Featured Commentary category, Page 48
Matthew Yglesias: Don’t let Trump and Biden abandon the debates
One of the few bipartisan traditions left in American politics is hating on the presidential debates. They’re never substantive enough, the moderators always intervene too much or too little and they have little effect on voters. Who needs ’em? So reports that President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are contemplating...
Dave Anderson: Time to drop the term ‘moderates’
If you held a conference for moderates — inviting federal politicians and citizens — it is unclear who would attend. In Washington, moderates tend to be House members, senators, the president or vice president, or Cabinet officials who belong to either the Democratic or Republican party. One is therefore a...
Bruce Ledewitz: Why can’t we have open immigration?
The crisis at the southern border is caused by bad laws. We could cure the problem by returning to an older American tradition — structured open immigration. Not an open border. Whatever the law is, it must be enforced. It is not acceptable that our current laws are ambiguous and...
Elwood Watson: Miss America is only human
In news you might have missed, 22-year old Madison Marsh – a second lieutenant in the Air Force and master’s student at the Harvard Kennedy School’s public policy program – was crowned Miss America in Orlando, Fla., Jan. 14. Marsh, representing the state of Colorado, is the first active-duty Air...
Jennifer Apicella: Robots built in Pittsburgh changing the world
In the heart of Southwestern Pennsylvania, a robotics revolution is unfolding. Examples of paradigm-shattering robotics and automation companies fill our neighborhoods. Some, like Astrobotic, pull the national spotlight by launching a historic mission to the moon. Inside Aurora, teams are creating autonomous vehicle solutions that are radically changing the trucking...
Peter Morici: 2024 election is a referendum on the Biden presidency
Progressives around the world are worried. Right-wing populists have won national elections in the Netherlands and Italy and enjoy rising strength in Germany. In the United States, despite indictments on 91 counts in three states and Washington, D.C., former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in the 2024 election...
Ellen Duffield: Pa. can ensure a healthy economy by investing in worker education
The health care sector has experienced extraordinary stressors over the past few years, including staffing shortages. Research indicates these shortages will worsen in 2024 and beyond. One 2021 study projects more than 6 million lower-wage health care professionals in the United States will permanently leave their positions by 2026, while...
Seth Lavin: I bought a flip phone and tried to get by without my smartphone. Here’s how that went.
About three months ago, I bought a flip phone and turned off my smartphone for good. I am part of a trend — interest in old-fashioned flip phones is up — but I don’t feel trendy. When I flip my phone open in a hallway of the middle school where...
Jackie Calmes: Why 2024 may not be the worst political year ever
The 2028 presidential campaign can’t come soon enough. Just think: Fresh faces, furrowed by fewer lines. Fresh ideas, not of the authoritarian, willfully divisive kind (we can hope). Fresh blood, and without triggering Hitlerian talk of “poisoning” our nation. A new contest, not a rematch of two unpopular geriatric retreads....
POINT: Housing alone cannot solve homelessness
In March 2021, San Francisco’s Mission Hotel held a joint funeral service for seven residents. The hotel is one of the sites leased by the city to house the unsheltered population, and resident deaths have become so frequent in these facilities that joint memorials have become the norm. Although the...
Counterpoint: Housing is a human right, not a privilege
Homelessness in the United States surged by a record 12% between January 2022 and January 2023, according to a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the world’s wealthiest nation, how does this happen, and what can be done to remedy it? The primary reason people are...
Gary Franks: Haley must tell us why she’s better than Trump
The Republican establishment is with former President Donald Trump. Nearly every Republican elected official in Washington is rushing to kiss his ring. Yes, the same guys and gals who have played a role in getting us into this mess want to have the sole person who, along with President Joe...
Lisa Jarvis: A promising turn in the quest to treat long covid
A new study published this month in Science makes a compelling case that people with long covid have a chronic imbalance in their immune response. The findings don’t explain why that immune response is out of whack and needs confirming in larger studies. Still, this is important new piece to...
Sen. Dave Argall: Cracking down on thieves and looters in Pa.
Retailers across the nation are under siege, with some struggling to stay afloat amid a rising tide of crime. Many of us take for granted the ease with which we can walk into a store and buy the simple items we need to go about our daily lives — a...
Sara Harmouch and Nakissa Jahanbani: How much influence does Iran have over its proxy ‘Axis of Resistance’ — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis?
From attacks by rebels in the Red Sea to raids in northern Israel and the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas, Western analysts have pointed a finger of blame toward Iran. Regardless of how involved Tehran is directly in the planning and carrying out of such incidents, the accusations get at...
Jonah Goldberg: Vague laws hand extreme power to courts and bureaucrats. Where’s Congress?
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in a case about fishing boats, and it could spell the end of government as we know it. I hope it does. The legal questions might not be all that fascinating. What is fascinating, however, is how the legal issues help explain...
Edward Timmons: Cutting red tape will help nurse practitioners fill gaps in care in Pa.
Long wait times and long commutes to get access to health care have become commonplace in Western Pennsylvania . I always hesitated to cancel an appointment when I lived in Pennsylvania. I knew it was likely I would need to wait several more weeks or months to get rescheduled. Fortunately,...
Charles R. Hunt: Why New Hampshire and Iowa don’t make sense as opening rounds of presidential campaigns
Iowa and New Hampshire have long been the first states to hold presidential contests in election years. But should they go first? As a political scientist who studies Congress and elections, I know this largely unquestioned influence of the two states raises serious concerns around fairness, diversity and political representation....
Luke Bernstein: Private companies help keep Pa.’s water safe
Pennsylvania faces a pivotal moment in securing clean, safe and reliable drinking water and wastewater services. Communities across our commonwealth contain pipes that have far outlived their normal service life. Many still contain lead, a known hazard, especially for children. And while many local governments have done a fine job...
Guy Ciarrocchi: Have suburban Pa. voters finally had enough?
Then they came for William Penn. The woke culture that already has targeted George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln has more recently come after William Penn, founder of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which he established to foster religious tolerance. Before their plan was derailed by a public outcry, cancel-culture...
Matthew Brouillette: Shapiro’s duck-and-dodge 1st year
In the 2004 sports comedy, “Dodgeball,” we learned the five Ds of that sport: “Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and … dodge.” In his first year in office, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has perfected these five Ds. Campaigning for governor in 2022, Shapiro said that he’d take on big fights and...
Lee Ann Rawlins Williams: Students do better and schools are more stable when teachers get mental health support
When it comes to mental health at school, typically the focus is on helping students, especially as they emerge from the pandemic with heightened levels of anxiety, stress and emotional need. But as school officials seek to put resources toward student well-being, another school population is possibly being overlooked: teachers....
Ivor Ichikowitz : South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is rank hypocrisy
South Africa made history when it took Israel to the International Court of Justice — the United Nations’ highest court — and accused it of waging genocide against Palestinians while asking the court to order an immediate cease-fire. It might turn out to be the worst decision the country has...
Cal Thomas: Why Trump prevails
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News Monday night as Iowa voters caucused and delivered a decisive victory for Donald Trump in his quest to win the Republican presidential nomination and a second term as president. Gingrich joyfully predicted that Trump would not only win the...
Lisa Jarvis: Measles outbreak should be a vaccine wake-up call
A cluster of measles cases in the Northeast is putting a spotlight on how easily the highly contagious disease can spread — and how dangerous any further slip in childhood vaccination rates could be. Infants and toddlers not old enough to have been fully protected through vaccination are vulnerable to...
