Cheers & Jeers
Associated Press
Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: For the past three years, Bridge to Home Animal Rescue in Eighty Four has rescued dozens of dogs on New Year’s Eve. This year, the organization brought 38 dogs to be fostered here from an abandoned shelter in Kentucky. A team of volunteers left Washington at 6:30 a.m. to meet the animals at the halfway point in West Virginia. The smallest dog weighed just five pounds, and the largest was 97 pounds. Though they were able to rescue more than three dozen dogs, Tracey Crompton, director and co-founder of Bridge to Home, said the number is less than last year. “You just stand there and look at these dogs – They are not supposed to be alive,” said Crompton. “They should have been euthanized. They are good dogs. It’s overwhelming. You stand there and cry.” Anyone who is interested in fostering for Bridge to Home can visit bridgetohome84.com to learn more about the application process.
Cheers: The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to play the Baltimore Ravens Saturday night in Baltimore in an NFL wild card game, and the mood around here has been generally pessimistic when it comes to the contest. The Steelers are going into the playoffs having lost their last four games – the team’s last victory was way back on Dec. 8, when they triumphed over the Cleveland Browns – and the Ravens are hot off a four-game winning streak. So, the smart money has it that Saturday will mark the stumbling conclusion of the Steelers’ 2024-25 season. Still, even if the Steelers are the longest of long shots, fans can take some pride in the fact that the team made it to the playoffs, and have done so with such consistency. The Steelers have gone to the playoffs 35 times, second only to the Green Bay Packers’ 37 visits. And the Steelers are still a long way from being the Cleveland Browns, who finished this season with a sad 3-14 record and have never come anywhere near a Super Bowl.
Jeers: We enjoy a whole host of freedoms in the United States that we shouldn’t take for granted, and one of them is freedom of religion. It’s a fundamental civil liberty and allows citizens to practice the faith of their choice or to have no faith at all. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in other parts of the world, with a prime example being Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and Africa’s largest economy. In that country, Mubarak Bala, the former president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, a former Muslim and admitted atheist, was recently released from jail after a four-year sentence for blasphemy. His “crime” was a series of social media posts that authorities claimed denigrated Islam. Bala’s incarceration was the subject of widespread condemnation from human rights groups around the world. And although he is now free and living in a safe house, he still fears for his safety. Bala said, “My activism, my posting on social media, I always knew the worst would happen. When I made the decision to come out, I knew I could be killed. I know the danger and I still decided to do it.”
Jeers: Sharon Regional Medical Center, located just a little to the east of Youngstown, Ohio, and about 70 miles from Pittsburgh, closed on Monday, a devastating development for that community. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this week that the ownership of the hospital is being fought over in court, and a Texas-based organization is eyeing the medical center and the possibility of turning it into a nonprofit so it can receive government funding and grants. Nevertheless, once the hospital closed on Monday, doctors were unable to give medical advice to patients – even over the phone – because their malpractice insurance ended. In addition, more than 800 employees lost their jobs. Dr. John Ambrosino, who had been a vascular surgeon at the hospital, told the Post-Gazette, “People are going to die from this. It’s just a terrible situation.” While this terrible situation is specific to Sharon and Mercer County, it’s also part of a larger story of the problems facing rural hospitals. Many have closed across the country, and others have shuttered everything from maternity wards to behavioral health units. Unfortunately, a solution to the woes facing rural hospitals does not seem to be in sight.