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Featured Commentary category, Page 55

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Peter Morici: WTO no longer serves U.S. foreign-policy interests
The World Trade Organization no longer serves U.S. foreign policy interests. The U.S. and its allies established the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to limit tariffs and quantitative restrictions and to promote trade in goods. Rechristened the WTO in 1995, agreements were added to cover trade in services and...
Guy Ciarrocchi: Pa. Republicans must solve the suburban puzzle
Political pundits rate Pennsylvania among the swing states. Reviewing the Keystone map, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are overwhelmingly Democratic strongholds. Rural Pennsylvania — what political pundits call the “T” — has always been Republican and now has gone super-red. So, the critical battle concerns Philadelphia’s suburbs, with about 22% of the...
Elwood Watson: Tyre Nichols’ death shows how racism even impacts Black officers
The death of Black people at the hands of law enforcement has become so commonplace that it’s easy to feel both outraged and psychologically numb. Over the past few decades from Rodney King to George Floyd, we have become front-row spectators to grainy and, in some cases, graphic footage of...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Can Chat GPT3 make Pa. a red state?
In the past three weeks, policymakers had their worlds rocked by generative artificial intelligence. The problem is that they don’t know it — yet. First, a team of researchers demonstrated that Open AI’s Chat GPT3 can pass the stringent United States Medical Licensing Exam. Days later, Chat GPT 3 passed...
Colleen Hronich: Pa. celebrates Catholic Schools Week
I still remember celebrating Catholic Schools Week in my elementary school. We had a grandparents’ breakfast, special dress-up days, an open house where we showed off special projects for our families and a school night at the roller-skating rink. It was a special time and helped us appreciate how lucky...
Jordan Clark: Graham Spanier’s so-called ‘rush to judgment’
“A scheduled on-campus appearance by former Penn State President Graham Spanier was canceled Wednesday after the university canceled classes and some school activities because of wintry weather. Spanier had planned to promote his book, ‘In the Lion’s Den: The Penn State Scandal and a Rush to Judgment,’ in an appearance...
Cal Thomas: Inhumanity in Memphis
No adjective is sufficient to describe the reaction one gets from watching five Memphis police officers beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to within an inch of his life. He later died of his injuries in a local hospital. “Inhumane” and “senseless” are as close as it comes. While Nichols was accused...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Debt ceiling showdown is probably not what Congress imagined in 1917
It began as a way to make it easier for the federal government to sell bonds to finance the U.S. role in World War I. Now, more than a century later, the requirement for a legal ceiling on the federal debt has become something totally different: a political time bomb...
Michael Reagan: Biden’s lost docs and losing war
It’s a stretch, but I think I know the real reason the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago. We’ve been told for months that the DOJ ordered a search of Donald Trump’s home in Florida because he was not turning over a bunch of classified documents to the National Archives fast enough. Supposedly,...
Viewpoint 1: Bipartisanship is alive and well, but that’s not necessarily a good thing
Old habits die hard, as the saying goes. But myths and legends do, too, as Hunter S. Thompson famously said. When it comes to government, there is one idea that endures despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is that bipartisanship is inherently good but essentially dead in our polarized...
Viewpoint 2: Is bipartisanship good? That depends
Bipartisanship is the solution to some problems, but it also helped create them. On the one hand, if you are a classical liberal with a strong preference for fiscal responsibility, bipartisanship generally gets you nowhere. Big Capitol Hill deals mean big spending. On the other hand, the only path to...
Jerald McNair: When a 6-year-old is accused of shooting his teacher, it’s time for a paradigm shift
Six-year-old children should be learning to read, identify new words by matching letters to sounds, count to 100, and do basic addition and subtraction. But now we have a 6-year-old who allegedly shot his teacher in Newport News, Va. Unfortunately, school shootings are not uncommon. There have been more than...
