Cheer

Sometimes being in the right place at the right time is all it takes to make headlines. That’s apparently what happened in Mercer County this past week when state police nabbed two alleged drug traffickers in Wolf Creek Township with nine pounds — an estimated $2 million worth — of heroin.

And not just heroin; pure, uncut bricks of the drug bound from wholesalers to dealers.

Two men from New York are now cooling their heels in the Mercer County Jail.

The reality is that this bust represents a drop in the river of heroin that flows along our state’s major highways. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important or worthy of celebration. Fighting this deadly drug takes commitment, diligence and vigilance. That’s how a routine traffic stop turns into a multi-million-dollar drug bust.

It’s not blind luck when law enforcement is alert, prepared and on the job. But luck sure doesn’t hurt.

Jeer

Members of the Pennsylvania House will hold a hearing Feb. 10 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s handling of the epic snowstorm that stranded hundreds of motorists on the road for a day or more.

Color us nonplussed. This couldn’t be more ridiculous.

Yes, hundreds of travelers stranded for 24 hours or more along a major interstate in Pennsylvania merits follow-up questions.

But it should not take a public hearing in the House to figure out what went wrong — a hearing which, we note, will take place before an internal review of the fiasco is actually complete. All anyone will learn from this useless exercise is how many different ways Turnpike officials can say “our review is not yet complete.”

As election year dog-and-pony shows go, this is a pretty obvious one.

Maybe the state budget process should get this much scrutiny.

Cheer

It’s a long way from becoming reality, but work to trim Pennsylvania’s bloated, dysfunctional legislature down to size took a step forward this week. The state Senate gave preliminary approval to a measure that would reduce the size of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 203 members to 151.

It’s the same resolution the House passed last May, and it still has far to go. To change the state’s Constitution both chambers of the legislature have to approve the measure in the next two-year session starting in 2017. It would then go before voters in a statewide ballot referendum.

There is also more work to do cutting down the size of the Senate. A bill passed by the House last year would reduce its size from 50 to 37, but it hasn’t yet been voted on by senators. It should be approved as well.

At 253 seats, our General Assembly is the second-largest state legislature in the country — and the largest full-time legislature. But it’s become obvious that Pennsylvania voters aren’t getting what they pay for when it comes to their elected representatives — and they pay hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s long past time voters were given the chance to approve these reductions.