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Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Adam Marles: Pandemic continues in Pa. nursing homes; funding desperately needed
America is starting to reopen. It’s wonderful to see people reuniting with their loved ones after a year of isolation. Americans are traveling again. Sporting events, like the recent PGA Championship and NBA playoffs, are welcoming crowds. The exuberance at these events is heartwarming and a testament to the miracle...
Rep. Greg Vitali: Environmental protection needs more funding
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has been woefully underfunded for years. This is primarily due to a Republican-controlled state Legislature that has consistently pushed for DEP budget cuts. Unless Gov. Tom Wolf makes environmental funding a priority in current budget negotiations, the status quo will continue. The commonwealth is...
Rich Askey: Say no to largest transfer of taxpayer dollars out of public schools in Pa. history
Every June, Pennsylvania’s educators and parents find themselves in familiar territory — pleading with state lawmakers to increase funding that their public schools desperately need to educate students and keep up with expenses. Still, many school districts find themselves doing more with less year after year as they contend with...
Tierra Bradford: Zappala’s plea deal folly reinforces need for audit of DA’s office
On June 2, news broke that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala sent an email to his office prohibiting staff from offering plea deals to the clients of defense attorney Milton Raiford. This email was sent several days after Raiford made remarks, on the record, about how the district attorney’s...
Jason Killmeyer: In preparation for Putin
As a second major ransomware attack in the past month threatened a sensitive node of our supply chain — our food supply — America remains stuck in an old way of thinking. In the late 1990s, we saw the rise of express kidnappings across Latin America, where immediate ransoms were...
Ramesh Ponnuru: The phrase ‘systemic racism’ clouds productive debate
“It’s past time for America to discard the left-wing myth of systemic racism,” former Vice President Mike Pence said on a recent visit to New Hampshire. We should go a little further than that. Let’s discard the phrase “systemic racism” altogether. The chief function of that phrase is to make...
Alexa L. Gervasi and Daryl James: Allegheny County calls off the cookie police
Baking enthusiasts in Pittsburgh and surrounding communities will have new freedom this summer, just in time for Independence Day. Thanks to a recent policy reversal at the Allegheny County Health Department, people can turn on their ovens and start making money from home. Code enforcers previously showed zero tolerance for...
Amanda Little: World’s food supply has never been more vulnerable
After a cyberattack crippled the world’s largest meat producer last month, JBS SA meat plants have begun to reopen across the globe. But the meat industry shouldn’t be returning to business as usual — and for the security of our food supply, the Biden administration needs to make sure that...
Dana Montalto: VA must stop denying health care to thousands of veterans
A veteran with a fever and hacking cough that suggest a possible coronavirus infection tries to make a doctor’s appointment, only to be turned away by a receptionist who personally decides the would-be patient can’t see a physician. A former service member and sexual assault survivor at risk of suicide...
Baltimore Sun: Pentagon’s UFO report is coming soon; here’s what it’s likely to say
Did we ever tell you about the unidentified flying object discovered outside Baltimore? In 1949, a farm in Glen Burnie was briefly swarming with state troopers and military investigators checking out reports of a flying saucer. And, indeed, they found what were described later as “prototypes” of aircraft in a...
Carl Leubsdorf: Republicans quashed a Jan. 6 commission. It won’t make Trump go away.
Senate Republicans acknowledged that politics was the reason they voted to kill a bipartisan commission to probe the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The question is whether it was smart politics. Displaying unusual candor, several top Republicans said a commission could hurt them in the 2022 election. Republican senators...
Jennifer Christman: Improving mental health of our military
Every May, mental health organizations share educational information and provide resources for Mental Health Awareness Month. During this same period, as we approach Memorial Day, we’re reminded to honor the men and women who died while serving our country. However, these two topics share more than space on the calendar...
