Featured Commentary category, Page 39
Elwood Watson: Black Republican doesn’t know his Black history
This month, during an event in Philadelphia supporting Donald Trump and the Republican Party, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds made the attention-grabbing assertion that Black families were stronger and more conservative under the Jim Crow era. “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together,” Donalds said. “During Jim Crow,...
Dr. Val Arkoosh: Shapiro’s proposed budget would be life changing for people with disabilities, caregivers
This May, I visited Partners For Quality in Pittsburgh, where I had the honor of meeting Claire and her fellow Voices for Change self-advocates. I learned it took Claire, who has a disability, five months to find an employer who would hire her, and she has been on a waiting...
Bruce Yandle: From the Boston Tea Party to today’s targeted tariffs: What happened?
For a nation with roots in a rambunctious 1773 Boston Tea Party protesting British tariffs, it’s odd to see both major-party White House contenders trying to outdo each other with promises of tariffs. We’ve come a long way from the first Independence Day, which was sparked by a fundamental notion...
Danny Tyree: Should a sense of humor be mandatory for fathers?
Some fathers are entirely too serious. They’re paranoid about their children finding out that they had their own youthful indiscretions and regrettable choices. (“I don’t make mistakes. You can ask any of your six stepmoms.”) My late father ’fessed up to his own errors in judgment, like when he was...
Kelly O’Connor: Here’s how states can optimize $50 billion in opioid settlement funds
Kudos to John Oliver and HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” for their coverage of the opioid crisis and the resultant settlement. Many states are struggling to use the settlement funds effectively, and some are already repeating the waste, fraud and abuse involving Big Tobacco settlement funds ($206 billion) in the 1990s....
Francis Wilkinson: GOP continues to wage war on mail-in votes in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, one of the paramount states of our mortal combat electoral system, voting by mail is legal. It’s also safe and readily administered and documented. As in other swing states won by Joe Biden, the 2020 election in Pennsylvania was scrutinized, adjudicated and relentlessly attacked. Despite months of partisan...
Counterpoint: Trump’s conviction is an important victory for the rule of law
Former President Donald Trump is a convicted felon. This is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting or former president has been found guilty of committing a crime. It’s a sobering milestone but a victory for accountability and the fundamental principle that, in our democracy, no one is...
Point: Trump verdicts make NYC ‘Venezuela-on-the-Hudson’
It’s hard to describe adequately what happened to Donald Trump in Venezuela-on-the-Hudson. Outrageous? A travesty of justice? A devastating blow to the sanctity of our justice system and its reputation for fairness and nonpartisanship? An American repetition of the Soviet show trials of the 1930s? It’s all of those things....
Talor Musil and Sean O’Leary: Appalachian Hydrogen Hub means more fracking pollution, false promises
The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, is sweeping through Pennsylvania with much the same fanfare as the fracking boom back in 2008. Once again, fossil-fuel companies like EQT and CNX are promising our region groundbreaking new ways to produce cleaner energy, supercharge job growth, and revolutionize the region’s economy. In...
Patrick Sable, Corinna Skorpenske and Amy Stuart: Harrisburg must fully and fairly fund our schools
Public school districts across Allegheny County are facing substantial challenges in continuing to maintain our high academic standards while addressing the many needs of our diverse student population. For example, in the South Park School District, special education costs have grown $7.1 million, while the district has only received $1.2...
Greg Fulton: Recognizing one last hero from D-Day
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” These are the first lines of a short message from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower...
Hal Brands: Putin’s shadow war against Europe is intensifying
Russian nationals have been arrested in Germany on charges of planning to attack military facilities. English prosecutors claim that Russian agents set fire to a warehouse containing aid for Ukraine. Sweden is investigating alleged Russian-sponsored acts of sabotage. The Czech government accuses Moscow of sabotaging its railways. Estonia, meanwhile, has...
