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Featured Commentary category, Page 58

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Aubrey Kirchhoff: What we should and should not do about kids and social media
Chances are if you’ve read the news in the past year you’ve seen a headline like these: It’s time to go nuclear. Mark Zuckerberg is choosing profit over children. We need to ban kids from social media … . And who could disagree with them? After all, you must be...
Theodore J. Kury: What social media regulation could look like — think of pipelines, not utilities
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, and his controversial statements and decisions as its owner, have fueled a new wave of calls for regulating social media companies. Elected officials and policy scholars have argued for years that companies like Twitter and Facebook — now Meta — have immense power over public...
Elwood Watson: Right-wing media’s reaction to Griner’s release telling
It sure didn’t take long for right-wing media figures to criticize the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner was released Dec. 8 by the Russian government as part of a negotiated prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the merchant of death.” Since the deal was made...
Marie DeMarco: Speaking up for cleaner air
As a health educator in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I’ve seen firsthand just how harmful methane pollution from the oil and gas industry can be to our health. That’s why I am relieved that the Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new federal safeguards to curb methane pollution from...
Carolyn Kuranz: Why fusion ignition is being hailed as major breakthrough in fusion
American scientists have announced what they have called a major breakthrough in a long-elusive goal of creating energy from nuclear fusion. The U.S. Department of Energy said Dec. 13 that for the first time — and after several decades of trying — scientists have managed to get more energy out...
Jarrod Hayes: A tortured and deadly legacy — Kissinger and realpolitik in US foreign policy
In 2023, Henry Kissinger will mark a century since his birth and more than 50 years of influence on American foreign policy. Kissinger’s centennial represents an important opportunity to reflect on not only his influence, but also the effects of the vision of foreign policy he has espoused. When Kissinger...
Tim Hartman: The joy and agony of a mall Santa
I used to be a mall Santa. From the ages of 17 to 27, I dressed up as a hairy, overweight elf to bring joy to children throughout the Pittsburgh area. It was good honest work. OK … it was honest work. For three to four hours a day, seven...
Ken Ho: Mpox, AIDS, covid-19 show challenges of targeting public health messaging without causing stigma
During infectious disease outbreaks, clinicians and public health officials are tasked with providing accurate guidance for the public on how to stay safe and protect themselves and their loved ones. However, sensationalized media coverage can distort how the public perceives new emerging infections, including where they come from and how...
D. Brian Blank: Fed hiked interest rates for the 7th time — so why are mortgage rates coming down?
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by half a percentage point Dec. 14 to a range of 4.25 to 4.5%, the seventh increase this year. So far in 2022, the Fed has lifted its benchmark short-term rate, which influences most other borrowing costs in the economy, by 4.25 percentage points...
Bruce Yandle: How tariffs are raising the cost of Christmas presents and more
This time of year, most inflation-weary Christmas shoppers — and perhaps even the inflation-fighting Fed — would welcome an end to our government’s effort to raise the prices of the goods we buy in high volume. In this year’s third quarter, the federal government collected tariffs on imported goods, putting...
Zach Kennedy: The Trump effect in Pa.
A blue wave drowned the Keystone State on Nov. 8, flipping contested state House and Senate districts, delivering every tossup congressional seat, and elevating Attorney General Josh Shapiro to the governor’s office in one of the largest statewide landslides in the country, complimented by a decisive win for Lt. Gov....
David Thornburgh: In Pa., independent voters take center stage
Living and working in Pennsylvania this past election cycle has been reminiscent of a 1985 Sally Field Oscar acceptance moment: “You like me. Right now, you like me.” With Florida now a deeper red, Pennsylvania looms as perhaps the most important swing state in the 2024 election. Native Pennsylvanians like...
Bert Spector: Trump Organization tax fraud convictions show downsides of private companies having no independent oversight or outside accountability
Donald Trump’s family business was found guilty of 17 counts of tax fraud and other financial crimes on Dec. 6 in a case prosecutors said displayed a “culture of fraud and deception” at the Trump Organization. Allen H. Weisselberg, the company’s former chief financial officer, had previously pleaded guilty to...
