue to insist on not getting vaccinated, they should ask themselves if they are in the right line of work.
Sirhan Sirhan was 24 years old when he shot and killed Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles in June 1968, motivated by some jumbled mix of political grievance and mental illness. The death of the New York senator and brother of the late president John F. Kennedy was an affront to our democracy and made the already turbulent 1960s even more tempestuous. There’s the possibility now, after more than a half-century behind bars, that Sirhan will be paroled. The Kennedy family is split, with some of his children not opposed to Sirhan being free, while others vehemently objecting. Setting aside the grave and heinous nature of Sirhan’s crime, how would a man pushing 80 function in a society he has not been a part of for most of his life? California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the final say, and he should make sure Sirhan stays behind bars.
James Roman, Washington County’s register of wills, always seems to have an excuse. When an audit in June found there were issues in how his office operated, Roman dismissed it as “all superficial information trying to discredit me.” When he was threatened with a contempt of court citation in July for how his office has handled adoption paperwork, he pleaded ignorance, saying he was not aware of any issues and had heard no complaints. Then, last week, after being charged with a misdemeanor for bringing a gun into the Washington County Courthouse, he proclaimed he was being targeted by “the powers that be.” Roman likely will be embroiled in yet another controversy before too long. And he will likely have yet another excuse.
Turn on your TV in the days and weeks ahead and you’re likely to see some familiar sights. A home located on the corner of Second Street and Luce Avenue in Monessen was featured on an episode of the HGTV series “Cheap Old Houses” that aired this past Monday. Then, if you have a Netflix subscription, you can see the comedy-drama “The Chair,” where Washington & Jefferson College is standing in for the fictional Pembroke University, a “lower-tier ivy.” And the region is also featured in another series, “American Rust,” which is debuting on Showtime Sept 12. Donora is among the locations that were used for it earlier this year, along with Braddock, Clairton and McKeesport. There are probably more productions headed our way, and we should be glad this is the case, given the jobs they provide and the spotlight they shine on our communities.