Elizabeth Kopple: What volunteering as a poll worker taught me about politics
LOS ANGELES — When I used to complain about the divisiveness of American politics, my son, Henry, would often suggest I do something about it. Henry had been a poll worker during the 2020 elections, when he was 17. It was his first official job and he loved the experience....
Megan Zeigler: Help available to make schools safer, cooler
Like hundreds of local families, I have been left scrambling last month after finding out my child’s school — one of 39 in the city — would switch to remote learning due to extreme heat. Days with a dangerously high heat index are happening earlier and earlier, and so many...
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler: Bringing Bryan Hagerich home
Many in southwestern Pennsylvania were horrified by the recent gut-wrenching treatment of U.S. tourists in Turks and Caicos, including Somerset County resident Bryan Hagerich. His family’s vacation started out normally, but when he tried to leave the islands, their beach getaway suddenly turned into a nightmarish reality. As Hagerich describes,...
Danny Tyree: Ready for Pat Sajak’s final spin of the wheel?
June 7 will be a bittersweet day in TV history, as the final “Wheel of Fortune” hosted by Pat Sajak airs. Sajak announced his retirement plans a year ago, allowing himself time for a VICT_RY L_P, naming of a successor and cleaning all the spare bullion out of the sofa...
Lorraine Ali: The jury has spoken. What happens next will be a great test of American democracy
The verdict is in. Former President Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday of all 34 felony counts against him in the New York hush money case in connection with falsifying records around a payment made to silence porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Now the real test...
Dan DeBone: Reforming NOL provisions crucial for Pa.’s economic future
As Pennsylvania’s budget discussions and negotiations continue, there is an urgent issue that needs immediate attention: the state’s outdated and restrictive net operating loss (NOL) carryforward provisions. For too long, Pennsylvania has lagged behind the rest of the country in providing a fair and supportive tax environment for businesses, particularly...
Dennis Kelleher and Lisa Gilbert: Push to legalize gambling on US elections is dangerous
Free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy, face an unprecedented array of threats as the next one approaches. While some of these threats are well-known, others go largely unnoticed, with potentially serious consequences. Among the latter is a dangerous attempt to persuade one of our financial regulators to...
Steven Hill: Do high housing costs threaten the American dream?
Homeownership has long been a cornerstone of the American dream. I have 12 nieces and nephews, and as they reach young adulthood and try to establish their careers, they are daunted by the soaring cost of homeownership in a way their parents and grandparents never were. In 1960, about 68...
Max Hastings: Why we commemorate D-Day, 80 years later
The former Western allies will shortly begin commemorating the 80th anniversary of their greatest World War II achievement, the June 6 landings in Normandy, forever famed as D-Day. The pomp and circumstance of the grand events to be attended by President Joe Biden and other national leaders are entirely justified...
Commentary: Does it matter that Donald Trump just became a convicted criminal? Of course it does
It’s of course true that come Nov. 5, the nation’s voters could well decide to shrug off the historic guilty verdict that a Manhattan jury rendered against Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon. And that is the conclusion many have already reached about the seismic event that just took place in...
Gerard Scimeca: Administration’s approach to U.S. Steel undermines law, national security, innovation
It is no accident that the U.S. is a world leader in innovation. A major reason we hold this advantage over other nations and the European Union is due to many countries following the European model, which leans so heavily into regulation. But when it comes to the proposed merger...
Cal Thomas: A new depth of cynicism in Iran
Despite what some Iranian leaders say to the gullible West, denying their intention to build nuclear weapons, Tehran’s pursuit of weapons-grade fissile material and the development of ballistic missiles to potentially deliver a nuclear warhead continues unimpeded. Though it is obvious to anyone paying the least bit of attention, The...
Reps. Dan Frankel and Tarik Khan: The Jewish-Muslim connection
For decades, Jewish and Muslim Pennsylvanians have inched closer to one another. With each interfaith marriage officiated and each community event stage shared, connections between these two great faiths have multiplied and strengthened. Then came Oct. 7. Since that terrible day and the many terrible days after, our commonwealth’s Jews...
