Featured Commentary category, Page 13
Sheldon H. Jacobson: You cannot ‘restore’ high scientific standards if they are already in place
President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Gold Standard Science” provides a directive to restore a higher standard for scientific research and discovery. Yet despite the concerns it raises, the very standards that it describes already exist and are widely applied. Section one of the order describes why the administration believes...
Jen Mazzocco: Communities need help to cope with storms
This spring, Western and Central Pennsylvania were struck hard by thunderstorms that damaged homes, felled trees, flooded roadways, and overwhelmed local infrastructure and resources already stretched thin. At the storms’ peak, more than half a million businesses and households lost power — some for over a week. As a local...
Cal Thomas: Politics in the pulpit
The Internal Revenue Service announced on Monday it is overturning a restraint on churches and other houses of worship that was supposed to keep them from endorsing candidates for political office. The root of the ban extends back to 1954. Then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, D-Texas, was running for reelection and faced...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Trump etches his place in history
Over the past three elections, President Donald Trump has redefined the United States politically, strengthening Republican support among blue collar workers and reducing traditional Democratic majorities among racial minorities. Now, with the enactment of his misleadingly titled “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump has — for better or worse — redefined...
Oliver Bateman: What Pa. Dems can learn from Zohran Mamdani
Thirty-three-year-old state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s triumph over aging dynast Andrew Cuomo in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary should have Pennsylvania Democrats taking notes. Not because the state’s voters will eagerly cast their ballots for a democratic socialist preaching about subsidized gender-affirming care — that dog won’t hunt in a purple...
Noah Feldman: The Supreme Court’s majority is playing the long game
Many legal commentators apparently believe that, in the term that just ended, the Supreme Court further enabled President Donald Trump. The court did, in fact, issue a series of conservative decisions that Trump likes. However, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the court also simultaneously pursued a careful...
Colin Fleming: Charlie Chaplin’s 100-year-old film ‘The Gold Rush’ has timeless lessons on how to keep going
The wisest among us realize that what we normally think of as opposites are also associates. There’s life and death, joy and pain, fulfillment and absence. And, as Charlie Chaplin understood and helped millions to understand, comedy and tragedy. Cinema was about a quarter of a century old when Chaplin’s...
Mihir Sharma: RFK Jr. is playing with babies’ lives
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, everyone knew he was capable of doing great damage. He had a long history of indulging conspiracy theories, particularly when it came to vaccines. Already, his attempt to reassess immunization schedules in the U.S. has outraged pediatricians....
Martin Schram: Peace through power – it’s electric!
For several hold-your-breath weeks, as spring sizzled into summer, the nuclear dealmakers of President Donald Trump’s USA and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Iran seemed astonishingly close to a deal. So close that it seemed they’d soon reach out and seize the deal. But no one was willing to...
Allison Schrager: America’s broken politics is breaking economics, too
The political realignment has come for economics. At least since the days of Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes in the last century, the divide in economic thinking roughly corresponded to the political split. In the mainstream, everyone was a capitalist and saw some role for government. The right/left divide...
Jim Lee: Fetterman stuck between rock and a ‘hard’ GOP place
SP&R’s latest Pennsylvania poll conducted June 16-21 (with 713 likely voters) shows U.S. Sen. John Fetterman with a 41% job approval after 2½ years in office. On the surface, this isn’t so bad. For comparison, former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey had a 37% job approval rating in our polling in...
David M. Drucker: Mamdani’s rise is a gift Republicans are already using
Zohran Mamdani isn’t the most famous Democrat in America. But the front-runner to serve as New York’s next mayor is well on his way — and he’ll get there, if Republicans have anything to say about it. Immediately after the previously little-known state assemblyman from Queens won the Democratic nomination...
Austin Sarat: In a democracy, protest is good for the soul, even if it does not change anyone’s mind
For the past several months, I have organized a weekly “Stand Up for Democracy” rally/protest on the busiest street corner in my hometown. On Fridays at 5:30 pm., students, teachers, townspeople and senior citizens come together, hold signs and wave at passing drivers, some of whom honk their horns in...
Rep. Mike Kelly: One Big Beautiful Bill a gamechanger for Western Pa.
Last week, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This historic package of legislation prevents the largest tax hike in modern American history while providing tax relief for Americans across the board. From employers to employees, from children to seniors, this legislation provides historic...
Bill Lueders: Reasons to celebrate July 4
Every Fourth of July, Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive magazine, would host a party. He’d grill burgers and brats and tack copies of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights to trees in his backyard in Madison, Wis. The U.S. government has never had a fiercer...
Rick LaRue: America 250 — a big opportunity slipping away
One year from now, the nation will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I fear it could be a shame, even possibly a sham. Don’t get me wrong. Our founding principles of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are worth celebrating. The optimist in me still...
Dan DeBone: Child care shortage threatens economy
As Pennsylvania lawmakers work to finalize the state budget, our communities face countless priorities competing for limited resources — from infrastructure needs and public safety to workforce development and education. This year, with so much uncertainty surrounding potential cuts to federal funding that could impact vital programs across the commonwealth,...
Destenie Nock: Summer’s triple threat — bills rising, grids straining, help shrinking
In July 2022, a tenant called to say her apartment thermostat read 89 degrees Fahrenheit and her infant had developed a painful heat rash. I drove to the store, bought the only A/C unit still in stock and installed it that same day. But afterward, I kept thinking about the...
Jamie Miller: Magee nurses forming union to be voice for you and your loved ones
I was a scared 17-year-old when I first went to Magee-Womens Hospital for my prenatal care. I had a high-risk pregnancy, and as a teenage mom, I had no idea what to expect. There was never any question about which hospital to go to. Magee is where my family has...
Lauren Holubec: Pa. needs to invest in youth workforce development
Pennsylvania is evolving, and our workforce development system needs to adapt to this change. For years, there have been flashing red lights on Pennsylvania’s demographic dashboard. Our population is aging, and retiring workers are not being replaced by new workers quickly enough. It’s leaving employers understaffed. Beyond that, there is...
Mary Jo Simmen-Gray: The real story behind the Marcellus impact fee windfall
On June 24, Rep. Leslie Rossi, R-Westmoreland, announced that more than $1.3 million in impact fee revenue from Marcellus shale gas drilling will be distributed to Westmoreland County and municipalities in the 59th District, including Latrobe, Derry, Ligonier and Mt. Pleasant. She framed the announcement as a win: “These funds...
Jim Nowalk: America’s new crime wave is digital — federal solution required
Imagine a criminal speeding down an interstate highway, crossing from Ohio into Pennsylvania and then into New Jersey, stealing from homes in each town and vanishing before police can react. Now imagine if that same criminal didn’t need to travel at all — because with a few keystrokes and a...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Draining the swamp, Pennsylvania-style
It’s rare these days to find a proposal out of Washington that checks every box: common sense, bipartisan and pro-worker. That is exactly what Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman have delivered with their bill to relocate the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management...
Ryan Unger: We need more teachers in Pa.
I have Thanksgiving dinner every year with only teachers. My mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, aunt, cousin and grandmother, along with all my great-aunts, have served as educators. While I’m the odd one out professionally, I value their work and service and the path they took to get there. My mother...
Counterpoint: Trump endangers U.S. by ignoring rule of law
Congressional approval for military engagement still matters. Here’s why. The June 21 strike against Iran was perhaps the most consequential U.S. military action in the Middle East of the past decade. As it stands, early indications suggest the strikes significantly eroded but did not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, and a...