Randy Santucci and Dan Davila: Pa. Game Commission decisions leave hunters at the gate
The Pennsylvania Game Commission changed the most popular deer hunting weekend in 2019, moving the 60-plus-year Monday after Thanksgiving opening day to the Saturday prior. As Thanksgiving is the most traveled family holiday of the year, that created problems for hunters with family conflicts. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of hunters...
Patricia M. DeMarco: RECOMPETE can help heal Mon Valley, put Appalachians back to work
Our Appalachian riverfronts should be thriving centers of commerce, trade and recreation. But, instead, the region is scattered with facilities that were abandoned by industry. The sites lie on contaminated land, seeping waste into our waterways. Meanwhile, the population continues to decline in the Mon Valley. The families that stay...
COUNTERPOINT: Immigration detention system is driven by profits
President Joe Biden vowed to end the federal government’s use of private prisons on the campaign trail. His campaign platform further stated that “the federal government should not use private facilities for any detention, including detention of undocumented immigrants.” And in 2021, Biden stepped into office continuing to promise that...
POINT: Privately run immigration detention safe, cost-effective alternative
On his campaign website, then-candidate Joe Biden vowed to “end for-profit detention centers,” asserting tendentiously that “no business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence.” “For-profit” in this context is a pejorative used to describe privately run detention facilities, and such assertions elide many key facts —...
Liam Collins: Russian troops’ poor performance, low morale may worsen during winter of more discontent
With Russian troops digging trenches to prepare for an expected winter standoff, it would be easy to conclude that fighting will slow in Ukraine until after the ground thaws in the spring. But evidence from the Ukrainian battlefields point to a different trajectory. This war has demonstrated that only one...
Julie Reed: Cherokee Nation wants to send a delegate to the House — it’s an idea older than Congress itself
In 1835, the Cherokee Nation was promised a delegate in Congress as part of the same treaty — Treaty of New Echota — that led to the death of thousands on the Trail of Tears. Nearly 200 years later, the Cherokee are still fighting to make that promise a reality....
Peter Morici: The Fed should keep hiking rates, but talk about it less
Federal Reserve policy makers should not waver in their pursuit of 2% inflation but talk less about it. As measured year-over-year by the consumer price index, inflation slowed from 9.1% in June to 7.7% in October but the Fed faces tough challenges beyond the reach of monetary policy. Sanctions on...
Cal Thomas: Congressional lame duck quackery
There is little Republicans and Democrats in Congress agree on these days, but spending (and borrowing) money is as nonpartisan as it gets. House Democrats apparently have decided to leave their majority with a spending spree. They’ll do it the way they usually do. In a script familiar to an...
Jonathan Zimmerman: University rankings spur a revolt. What we need are more meaningful evaluations
In the beginning, God created the heavens, the Earth and American higher education. We lived in a bucolic state of nature until an evil serpent, U.S. News & World Report, tempted us to partake of the Tree of Knowledge — namely, college rankings. A fall from grace ensued. That’s what...
Liz Terwilliger: Power of listening can produce better candidates
Election Day is behind us, but as of this writing, the election is far from over. Races around the country remain contested, heading for a run-off or likely to wind up in the courts. I can say only one thing for certain about this election: A lot of voters are...
Ellen Glover: Congress can prevent more overdose deaths
We all want our homes to be filled with joy, comfort and the people we love the most during the holidays. But many of us will miss someone at the holiday table, because our country’s overdose crisis now touches almost every family and community. Overdoses took over 108,000 lives in...
David Osborne: Shapiro should follow Tennessee’s lead on dealing with unions
After contributing nearly $11 million to Governor-­elect Josh Shapiro’s campaign, executives of Pennsylvania’s biggest labor union will surely expect a return on their investment. But for Shapiro, fulfilling those expectations would be a grave mistake, as the incoming governor can learn by studying contrasting examples from Illinois and Tennessee. During...


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