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Featured Commentary category, Page 83

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Rep. Jessica Benham: It’s time to stop treating health care like a privilege
People from all walks of life are struggling to afford health care in this country. As it stands, many Pennsylvanians are forced to make impossible choices between accessing lifesaving prescription drugs or putting food on the table or paying rent. And seniors and people with disabilities are still denied vision,...
Geoffrey Pohanka: Clash of the titans, wind and coal
The headlines are clear: renewable energy is on the rise as a source of electricity for America and coal power is headed for the door. President Biden has set a goal 30,000MW of offshore wind by 2030, which is the equivalent of 2,500 12MW turbines, and this does not include...
Dr. Rosanne Granieri: Sexual harassment is not funny
Recently, we’ve all likely heard them. They are, unfortunately, the type of stories we’ve heard before. Television networks, magazines, online news sources and newspapers carried the details and subsequent fallout. Let’s start with alleged alleged escapades of Andrew Cuomo as New York governor. These stories finally ended with Cuomo’s departure...
J. Joseph Cullen: Best options for Pa.’s coal plant communities
Last week, a Pennsylvania State Senate Committee issued four pages of procedural objections about the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants in the state. While the bureaucratic issues raised will be sorted out by the regulatory process and/or the courts, the committee...
Aron Solomon: Full FDA vaccine approval and the law
On Monday morning, the FDA gave full approval to the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine. This is an even faster approval than Pfizer has hoped for, as the most optimistic date had been early September. Until now, all covid-19 vaccines have had only EUA (emergency use authorization). Full approval of even one...
Sen. Kim Ward: Retroactive window for victims is no quick fix
Recently, I have been the focus of a targeted media campaign calling for passage of legislation to allow a retroactive “window” for civil lawsuits for past claims of childhood sexual abuse. The campaign has a simple message: The only path to helping these victims is this legislation. As a legislator...
Gov. Mike DeWine: Moving Appalachia Ohio forward
The Appalachian region of Ohio is diverse in both its landscapes and people. The 32 Ohio counties that make up Appalachian Ohio have terrain perfect for hiking and biking, beautiful waterways for boating or fishing, and even sandy beaches on our northern coast in Ashtabula. My wife Fran and I...
Amy Zimmerman: ‘Imposter syndrome’ at work
What would you do if as an employer, you learned that some of your most trusted and high-performing workers lived many of their days in great distress? How would you react if you found out that these seemingly happy and productive people perceived themselves as fraudsters, compromising the forward progress...
Michael Brevda: Nursing home reform legislation offers opportunity for better care
Lawmakers realize we have a pervasive nursing home abuse problem in America. Nursing home covid deaths are nearing 200,000. More glaringly, a bipartisan Senate investigation revealed that poor resident care is overwhelming clustered around less than 5% of the nation’s facilities. A disproportionate amount of neglect cases occur in nursing...
Sheldon Jacobson: Emotion gets in way of covid consensus
People tend to overestimate or underestimate risk. The pandemic brings this into stark relief. Picture someone wearing an N95 mask while walking their dog through a deserted park. Contrast that with someone entering a crowded bar maskless in an area with high coronavirus transmission rates. Risk is a function of...
David Super: Vietnam mistakes repeated in Afghanistan; we must break the cycle
The rapid collapse of the Afghan government has lessons to teach us, if we will listen. Many of these are lessons we could have learned from the Vietnam War, but we did not. In both Vietnam and Afghanistan, the enemy was very real. The Viet Minh began as a nationalist...
Rich Askey: Follow CDC mask-wearing guidance in Pa. schools
Pennsylvania’s public school educators and support professionals are looking forward to returning to school to welcome a new class of eager students to their classrooms. As we do so, we are at a crossroads. We look ahead with enthusiasm but recognize that, in order to make this school year successful...
Nicole Molinaro: Criminal justice system failing domestic violence victims
The article “Police: Desperate notes in Walmart, Fallingwater led to woman held captive” (July 16, TribLIVE) described incidents of violence that shocked the mind and the soul. Like others throughout our community, I was horrified to read about the extensive abuse this victim survived, including being held captive, multiple physical...
Greg Fulton: The day St. Franco was anointed
Similar to today, in 1972 our nation was polarized. The Vietnam War, the Equal Rights Amendment providing equality for all sexes and busing of children for integration were dividing lines for many. Then, on Dec. 23, something magical happened in Pittsburgh, what some would call an early Christmas present. According...
Sen. Devlin Robinson: Abandonment of Afghanistan shameful
Watching as Afghans clung to the sides of American transports during takeoff only to plummet to their deaths as their allies flew off Monday is a spectacle beyond bearing. I once fought on the very ground their falling bodies struck. I fought in Afghanistan, and many of my comrades did...
Jay Sefton: Pa. lawmakers must stop denying justice to abuse victims
Had I been sexually abused by Father Thomas Smith 20 miles east in New Jersey, 20 miles south in Delaware or 80 miles north in New York, I would have had the opportunity to seek justice. I could have held Catholic Church officials accountable for protecting a known pedophile instead...
Gov. Bill Lee: Collaborating to improve lives in Tennessee
Supporting Tennessee’s rural citizens has been a top priority of mine since I signed my very first executive order. Executive Order 1 required each state department to examine its impact on our rural communities and make recommendations on how to better serve rural Tennesseans. As a result, we have implemented...
Antony Davies: Pa.’s alcohol monopoly — we told you so
Defenders of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) fought for decades against alcohol privatization efforts. Principal among these was Wendell Young IV, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits Council — the union that represents state store workers. Despite numerous studies and polls to the...
Jonah Goldberg: With eviction moratorium, Biden joins presidents who violated oath
President Biden has already violated his oath of office. The good news for him: He’s in fine company. In 2002, George W. Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill into law. At the ceremony, he expressed his “concerns” that the law he signed “restrains the speech of a wide variety...
Trey Grayson: Exporting the fraudit to Pa. would be disaster
In July, Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano announced his intention to bring the Arizona audit to Pennsylvania. County officials have rebuffed his requests for election data, and Mastriano is threatening subpoenas to fuel the investigation. This is going to be a mess. Strange circumstances aside, a Pennsylvania audit is a...
Will Bardenwerper: Maybe Steelers can unite us
A few weeks ago, my wife, 4-year-old son and I joined my cousin’s family for Steelers Fest at Heinz Field. It was the kind of warm and sunny day that one dreams about during the frigid gray Pittsburgh winter. My son proudly wore a superhero cape over his Steelers jersey,...
Colin McNickle: A dichotomous jobs recovery
States with Right-to-Work laws continue to fare much better in their job recovery statistics following covid-19 lockdowns than states without such laws, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. But the now-prevalent Delta variant could produce new challenges to that recovery, cautions Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of and...
Sam DeMarco: The Shell cracker plant is a boon for business
Denial takes many forms, and while we often are exhorted to “trust science,” some dismiss the science of economics when it doesn’t suit their political agenda. That’s what we’re finding out about the natural gas industry in general and the nearly completed ethane “cracker” plant that is about to trigger...
Gov. Jim Justice: ARC and West Virginia — partners in a state of improvement
This commentary is part of a series from governors of the 13 states in the Appalachian Regional Commission. ARC is an economic development agency of the federal government and state governments focusing on 420 counties across the Appalachian Region. For every home improvement project, big or small, you need the...
Lori Jakiela: Duct tape is sane option when airline passengers go nuts
While some people are shocked by the current attacks on flight attendants — the biting, the spitting, the punching, the threats — this behavior doesn’t surprise me. When I became a flight attendant back in the 1990s, I didn’t realize I’d end up in one of the most-hated professions in...


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