Featured Commentary category, Page 38

There will be only one winner in the war that has broken out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. And it is neither Israel nor Hamas. In an operation coined “the Al-Aqsa Storm,” Hamas, whose formal name is the Islamic Resistance Movement, fired thousands of rockets into Israel...

If you’ve heard the word Kiski, it’s usually followed by the word “Area,” or if you’re lucky enough to have spent some time in a kayak or a canoe, perhaps you know it as the lovely river that starts in Saltsburg where the Conemaugh and the Loyalhanna join to run...

It’s nearly impossible to have a conversation about inflation without mentioning food prices. And no wonder, as they are up 24% since the start of the pandemic and account for one-sixth of the increase in consumer prices overall. After the recent monetary policy meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said...

It’s no secret that Congress is not held in high esteem by the American people. Much of the blame for dysfunction in Washington, and our system of government, is directed at so-called “special interest groups.” About 70% of Americans polled in a national survey said that “Congress works for the...

OK, my fellow Republicans, you got rid of Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Eight of you joined with every Democrat in the House of Representatives — the only part of the federal government we control — to vote McCarthy out, 216-210. In the process you threw the House into chaos, killed any...

When 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped by a stranger from her Northern California home on Oct. 1, 1993, the efforts to find her drew worldwide attention. When Polly’s body was found 64 nights after her abduction, the outpouring of grief in her hometown and beyond was overwhelming. Why had Polly’s...

What should we make of Donald Trump’s surprising recent decision not to try moving Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against him to federal court? Most observers, including me, had anticipated that Trump would attempt to get the case out of the Georgia court, and not simply because it’s...

The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will go to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discovery that modifying mRNA — a form of genetic material your body uses to produce proteins — could reduce unwanted inflammatory responses and allow it to be delivered into cells. While the...

Thirty years after the infamous Battle of Mogadishu, the U.S. military is still conducting operations in Somalia. Popularized in the U.S. by the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down,” the Battle of Mogadishu occurred on Oct. 3, 1993, and saw the downing of two U.S. helicopters and the deaths of 18...

“It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man.” — Calvin Coolidge Donald Trump is not a great man. His rhetoric, which has included denunciations of those who have served in...

International trade will be a key issue in the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign. Sadly, both the Republican and Democratic parties are taking positions on trade that will leave Americans in a perilous situation. I doubt anyone would view GOP promises to cut or reform taxes as credible avenues to lowering...

In early July, a vote to fund the public missions of Penn State and our fellow state-related universities ended in a stalemate, falling six votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the Pennsylvania House. Nearly three months later, this funding for our Pennsylvania students remains unresolved, despite the...

The phrase “Climate change denier” has wormed its way into the modern lexicon to shame those who have a different view of the science supporting, or not, the idea that the world is in danger of burning up in weeks, months, or years (they can’t seem to decide on the...

The Friday night high school football game. Notice of a city council meeting where higher property taxes will be discussed. News of an impending county commissioner election and plans for a Veterans Day parade, the opening of a downtown cafe and the retirement of a beloved police officer. These are...

We will remember the summer of 2023 as our hottest season on record — at least until next year. Communities in Texas and Florida endured weekslong stretches of record-setting high temperatures, and Phoenix beat its own previous record when it reached an average monthly temperature of 102.7 in July. For...

The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law a year ago is helping companies like ours invest in communities, while also protecting the environment and saving consumers money. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping bring back made-in-America manufacturing, with construction spending for manufacturing reaching its highest level in 60 years. Over...

Those of us who work in academia understand that academic freedom represents the cornerstone of successful colleges and universities. It epitomizes the right of freedom to teach, discuss, engage in research and freely publish your findings. It also means the ability to dictate one’s own teaching and scholarship agenda, the...

The op-ed “Environmental priorities for Allegheny County executive’s first 100 days” (Sept. 25, TribLIVE) by environmental activist Ashleigh Deemer, deputy director of PennEnvironment, contained a great deal of misinformation and bias. The Allegheny Health Department (AHCD) has made tremendous strides in air quality during the last decade. The next county...

The recent class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, led by the Authors Guild and a group of authors, is a watershed moment for the AI industry. It raises critical questions about ethics, intellectual property and the future of machine learning technologies like Chat GPT. As someone who has spent years in the...

With great fanfare, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that the commonwealth will begin implementing automatic voter registration. Automatic voter registration means that when Pennsylvanians get driver’s licenses or state-issued government IDs they will automatically be registered to vote unless they opt out. Currently, people opt in to register to vote....

San Francisco, one of America’s most iconic cities, is in decay. Smash-and-grab robberies and open shoplifting have forced businesses to close, law enforcement has tied hands, and urine, feces and the used syringes of zombie drug addicts litter the streets. Yet one of the leaders of the decline, former House...

Our nation faced only two presidential impeachments during its first 222 years. Suddenly, in 2021, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time, and now we’re facing a third impeachment in four short years. This flurry of impeachment activity requires us to ask: Is President Joe Biden facing impeachment...

The impeachment inquiry House Republicans have launched against President Joe Biden is a transparent, shameless and embarrassingly weak attempt at political retribution. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has launched the probe not because it has merit but because the most extreme members of his party demanded it to damage Biden’s reelection...

When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970s and ’80s, the region’s rich industrial heritage was a point of local pride and known the world over. Many of the men and women working on the shop floors in and around Pittsburgh were your quintessential Nixon and Reagan...

A much-vaunted agreement to spend $200 million of public money to upgrade a Pennsylvania rail line — ostensibly to facilitate the expansion of Amtrak passenger rail service between Pittsburgh and New York City — sounds like a great deal. For the Norfolk Southern Railway, that is. But it’s a raw...