Laurel: To Alan Bloch. The senior U.S. district judge didn't buy a shred of Gregory Podlucky's sad-sob story as to why he bilked financial institutions out of $856 million as LeNature's CEO. The judge on Thursday sentenced Mr. Podlucky to the maximum prison term of 20 years. Judge Bloch said he'll rule on the issue of restitution later, given the complexity of the case. If, indeed, Podlucky has been "transformed," as he wrote to the judge, let him reflect long and hard on his misdeeds and accept the full punishment for all the lives he ruined.
Lance: To ludicrous school salary raises. The Greensburg Salem School Board will drop the district's outlandish, across-the-board pay increases (averaging about 4 percent this year) when employee contracts expire June 30. Those one-size-fits-all raises, typically premised on the negotiated teachers contract, explain why Greensburg Salem administrators are the best paid in Westmoreland County. It shouldn't have taken this long to end a public fleecing.
Lance: To Robert William Duda. Police say the Somerset County security guard pointed a gun he was cleaning at his son, who had jokingly told his father to "shoot me." The weapon fired and Bryan Duda, 14, died from a single gunshot. Any gun owner who doesn't know the first rule of firearm safety -- never point a gun at anyone -- shouldn't own a gun. Such alleged recklessness compounds a tragedy.
