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Diamonds to The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s canine program, partnering conservation officers with trained Labrador retrievers. After a full year, the three dogs in use have proven their acute noses can easily outdo humans and their machines in some cases, particularly when it comes to finding fresh shell casings. Metal detectors pick up anything, the retrievers single out the recently-fired shells. One also tracked an allegedly drunk hunter three-quarters of a mile through the woods. Kudos to PGC for being willing to go old-school in using the canines, and for devising a program that appears to be a success. Bonus points for creating photo-ops with animals that are so darn cute with tongues hanging out of mouths and badges hanging off collars.

Coal to the Dallas School District teachers union, and a smaller lump (or at least some ashes) to the Dallas School Board, for the debacle surrounding a potential second teacher strike this year. This all began during last November’s first strike, when the district started talking about reworking the calendar, feeding an argument the union used to to stay on the picket line beyond the end date set by the state. Frankly, the latter is the biggest contributor to the current confusion, but assigning blame is fast becoming pointless. The union deserves credit for delaying the planned strike from Feb. 27 to March 24, giving more time for progress in contract talks, but it is clear now that any second strike would be pointlessly short and potentially illegal — a toxic move for all involved.

Diamonds — To Misericordia University, and Luzerne County’s other institutions of higher learning, for taking time in deciding to arm campus security guards. Misericordia was the fourth school to decide some guards should carry firearms. Luzerne County Community College was first in 2013, Wilkes University second in 2014 and King’s College third in 2015. In all four cases, the institutions showed considerable patience in weighing the decision, devising a policy and deciding to implement it. Most importantly, in no case did any of them rush to weaponize following a tragedy on some other campus, despite the high-profile cases of college shootings to hit the headlines in recent years. Arming school security guards is a weighty decision, and the fact that it took four years for four local colleges to go that route suggests they independently conducted extensive deliberations before taking the step.

Coal to a nation, state and society that created a climate — regardless of the causes — in which armed security guards at schools has gone from exception to norm. The cliche is an old-timer reminiscing about the days when doors were left unlocked and everyone knew everyone else in an Edenic neighborhood. That, of course, is largely rose-colored nostalgia, but it was not so long ago that armed officers in middle schools, high schools and on college campuses was unthinkable.

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