Jeer

Score one for political opportunists, who used misleading wording and court challenges to manipulate Pennsylvania voters into approving, by a very slim margin, raising of the mandatory judicial retirement age from 70 to 75.

Of course, you wouldn’t know that’s what you were voting to do on Tuesday without being previously aware of the issue. Proponents of the measure — shockingly that includes Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor, who turns 70 next month — went to great lengths to invalidate a more properly-worded ballot question put to voters in the primary election.

They replaced it with language that didn’t reveal the move would actually raise the state’s mandatory retirement age. And, lo and behold, the trick worked. Primary voters defeated the properly worded question. General election voters narrowly approved the misleading one.

Call this whatever you like — “gaming the system”; “rigging the election” — it stinks to high heaven of political opportunism from Republicans and self-interest from the chief justice, who campaigned in favor of the measure.

Two former chief justices and a Philadelphia-based lawyer have sued to invalidate the election results, rightly claiming that the revised wording was intended to manipulate the outcome. It was; it did; and it should be invalidated.

Cheer

Though it’s still far from operational at this point, what we know about Pennsylvania’s ongoing development of regulations and best-practices for the recently-approved medical marijuana community are encouraging.

This week, state regulators working on the issue took a much-needed step and put out the call for public input — most importantly from the laboratory community — on the issues of testing and other patient-safety measures. In addition to the call for professional input, state officials also want those who are eligible to use medical marijuana to take a separate survey regarding their needs.

We urge patients who know or suspect they will ultimately avail themselves of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program to participate. It’s the best way to mold the system into one that will work for and with patients, not against them.

Jeer

On Thursday hate and senseless violence reared their heads in Canonsburg, when someone took the life of a dedicated public servant and family man who was only doing the job he had faithfully discharged for years.

The slain officer, Scott Bashioum, 52, was the kind of police officer communities across America should be so lucky to have patrolling their streets: A local product who put down roots, participated as a volunteer firefighter and was raising a family amid the communities he helped to serve.

Bashioum was doing what he always did, protect the community, when he was ambushed and killed while responding to a domestic violence call at about 3:20 a.m. As for whom might have killed Officer Bashioum and wounded a second officer, Jimmy Saieva, police haven’t yet said.

But it is clear that violence against police officers has become, and will remain, an insidious threat to the safety of communities across the country for some time. We weep for Officer Bashioum and his family, and hope that the community he loved will not let his death remain senseless.