Jessie Carmichael: Pediatric shift nurses crucial for fragile children
Every day, thousands of medically fragile children across Pennsylvania rely on the state’s pediatric shift nursing program to stay safe and healthy at home. Since 1993, this program has allowed these children to be cared for at home by skilled, professional nurses. It keeps families together, out of hospitals and...
Michael Brevda: Holding nursing homes accountable
SavaSeniorCare LLC, a skilled nursing facility corporation with facilities in Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay more than $11 million (in addition to further penalties, should certain contingencies occur) to resolve allegations that the entity violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for services fraudulently. The complaint against Sava made...
Rep. Natalie Mihalek: Restoring our education system after covid-19
As a mom and a state representative, education is always on my mind. It pains me to see how children have been suffering throughout the covid-19 pandemic — especially when it comes to lost learning opportunities. While schools in my area have reopened, across Pennsylvania, many children haven’t been in...
Earl Baker: A new energy revolution in Pa.
In a momentous milestone for Pennsylvania, the Revolution Pipeline is now online. Over the past decade, energy has provided the Keystone State and surrounding Appalachian region an abundance of natural resources, jobs and economic growth. Revolution, a 40.5-mile pipeline, is just another example of the importance of infrastructure to the...
Gordon Tomb: ‘Green’ medicine is snake oil, likely to sicken Pa.
“Green” energy proposals are no economic therapeutic for Pennsylvania. They’re snake oil miracle cures that ignore the realities of physics — and people’s needs. In January, the Political Economy Research Institute “reimagined” Pennsylvania in a 135-page document that proposed spending billions of dollars on so-called renewable energy to restore the...
Jim Snell: Hacking is just one threat to Colonial Pipeline
The hacking of the Colonial Pipeline showed Americans the vulnerability of our energy supply, and how much we depend on it to power our economy. Stretching from Texas to New York, Colonial transports 45% of the East Coast’s fuel supply, carrying gasoline, heating oil, diesel and jet fuel. The pipeline...
Cynthia Fisher: Hospital price disclosures reinforce importance of price transparency
The Biden administration has begun enforcing the hospital price transparency rule that took effect at the beginning of the year. Recent research published in Health Affairs finds that only about one-third of large hospitals are complying with the order. The rule requires hospitals to post their real prices, including their...
Alexandra Wilkes: Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about how mental health impacts our overall wellness. It’s a time to shine a spotlight on available resources, educate the public, and advocate for policies that focus on the needs of people with mental illness and their families. Most...
Lou Barletta: Why I’m running for Pa. governor
Thirty-seven years ago, my wife Mary Grace and I started our pavement marking business with $29.95 and a dream to build something for our family, and five years later it was the largest of its kind in Pennsylvania. Along the way we had setbacks, as any business owners will face,...
David Kennedy: Gov. Wolf, you owe Pennsylvania law enforcement an apology
Pennsylvania State Police troopers go to work every day protecting the people of this commonwealth, understanding that we could lose our lives to save others. We accept that risk — and our families are forced to live with it. They lie in bed listening for the Velcro rip of our...
Mark Schweiker: It’s time for America to put 9/11 mastermind on trial
Two decades ago, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was plotting the terrorist attacks that would murder thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Terrorist cells were inside our country. America had no idea what was to come when they boarded airplanes that morning. These terrorists would become possibly the most hated criminals...
Sen. Sharif Street: Wolf exercised his constitutional powers to save lives
On May 18 Pennsylvanians will have the opportunity to select ballot measures during the primary election, two of which fundamentally alter the governor’s executive powers and ability to respond to emergencies. In March 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a covid-19 disaster declaration to provide increased support for the state’s response...
Sen. Jake Corman, Rep. Bryan Cutler, Sen. Kim Ward and Rep. Kerry Benninghoff: Covid response proves government works better together
After 14 months of dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic, the strengths and weaknesses of state government’s emergency response is coming into clearer focus. With more Pennsylvanians getting vaccinated and infection rates plummeting, our job now is to review the lessons learned during this crisis so future emergencies can be managed...


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