Phil Kerpen: Biden’s 2nd student loan bailout scheme is even worse
President Joe Biden isn’t waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on his last $400 billion student loan bailout before rolling out another, even more costly plan. (Oral arguments on the first one are scheduled for Feb. 28; it’s been blocked by lower courts for now). Biden’s new plan to...
Paul Muschick: Pa. House closed for business, but lawmakers still getting paid. Here’s how much gridlock costing taxpayers.
If you couldn’t perform all of your duties, would your boss still pay your full salary? We all know the answer. In the real world, you get paid based on what you can accomplish. In the world of Pennsylvania politics, you get paid regardless of how little you may do....
Presley Gillespie: Equity and inclusion in action in Pittsburgh
Equity and inclusion are ongoing efforts that are integral to organizational success. They are not one-off activities or training. They are not afterthoughts or buzzwords. They are more than simply showing up or involving everyone. Equity and inclusion are forging more robust connections and cultivating a greater sense of belonging...
Joe Guzzardi: Interior Department’s misguided ‘restoring America’ program 
A week after Joe Biden became president, he signed Executive Order 14008, which announced his commitment to protect 30% of U.S. land and water — 41.5 million acres per year — by 2030. On May 6, 2021, the Department of the Interior published “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful,” a...
Daniel Eichinger: When the DA’s office fails to fulfill its gatekeeping role
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is in desperate need of an overhaul. As a public defender in Allegheny County for over 10 years — including several years managing and leading the office’s Trial Division — I witnessed the many systemic failures that plague the criminal justice system. One such...
Elwood Watson: DeSantis goes after Black history
In his ongoing attacks on what he describes as “woke politics,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has denied permission for an advanced placement African American history course to be taught in Florida public high schools. NAACP Director Ivory Toldson condemned the course’s rejection, calling DeSantis’ decision a “dereliction of his duty...
Cal Thomas: A surprise resignation in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Like Halley’s Comet that only comes around every 75 years, the resignation of a top politician from office is a rare occurrence. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has quit and not for the usual reasons of scandal or the all-purpose excuse “to spend more time...
Gordon Tomb: In Pa., will Shapiro unlock decades of affordable energy?
With Democrat Josh Shapiro as a newly inaugurated governor and a new legislative body, Pennsylvania will either shine as an energy superstar or continue down the dim path of economic decline. The commonwealth is a national leader in energy production despite being stifled by onerous regulations, market-distorting subsidies and an...
Christopher Barnard: Bureaucratic red tape blocking a U.S. nuclear renaissance
The nuclear energy community was abuzz with news of a nuclear fusion breakthrough at the end of last year. Yet, while fusion innovation offers the promise of a bright future, there’s a more pertinent issue facing the industry today: an antiquated regulatory environment that’s stifling clean nuclear energy development. The...
Nathan Benefield and Andrew Holman: Pa. lawmakers can reverse population exodus
New data from the Census Bureau reveal that residents are fleeing Pennsylvania at an alarming rate. Pennsylvania lost nearly 40,000 residents to other states from July 2021 to July 2022. Only seven states lost more residents to domestic outmigration during that period. And, with 23,000 more deaths than births, Pennsylvania’s...
Thomas Hogan: The danger of living in U.S. cities for young men
In the Dark Ages of criminal justice in the United States — the 1980s and earlier — it was not uncommon for a judge to give a convicted criminal a choice: go to jail, or enlist in the armed services. Such a choice was rightfully deemed unjust. But two recent...
Michael Reagan: Al Gore’s global warming meltdown
Is Davos over yet? Is it safe to turn on our TVs without being scolded by formerly important environmentalists like old Al Gore or creepy young climate warriors like Greta Thunberg? All the virtuous public talk about stopping climate change, saving the planet and putting the dirty fossil-fuel industry out...
Sarah Webber: Santos allegations highlight how scams divert money from worthy causes
Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican whose 2022 election to the House of Representatives flipped a seat previously held by a Democrat, faces pressure to resign for having reportedly lied extensively about his education, employment history and religious heritage. He also faces allegations that he may have participated in...


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