Featured Commentary category, Page 25
Elizabeth Stelle: New year, new taxes in Pa.
The new year is always a great opportunity to shed vices like smoking and binge eating. For state and local lawmakers, their guilty pleasure tends to involve overspending and sticking taxpayers with the bill. If Pennsylvania lawmakers thought to quit this dirty habit in 2025, they are off to a...
Salewa Ogunmefun: Pa. residents want true early voting option
November’s general election showed definitively that Pennsylvanians have a massive appetite for more convenient voting options, specifically the ability to cast a ballot early in person so that they aren’t limited to Election Day as their only option. Act 77, the law that allowed for no-excuse mail ballots, does not...
Lisa Jarvis: Whooping cough vaccine has an awareness problem
If you’ve heard the telltale cough and seen an infant gasp for breath, it’s easy to understand why a pertussis outbreak strikes fear in a parent’s heart. Babies can wind up hospitalized or even die from the bacterial infection. That’s why the recent surge in cases of pertussis, or whooping...
Dr. Cory Franklin: Should alcoholic beverages feature a warning about cancer risk?
This month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a new report on alcohol and cancer that emphasizes the risk of cancer in connection with drinking alcohol. “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States...
Noah Feldman: Musk and his critics are both wrong about free speech on X
Elon Musk is in a free-speech fight over his decision to demonetize the content of some far-right MAGA critics who disagreed with his immigration views on his social media platform X. What is most remarkable about the argument is that both sides fail to acknowledge the simple truth of how...
Nolan Finley: Trump letting silly ideas detract from his mission
Time to focus, Mr. President-elect. The stream-of-consciousness flow of ideas and promises that marked Donald Trump’s presidential campaign must now give way to deliberate, well-thought-out policymaking. But Trump’s press conference Tuesday, his second since the election, suggests he hasn’t made the pivot from candidate to chief executive. He continued to...
Oliver Bateman: The last battle for Pittsburgh steel
Pittsburgh’s relationship with decline is complicated. The city lost half its population after the steel industry collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s, yet has clung to relevance as a mini-hub for medicine, robotics and artificial intelligence. Now, 70 years after scores of regional steelworkers quite literally fought the Japanese in...
Point: National security concerns outweigh free speech
President-elect Donald Trump is correct in wanting to stall the decision to ban TikTok from appearing before the Supreme Court. Such a delay reinforces the position of diplomacy or peace through strategy. The American public can perceive this as a strategic maneuver — not a change of position on the...
Counterpoint: Defending TikTok defends the First Amendment
President-elect Donald Trump is no stranger to making bold statements. Many see his asking the Supreme Court to pause the looming TikTok ban to allow his administration to pursue a political resolution as another example of his fearlessness. As someone who has long championed free speech and individual liberties, I...
Mary Ziegler: What antiabortion activists want next
The state of Texas filed a major lawsuit Dec. 12 against a New York doctor who mailed abortion pills to a Collin County, Texas , woman, arguing the doctor was practicing medicine without a Texas license and violating the state’s abortion ban. The suit raises messy legal questions about whether...
Rachel Marsden: Why does Musk get lambasted while Soros gets decorated?
One minute, he’s telling “subtard” online critics of his policy ideas to go “(expletive) yourself in the face.” The next, he’s fanboying for populist leaders at home and abroad. So what’s the problem with Elon Musk? Aside from his politics, that is. If Musk, the richest man in the world,...
Cal Thomas: Prison reform can save money
President-elect Trump and nominees for his upcoming administration often speak about cutting spending in order to reduce the debt. Some of the targets are familiar, but one that is never mentioned is the amount of money that could be saved by releasing, or not incarcerating in the first place, nonviolent...
Heather Lauer: ‘Dark money’ is not the boogeyman it’s made out to be
Among the big losers of the 2024 election were politicians and activist groups who claim so-called “dark money” is the secret force driving American politics. Groups that do not disclose their donors once again made up a small share of overall campaign spending and notched few notable victories. The results...
Peter Morici: U.S. needs a saner approach to immigration
Americans have been appalled by thousands of illegal immigrants — those granted temporary legal status or who crossed the border undetected — exacerbating homelessness and straining shelters, schools and social services budgets. President-elect Donald Trump promised aggressive deportations during his campaign, but he hardly has a mandate. He won the...
Bruce Yandle: We should stop waiting for the pre-covid economy to return
For those waiting and hoping to see the economy return to pre-covid levels of activity, recent employment data, while showing considerable strength, must be discouraging. The data are reminiscent of American novelist and playwright Gertrude Stein’s comment following a disappointing visit to her childhood hometown, where she had hoped to...
Lanhee J. Chen: Romney’s Senate exit marks an end to the bipartisanship Washington desperately needs
Mitt Romney delivered his farewell speech before the U.S. Senate in early December. It isn’t hyperbole to say it marked the end of an era. Romney’s decades in public service will be considered historic — he is the only American to serve as governor of one state and senator for...
Amir Sommer: Our words about Israel-Hamas war can add to hostilities — or help on path to peace
The language people use to talk about the Israel-Hamas war has power: It can contribute to misunderstanding and alienation, but it can also bring about appreciation for concepts that can seem impossible during this kind of conflict, such as peace. I was born to a Palestinian Arab father and an...
Point: Democrats have an opportunity to rebuild
As this historic 2024 political year comes to a close, many Democrats are crying in their eggnog. Not only did we fail to win back the House of Representatives (this prospect seemed likely in January), but we lost the Senate and frustratingly lost the White House again — and the...
Counterpoint: GOP disarray is a positive for Democrats
As Democrats look to 2025, several factors provide them with a sense of hope and optimism for regaining and maintaining political power. The landscape of American politics can be unpredictable, but the current climate offers promising avenues for Democrats to explore as they prepare for coming elections. One of the...
Sharon Pillar: Renewables reliable, economical
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is often referred to as insanity. As we enter our 4th consecutive year of wildly escalating electricity prices, it should be clear by now that what Pennsylvania has been doing in terms of energy is simply not working...
Cal Thomas: Lessons of 1925 for 2025
Political and other prognosticators are busy as usual predicting the future. Never mind calculating how wrong they have been in the past, our desire to know what’s coming sometimes overcomes sound thinking, ignorance of history and an understanding of human nature. Recall the number of times climate alarmists predicted we...
Chip Minemyer: Tired Sandusky taunts further insult victims of abuse
Why does chirping about a scandal that broke more than 13 years ago still give fans of Penn State’s football opponents such glee? A grand jury indictment in November 2011 accused former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexually abusing young boys in his care. In 2012, he...
Marc Champion: Europe needs to swiftly fulfill its aid pledges to Ukraine
A note to Europe’s leaders: When it comes to sending sufficient aid to help Ukraine end Russia’s invasion, if not now, when? In October, I visited and wrote about a critical mine at Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, which had become the primary focus of Russia’s efforts to maximize the territory...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: A look ahead to what might happen in 2025
My prediction that President Joe Biden would drop out was a rare bright spot among last year’s not totally serious predictions. Undaunted, I try again by looking ahead to 2025: January — House reelects Speaker Mike Johnson on third ballot after he agrees to make Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene assistant...
Peter Morici: Biden’s gift to Trump — golden opportunity to supercharge the economy
President-elect Donald Trump returns to Washington with a golden opportunity to continue the country’s accelerated economic growth. Over the past eight years, U.S. GDP has increased 2.5% annually. This surpasses the 1.9% growth during the Bush-Obama years but trails the 3.2% performance of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton era. The current growth rate...
