Featured Commentary category, Page 27
Jane Hillstrom: Why aren’t more people talking about America’s alcoholism?
I come from a family of alcoholics. Sarah, my cousin, was the most recent to die of complications from alcoholism, at 41. Before her, seven people in our extended family, including her father, my father and our grandfather, died from alcohol-related problems. At one Thanksgiving, my grandfather passed out drunk...
Peter Morici: Trump’s tariffs are the opening rounds of Trade War II
China, along with the rest of Asia and Europe are bracing for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threatened steep trade tariffs. But Trump should consider how much the world has changed since he first campaigned on a protectionist platform, as well as make the connection between trade and U.S. national security....
Vanessa Stine: Close the Moshannon Valley immigration prison, Mr. President
Just over a year ago, Frankline Okpu, a Cameroonian national who was being detained at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, was found dead in a solitary confinement cell. Okpu was a father and a husband, and his immigration case had just been resolved favorably. He won what’s known...
Jonah Goldberg: The headlines said Amnesty International accused Israel of genocide. Here’s what they missed.
In a shocking development last week, Amnesty International effectively exonerated Israel of genocide. This was easy to miss, and not just because of the recent crush of news. Amnesty’s report, titled “ ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,” buried the lede, as journalists say....
Dave Anderson: Independents, tripartisanship and America’s future
The key for independents to gain a voice in American politics over and above influencing a race between a Democrat and a Republican is to find a way to be a player in Washington without creating a war with either of the two major parties, which are basically at war...
Cal Thomas: Pardoning the unpardonable
Media reports say President Biden is about to issue a slew of blanket preemptive pardons for people associated with his administration to thwart any “revenge” the incoming Trump administration might take against them. While the Founders intended presidential power to be nearly unlimited (there is an exception for a president...
Trudy Rubin: Assad’s fall deals a blow to Russia and Iran, but leaves Syria’s future uncertain
Syrians are dancing in the streets of Damascus and other cities to celebrate the collapse of the hideous regime of Bashar al-Assad, the man responsible for an estimated 600,000 dead in a 13-year-long civil war — including tens of thousands viciously tortured to death in his dungeons. Those still alive...
Tyler Cowen: The sad decline of the public hangout
You can learn something about a city by just walking through it. Most of New York City’s Manhattan core feels bustling, whereas a San Francisco block can seem dormant. In Rome, it is common to see groups of men standing around, chatting or arguing. We are all familiar with such...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: What can Pa. learn from California’s minimum wage proposition?
Confounding pundits and pollsters alike, Californians voted against increasing the minimum wage in November. Buried in the headlines of the 2024 presidential election, the shocking failure of a minimum wage hike in a blue state may epitomize the type of policymaking that Americans are choosing to reject. It likewise serves...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Fired college football coaches are doing better than ever
As the end of the college football season approaches, many teams are beginning to eye which bowl they will be playing in. It also marks the time when coaches who have not met expectations are being fired. The list of fired coaches is already long and growing, likely to be...
Counterpoint: How conservatives can win over women
Republicans, and particularly President-elect Donald Trump, did better with women than the media, the polls or recent history would have led anyone to expect. Here are five ways Republicans can make this the beginning of a permanent realignment. Follow through on campaign promises Millions of women — including young first-time...
Point: Working-class men have abandoned the Democratic Party; here’s what we should do about it
I know the moment when I knew in my gut that Donald Trump would win the 2024 presidential election. I will not pretend I have all the answers because I don’t. However, I am a Democrat who has run for office in four consecutive cycles. I have overperformed at the...
Robert Smith: Steel City’s steel saga continues
Pittsburgh was truly the Steel City. Coke plants, tar plants, steel mills, glass manufacturers and other ancillary heavy industry lined the banks of the rivers, producing the raw products of the country’s industrial revolution. A remnant of these days are the current U.S. Steel facilities still occupying their locations in...
Robin Abcarian: President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is understandable. It’s also unforgivable
It came as a surprise that President Joe Biden unconditionally pardoned his son Hunter, a convicted felon, after repeatedly vowing that he would not. For the past few months, each time Biden or his press secretary was asked whether a pardon was in the cards, they both emphatically said no....
Sam Daley-Harris: Learning to make a difference between elections
For most Americans, this election has brought exhaustion, divisiveness and, for many, fear and deep pain. After the election, Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic: “Americans must stay engaged and make their voices heard at every turn.” And Liz Cheney tweeted, “Citizens across this country … must now be the...
Cal Thomas: Institutions vs. We the people
New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is about as close to a conservative as that liberal newspaper publishes, wrote something last week that gets to the heart of why Democrats, especially, but also some Republicans, fear a second Trump administration. After extolling what he believes to be the personal...
Peter Morici: Computers will make mischief once they learn to talk, listen and reason
Personal assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and generative artificial intelligence tools now appearing at work can amuse, streamline tasks and leverage productivity by gathering and organizing information, drafting documents and performing time-consuming tasks. But they can’t yet duplicate the prescience or situational awareness humans possess by virtue of our rearing,...
Mark Compton: Open road tolling to power economic development along turnpike system
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is proud of its designation as “America’s First Superhighway.” Our system opened in 1940, and, over the past 85 years, its groundbreaking innovation reinvigorated communities across the state and served as a model for the nation’s Interstate Highway System. Our core mission — to ensure safe, uninterrupted...
Andy Macey: Nippon best for future of US Steel
I read your editorial “Are there any guarantees with Nippon Steel?” (Nov. 23, TribLive). As a steelworker, I wanted to share my perspective. I started my career at U.S. Steel in 1977, had to leave the company for four years because of the horrible downturn in the industry in the...
Barbara McQuade: Trump skipping FBI checks threatens national security
President-elect Donald Trump has been bypassing FBI background investigations for his cabinet appointees in favor of screening by private companies. The reasons? The normal process can be slow. And it can reveal embarrassing personal information. Of course, it can! But those are not reasons to scrap an important safeguard to...
Sheldon H. Jacobson and Dr. Janet A. Jokela: Is bird flu a risk yet to people?
You may have encountered the term “bird flu” increasingly online and in the media. It refers to a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A, classified as H5N1. Wild birds carry and transmit this flu, though most do not get sick from it. However, it has been detected in birds and...
Cal Thomas: Fluoride — good or bad?
Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo has joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in opposition to fluoride in the water supply. Ladapo cites controversial studies that claim the additive poses a risk to developing brains. I shall resist the temptation to draw a link between such studies and our politicians. The...
Kathryn Anne Edwards: The IRS shows what government efficiency really looks like
Between all the talk of fiscal commissions and efficiency agencies, it seems like the question of the day is how to make the U.S. government operate more proficiently. There is no shortage of ideas on what should be cut and by how much. Before any actions are taken, officials should...
Ernie Tedeschi: A better way to pay for extending the Trump tax cuts
One of the first orders of business in 2025 for Congress and the incoming administration will be the extension of President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), most of whose individual provisions are set to expire late next year. There’s one problem: America’s...
Joanne Kilgour, Jeaneen Zappa and Lindsay Fraser: To keep Allegheny home for all, county council must pass Innamorato’s budget
Allegheny County residents are living through an ongoing housing crisis. Western Pennsylvania has some of the oldest housing stock in the nation and decades of disinvestment, and the climate crisis is driving increased costs for homeowners and renters through increased utility bills. Many of our homes lack insulation, are badly...
