Letter to the editor: Immigrants should respect our flag
While watching the news on television, I see immigrants in this country waving flags of the countries they fled from and burning the flag of the country that they wanted to come to. Either go back where you came from or respect our flag. Bill Radvansky New Kensington...
Letter to the editor: Leaders should confront public education problems
Regarding the editorial “School funding, charter oversight are state-created problems” (Nov. 30, TribLive): For more than a decade, the debate over public cyber charter schools has been framed as an educational issue. In reality, it has always been about money, driven by school districts and state leaders who would rather...
Lori Falce: What is a war crime?
The history of war is the history of humankind, and it is a lengthy timeline of the most brutal savagery people can visit upon each other. It is a terrible storybook of blood and fire and pain. Armies took land by killing everyone who lived on it, ensuring no retaliation....
Laurels & lances: Contracts & consequences
Laurel: To getting things done. When it comes to labor contracts, we have all become accustomed to hearing things come down to the wire — or beyond. How many union and employer deals can go months or even years without resolution while things hang in limbo or head into strike...
Letter to the editor: Let’s rename the White House
Demolishing its East Wing prompts me to propose renaming the White House. I suggest Chat-Pala-Cas (Chateau-Palace-Castle). Picture a moat, drawbridge, towers and turrets. Imagine a courtyard with a medieval-style scaffold for beheadings and public hangings of the king’s enemies. Grandstand? (Tickets @ trumpstore.com) Expect a throne in one corner of...
Paul Kengor: The Pa. Lottery’s dubious Christmas gift
Residents of Pennsylvania, your government is at it again. ‘Tis the season. It’s Christmas time, and that means your government is again using your money to promote a scheme that gives false hope. It’s engaging yet again in its seasonal scheme to take money from millions without giving them anything...
Dr. Debra Bogen and Dr. Val Arkoosh: Protect Pa. children from hepatitis B infection
This week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines for all Americans, will discuss whether to change its recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine. Their vote could negatively affect the health of children and families...
Letter to the editor: Steelers need to follow Lambert’s lead
What has happened to the Steelers? They have morphed into a group of listless, lifeless, overpaid underachievers who don’t seem to care a bit about the total embarrassments they now are. So how about bringing in Jack Lambert? He epitomized everything great about the old Steelers dynasties. Although he was...
Letter to the editor: Standing up for FDR’s freedoms
FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech outlined his vision for a world in which all people have the essential freedoms of speech, worship, want and fear. Over 80 years later, we are still struggling to achieve those goals. In our country today, with ICE thugs terrorizing even children and peaceful protesters, and...
Editorial: Could AI be the new Twinkie defense?
People accused of crimes have laid the blame at a variety of doorsteps to excuse — or at least explain — what happened. John Hinckley Jr. said it was the movie “Taxi Driver” and his obsession with a young Jodie Foster that prompted his assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in...
Letter to the editor: Data center destruction
I was disappointed to read the article “Springdale Planning Commission OKs data center project; proposal moves to council” (Nov. 17, TribLive). We in Southwestern Pennsylvania understand the consequences of companies depleting our resources, offering false promises of jobs and tax revenue and leaving us with increased pollution that harms our...
Jonah Goldberg: You can’t hide from war crimes by calling them ‘fake news’
Since September of this year, the United States military has been blowing up boats allegedly trafficking drugs in the Caribbean. Whether these attacks are legal is hotly debated. Congress hasn’t declared war or even authorized the use of force against “narco-terrorists” or against Venezuela, the apparent real target of a...
Panini A. Chowdhury: Rural Pa.’s data center mirage
Rural Appalachian communities in Pennsylvania know the feeling of being promised the world and left with the bill. For generations, coal powered the region’s economy. But when demand collapsed, so did entire towns. More than 33,000 mining jobs have vanished in Appalachia since 2011, leaving behind shuttered plants, hollowed-out tax...
Allison Schrager: AI is more likely to cause a labor shortage. Here’s why.
There are two big worries when it comes to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence. The first is that it will lead to
robot overlords that will eradicate humanity. The second is that AI will eliminate many jobs. The more likely scenario is that it creates a labor shortage, or...
Letter to the editor: Questions about new Hempfield fire station
I’m shocked and thoroughly amazed at the Hempfield Township supervisors’ decision to purchase land to rebuild a fire station that will be farther from the areas most affected by emergencies requiring help, without the fire stations’ input (“Hempfield supervisors buy land for new fire station despite response time warnings,” Nov....
Letter to the editor: Who cried for the children of Gaza?
Did Benjamin Netanyahu cry when he terrorized, scapegoated and denied an entire people a homeland? Or is he so self-righteous that he forgot his own people have been terrorized, scapegoated and denied a homeland for centuries? Did Donald Trump cry as children’s skulls were being pulverized into the coastal sands?...
Editorial: A budget failure doesn’t earn a pay raise
For most people, getting a raise is not a given. It is also a process. You have a performance evaluation. Your whole scope of work over the last year is reviewed. Did you meet expectations? Did you exceed them? What were your strengths? Did you work well with your team?...
Letter to the editor: The real Christmas story
No one in the history of the world ever had to travel to the place of his birth to pay taxes. The concept is not only preposterous, it is just stupid. In my opinion, the Bethlehem story was fabricated to comply with Old Testament prophesy in regards to the Jewish...
Ronald Brownstein: The GOP tried loyalty, then rebellion. Both failed.
For Republicans, November was bookended by two ominous developments: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation and the party’s resounding defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. The Republican candidates in those races — Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia — tried one strategy for dealing...
Kenny Stein: Future of AI in Pa. begins with regulatory reform
Artificial intelligence and data centers are the hottest investment topics at the moment, reminiscent of the Amazon headquarters sweepstakes of the past. This time, increased energy demand, combined with flexibility in location, means that almost any part of the country where the energy supply is abundant is a potential data...
Tim Wesley: If the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet!
Given the recent sports-betting and gambling scandals, this seems like a relevant question: If we knew the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet we would. And we would probably still bet on it, too. It’s our nature. It’s entertainment, and we can’t resist. Examples abound, including Hollywood...
Letter to the editor: Pollard, Huckabee should be tried for sedition
According to news reports Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who is an ordained evangelist minister, cordially welcomed Jonathon Pollard to the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. For those with short memories Pollard was condemned in 1986 by U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger as a traitor and spy for Israel whose...
Letter to the editor: Not impressed with new airport terminal
My first visit to the new Pittsburgh Airport terminal was to pick up my daughter. Her plane landed shortly before midnight on Nov. 25. I was in the wait lot until she texted that she was in the departure area. Signage to get from the wait lot to the terminal...
Letter to the editor: What has happened to us?
So many questions, so few answers! Why does ICE continue to go after innocent people? Why are we fighting each other at the highest levels of government? What is in the Epstein files? Why have we built an invisible wall between the left and right? How can a religious person...
Editorial: Fire hydrants are critical infrastructure
A fire hydrant is part of the landscape, something your eye may just slide past. Like a light post or mailbox, it is expected to be just off the curb of a street. That makes them easy to ignore or to forget — unless, of course, you need one. But...
