Hits and Misses
MISS: Last week, two assailants engaged in a shootout in Pittsburgh’s downtown Arby’s location. News reports say 15 shots were fired at the fast-food restaurant located near theaters and galleries. The perception that Pittsburgh’s downtown is becoming less safe should be a matter of urgent importance for city officials. However, this week Pittsburgh City Council generated headlines instead by banning the French delicacy foie gras within the city limits. Supporters say foie gras is cruel to geese and ducks and some of them are force-fed in order to enlarge their livers. Other cities have attempted to ban foie gras, but they have been overturned, and Pittsburgh is being threatened with a lawsuit over the foie gras prohibition. Pittsburgh’s city council is also considering forbidding horse-drawn carriages and the sale of fur. One Pittsburgh owner of a fur store pointed out to the Tribune-Review that the ban wouldn’t include other products derived from animals, such as leather or fleece. Fur sales have been declining anyway, and as the store owner pointed out, “If you don’t like fur, don’t wear it.”
HIT: A legislative logjam was finally cleared in Harrisburg last week, and public libraries, community colleges and agencies that handle county mental health services will finally get the funding that had been allocated to them in the 2023-24 state budget. Library officials had been nervous that programs, staff or hours would have to be cut in the new year if funding continued to be stalled. In Washington County, the board of commissioners carried out a tremendous service to the county library system by extending it a $165,000 loan that it will pay back once the $660,000 it receives from the state arrives, and advancing payments the county would make later in the year. Diane Ambrose, interim director of the Washington County Library System, said, “This is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. We are so grateful.”
HIT: The lies peddled by Rudolph Giuliani after the 2020 election were despicable not only for the damage they inflicted on our democracy, but also for the damage those lies inflicted on the lives of election workers who were honestly carrying out the vital work of counting votes. The two most notable examples were Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two election workers Giuliani falsely accused of stuffing ballot boxes in Atlanta. They were justifiably awarded $148 million in damages after filing a defamation lawsuit against him. Apparently unchastened, Guiliani has continued to lie and accuse the women of voter fraud. In response, they have sued him for defamation again. Giuliani, a once-lauded mayor of New York, has already been thoroughly disgraced. If he ends up penniless, he will have only himself to blame.