Opinion category, Page 42
Editorial: NIH budget cuts are a setback for American science
White House budgets, generally speaking, aren’t serious governing documents. Even so, they’re a declaration of national priorities — and by that measure, the latest blueprint is deeply troubling. What sort of administration aspires to shrink its budget for scientific discovery by 40%? Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy...
Letter to the editor: Lessons for America as we approach 250 years
The concept of entropy refers to the tendency toward increasing disorder over time in the dispersal of energy. Entropy applies to political entities, such as empires, as well as to the physical world. Although Americans may not think of our country as an empire, much of the world does. According...
Editorial cartoons for the week of July 28
Editorial cartoons for the week of July 28....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of July 28
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of July 28....
Letter to the editor: Protect our forests
In one of the most remote yet beautiful areas of Pennsylvania lies Allegheny National Forest, home to several endangered species as well as the Eastern hellbender salamander — our state amphibian, whose population also is threatened. In 2025, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced plans to roll back the Roadless...
Editorial: Should Washington County DA be second-guessed on death penalty cases?
The world of fiction makes it seem like the death penalty is a simple, almost foregone conclusion in a courthouse. It isn’t, at least not in Pennsylvania. The Keystone State has a complicated relationship with capital punishment. Much like with a federal death penalty case, it is a multistep process...
Letter to the editor: Government policies power our inequality
Our income and wealth inequality are a significant concern for Americans, and rightly so, because the United States is the most unequal high-GDP economy in the world. And the situation is worsening: The top 20% own 86% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 80% own 14%. Our government’s policies...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cruelty the theme of Trump administration
The signs were there back in November 2015 when candidate Donald Trump mocked a physically disabled reporter from the podium at one his rallies. Cruelty was being acted out on the main stage in American politics. New York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has limited use of his arms, debunked...
Heather Visnesky: Pa. families need paid leave
As the community engagement manager for MomsWork, Powered by NCJW Pittsburgh, I have met hundreds of working mothers in all stages of motherhood: first-time mothers, moms of toddlers and school-aged children, and mothers of teens and young adults. One thing many of them have in common is the experience of...
Destenie Nock: Who pays the price for new data centers?
Amazon plans to spend $20 billion building data campuses in Pennsylvania. Similar proposals are emerging across the state, from the sites of the old Cheswick and Homer City power plants to the Alcoa campus in Upper Burrell. To many, these announcements signal economic growth and innovation. But as an energy...
Joe Morinville: AI, crypto and Pa.’s war on the little guy
Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency may be the shiny new frontier of technology, but behind the hype lies a brutal truth: they are devouring electricity, straining Pennsylvania’s grid and driving up costs for everyone else. And thanks to PJM’s policies, it’s the smallest consumers — the homeowners, the corner bakeries, the...
Letter to the editor: Did you vote for stopping the pollution fight?
Regarding the letter “My choice — Trump” (July 11, TribLive): When you voted for Donald Trump and Dave McCormick and Guy Reschenthaler, did you know you were voting to: “Repeal funding to Address Air Pollution at Schools” and to “Repeal EPA Rules Relating to Multi-pollutant Emissions Standards.” These are in...
Letter to the editor: A critical decision on prisoner leg restraints
Voters need to be aware of a serious matter regarding emergency rooms and the need to provide security. There have been three critical incidents this year where an individual from the Allegheny County Jail has attempted to escape and had to be tackled on a hospital floor in the presence...
Editorial: Canceled town halls, shrugged-off support staff disrespect value of Pittsburgh VA
The Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Health System is dealing with deep losses to its workforce. In an exclusive interview with TribLive, Pittsburgh VA director Donald Koenig spoke about the reductions. Since January, 238 employees have been lost. Another 87 will be gone by the end of the year. There are 151...
Letter to the editor: Reasons to release Epstein list
First Jeffrey Epstein’s client list was on the Attorney General Pam Bondi’s desk for review. Then it became Jeffrey who? The question is, who is being protecting? There is no reason to doubt that President Trump is on the list. Just about everyone in the world has seen the video...
Letter to the editor: Pirates need to find better work ethic
Pittsburgh is an exceptional, hard-working town. We work shifts and overtime; we are known as the highest coffee consumers to get us through those long, late hours, a variety of jobs, a spectrum of skills. People show up and stay until relieved. I think the Pirates’ ownership, management, coaches and...
S.E. Cupp: We are obsessed with Coldplay’s kiss cam couple
By now, you’ve definitely seen it — the viral video of Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot in the canoodle heard ’round the world. The two were at a Coldplay concert outside Boston, and they were caught on the jumbotron kiss cam at the exact worst moment, with their arms wrapped...
Claudia Sahm: Grow the economy? Not with these immigration restrictions
According to the White House and congressional Republicans, the new budget law will spark economic growth of more than 3%. Reaching that goal, however, will be made far more difficult by a provision they see as central to the law: the $150 billion-plus it adds to immigration enforcement. The administration’s...
Luke Bernstein: Ward helped save U.S. Steel — and Pa. is stronger for it
It is impossible to overstate the stakes in the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal: thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in investment and the future of an iconic industry in Pennsylvania. And while many leaders played a role in securing the deal, one state official stepped up early and never backed down:...
Letter to the editor: RIP Ozzy, a musical god
Heard the news of Ozzy (Osbourne)’s passing with a heavy heart. I’ve been a huge fan since the ’60s, as were millions of others over the years. Never be another like him. The song “American Pie” is about “the day the music died” about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie...
Letter to the editor: America’s quagmire
In 1981, CIA Director William Casey is quoted as saying, “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” In many ways this quote sums up what I believe is the modus operandi (mode of operating) of our government. With this in mind, I...
Lori Falce: The difference between debate and argument
Put your hands up! You’re “Surrounded.” No, you aren’t a bank robber being confronted on all sides by police. In this case, you would be on a YouTube video by Jubilee Media, a content producer with 10.2 million subscribers. “Surrounded” is a series that debuted in the lead-up to the...
Laurels & lances: Fire & food
Laurel: To making progress. Four Hempfield fire departments are moving ahead with dissolving their charters. The good thing here is not that they are going away. It is that they are finding a way to continue to serve their communities. By dissolving as individual chartered entities, the departments will move...
Letter to the editor: Donald Trump’s life’s work
A well-known “urban myth” posits that a thousand chimpanzees pounding away on a thousand typewriters would eventually create the complete works of Shakespeare. Never believed that one, but Prez 45/47 has convinced me that one human with 98.8% of a chimp’s DNA (as we all do), one black Sharpie and...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s Downtown office malaise continues
Pittsburgh’s central business district (CBD) office vacancy rate in 2025’s first quarter held its own when compared with eight other U.S. cities, a new analysis shows. But that’s not necessarily much cause for cheer, says a scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Indeed, in the first quarter of...
