CheerToasty warm cheers for Chris Blehi. The U.S. Air Force veteran had a new furnace installed, free, at her Robbie Way home off Route 19 in Muddy Creek Township.Cheers also to Blehi’s neighbor, Jason Scholtz, who was instrumental in obtaining the heater; and to Gillece Services, a plumbing and heating company from the southwest corner of Allegheny County. Gillece, with an assist from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, has installed six free furnaces this winter for veterans across the region.“My neighbor saw on the news that a veteran got a furnace and contacted Gillece through e-mail,” Blehi said. “It’s an awesome thing Gillece does.”Blehi had been getting by using electric space heaters — until the recent cold spell froze her water pipes.It just goes to show you: good neighbors can be right next door, or in the next county. Many thanks and well done.

JeerPresident Barack Obama is endangering national interests as he carefully avoids calling Islamic State what it is: an Islamic state.In a major speech Wednesday before Muslim community leaders at the White House, Obama talked about combating violent extremism — and not once did he use the words “Muslim terrorists.”He said just the opposite, actually. “No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism,” Obama said.This follows months of unrelenting atrocities by ISIS killers who released videos of themselves beheading U.S. journalists and 21 Coptic Christians and burning alive a Jordanian military pilot — actions they say are justified, even required, by their fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran. The ISIS militants and their caliph, or leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, say they’re driven by Islamic prophecy to establish and grow their caliphate, under Sharia law, in anticipation of a coming Apocalypse.Pope Francis recently condemned the killings, saying murder in the name of any religion is heinous. But Obama refuses to take that step, cautiously mindful as he is that ISIS does not represent all Muslims.Of course ISIS does not speak for all of Islam. Its burning alive of the Jordanian pilot demonstrates its willingness to declare opposing Muslims as apostate.But no Islamic State adherant will deny he is deeply religious or that his is not the most exemplary of Muslims.No, the world does not want or need to reprise the Crusades of a thousand years ago. We don’t need a holy war. But the adversary does, and while Obama rightly notes that it’s not in anyone’s interest to enter a new crusade, neither is it best to ignore the enemy’s intention.

CheerA crisp salute to officials in Evans City for their ongoing drive to honor local military veterans.VFW Post 499, banquet hall was packed Tuesday night with people who came to honor Sgt. Nicholas Tomko, U.S. Army, who died Nov. 9, 2003, while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.Tomko was a 24-year-old resident of McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, when his humvee was hit by mortar fire and missiles south of Baghdad. He was a member of the Army Reserves 307th Military Police Company from New Kensington, Westmoreland County.Tomko is one of the soldiers who will be honored by the borough’s new military banners program organized by Mayor Dean Zinkhann. The 24-by-36-inch banners, showing soldiers both dead and alive, will be hung from utility poles on Main Street. The banners will fly from Memorial Day through Veterans Day.Zinkhann said he has 22 soldiers signed up to be honored with banners, but he is looking to get as many as possible.“We’ll take all we can get. I want to line the street with them,” he said.A banner costs $80.Application forms and more information on the banner program are available at www.troopbanners.com/evanscity.