[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Hope for Broken Hearts is an appropriate name for the Butler group that presented an event Wednesday night at Butler County Community College. About 90 people attended the session, which featured training in the application of the heroin overdose antidote naloxone.

When administered during an overdose, naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, blocks the effects of opioids on the brain and typically restores breathing within three to five minutes.

It’s an unfortunate reality that we need numbers of people who know how to give Narcan.

The most commonly abused opioids include prescription pain medication and heroin — and both are abundant and cheap.

Overdoses are the No. 1 cause of injury-related deaths in the United States, and 75 percent of all overdose deaths include opioids. Opioids now kill more people than car accidents.

In 2014, the Butler County Coroner’s Office reported 33 people died of drug overdoses.

The training offers a practical way to reduce the risk of overdose fatality. Each participant was given a dose of naloxone to take home.

New state laws enable individuals to possess and administer naloxone. The law also protects them from liability if they try to help an overdose victim.

It would be nice to think we don’t need an effort like this, but we do. And we’re grateful to the organizers for their efforts.

[naviga:h3]Jeer [/naviga:h3]

The criminal perjury case against Attorney General Kathleen Kane continues gaining momentum. It reminds us of a lyric from a 1970s Steely Dan song:

“Like a castle in its corner in a medieval game, I foresee terrible trouble and I stay here just the same.”

Indeed, checkmate appears ever more certain.

Those who are doing the dirty work of prosecuting the state’s top prosecutor have filed another perjury charge, this one particularly damning.

Kane previously was charged with perjury and conspiracy. She is alleged to have leaked confidential information from a 2009 grand jury probe and then tried to cover up her actions.

Kane has maintained her innocence, saying she can’t be held responsible for any leak from old cases because she never signed a secrecy oath.

But the new charge, filed Thursday, is based on proof that she did sign an oath. The document turned up last month during the execution of a search warrant at her office.

This new revelation deflates most of Kane’s defense, but she’s left with one gambit: her insistence that she’s the victim of a hostile “old boys” network. Her chief evidence is a trove of pornographic e-mails shared by judges, prosecutors and other state officials, uncovered during Kanes’s review of the Jerry Sandusky prosecution. The scandal ended the careers of several ranking officials, including a state Supreme Court justice.

As ugly as the “porngate” episode turned out to be, it won’t save Kane. It can’t be long before even she realizes it. A negotiated plea deal is a likely outcome.

[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

We’re in absolute agreement with Pedro Cortes, Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth, when he calls the state’s new online voter registration program “an incredible success story.”

In August, Gov. Tom Wolf announced the state would be the 23rd in the United States to provide online voter registration. Since then, about 15,000 Pennsylvanians have signed up or changed their registration online.

They include more than 220 people in Butler County, says Shari Brewer, director of the county elections bureau. Of those, 67 were new registrants; the remainder were people who changed their address or party affiliation.

That compares statewide with about 40 percent of the people who have used the online system have used it for updates to their address or party affiliation.

The address and party changes are important. Easily updated voter information can make the lines at the polls go smoother on Election Day and reduce the use of provisional ballots.

Those who have gone online say the new system is convenient and easy to use.

To register to vote online, go to www.register.votespa.com and complete the form.

And while we’re on the subject. Monday is the deadline to register — either online or at the county building — if you intend to vote in the Nov. 3 election.