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Featured Commentary category, Page 88

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Stephanie Catarino Wissman: Pennsylvanians could pay more under Wolf’s proposed severance tax plan
For the seventh straight year, Gov. Tom Wolf is proposing a new tax on the state’s natural gas producers — and ultimately on Pennsylvanians. This year’s severance tax plan, like the others before it, could undermine the production of natural gas — which about half of American households rely on...
Rich Fitzgerald: Portable benefits system would protect gig workers
As we turn the past year, and look ahead to a better 2021, it’s also time to continue to build on our strengths, which became all the more evident during this pandemic. Our southwest Pennsylvania region has a diverse economy and has been fortunate to see growth in both traditional...
Dr. Gillian Beauchamp and Jessica Hessler: Syringe programs can save lives
Rosa had been diagnosed with endocarditis, a heart valve infection, and had undergone valve replacement surgery to repair the valve that now threatened her life. When released from the hospital, she lacked adequate housing, food and support to cope with the trauma of childhood abuse. She returned to injecting fentanyl....
Josh McNeil: The American Jobs Plan will build a better future for us all
We are at a critical moment in our nation’s future. In Pittsburgh last week, President Biden laid out a plan to meet the scale of the twin climate change and jobs crises with his American Jobs Plan. We need to get people back to work and build back our economy...
Greg Dudkin: We can save customers millions by providing protections they deserve
Here in Pennsylvania you can shop for your electricity supply. Just like you would shop for a car, you compare different offers and choose what is right for you at the lowest cost. Because utility companiesare delivering the electricity, we have no vested interest in which supplier you choose. But...
Reps. Austin Davis, Nick Pisciottano, Brandon Markosek and Summer Lee: Transforming the Mon Valley
Within the next two months, we will hit a milestone that one year ago sounded impossible — a covid-19 vaccine widely available to whomever wants or needs it. This will mark a turning point in our long struggle against this virus. In our region and in Washington, D.C., discussions have...
Faye Flam: Don’t believe the doomsayers. Vaccines will end the pandemic.
Following pandemic news too closely can be an emotional roller coaster, with dire public health warnings immediately followed by hopeful new studies. The latest soaring discovery: a new CDC study showing vaccines sharply cut all covid-19 infections — not just symptoms. That news puts to rest one worst-case-scenario: that vaccines...
Ken Regal: Extending the power of the American Rescue Plan
Editor’s note: The following text was delivered at a March 30 press conference alongside Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. The American Rescue Plan is powerful. It makes major improvements to the public food safety net to protect our neighbors from hunger — particularly in boosting food stamp (SNAP) benefits — so...
John Crisp: Have we lost the battle on climate change?
I pay moderate attention to my carbon footprint. You probably do, too. It just seems like the right thing to do. I recycle. I drive a Prius. My house has solar panels. My yard is xeriscaped. I support green energy. I never vote for politicians who, head in the sand,...
Sabrina Fu: We must go deeper than our differences to heal our nation
As an American who has heard about thousands of shootings by now, I have never been asked about how I felt about any particular shooting — until a few days after the shootings at three massage businesses in Atlanta, dominated by women of Asian descent. Yes, I am an Asian...
Steve Samara: Investing in rural broadband
Legislation that will help bridge the digital divide, which in the last legislative session gained strong bipartisan support in Harrisburg, has been reintroduced this session by one of the state’s leading rural broadband advocates, Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York. Senate Bill 341 would modernize regulations adopted decades ago for rural phone...
James Reston Jr.: A Jan. 6 commission can answer our questions
The Jan. 6 attack on Congress takes its place next to the other terrible national traumas of the past 60 years — the JFK assassination, the race riots of 1967-68, the Challenger space shuttle crash and 9/11. Like those other shocks to our national consciousness, Jan. 6 demands a seminal,...
Richard Chin: Which superhero should we call if the Suez Canal gets plugged again?
They finally got that giant cargo ship unstuck from the Suez Canal after nearly of week of trying and a fleet of tugboats. But the next time the Suez gets jammed by a beached supership, why not do the global economy a favor and call a superhero to get the...
Dahleen Glanton: Testimony ensures Floyd’s death was not in vain
Many of us did not want to watch George Floyd suffer. Not again. In nearly a year since Floyd’s death, those who mourn for him have tried to move on. Some have marched, protested and held vigils in his memory. We have spoken out as loud as we could. We...
Terri Friedline and Ameya Pawar: Another New Deal key for Biden’s vision
To carry out his $3 trillion infrastructure plan and ensure its success, President Joe Biden needs to embrace his inner Franklin D. Roosevelt and forge a 21st-century New Deal. Biden’s desire to establish a consequential legacy is setting the stage for federal investments in public infrastructure that have not been...
Eric Falk: Not all Westmoreland residents want mail-in voting eliminated
Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew’s statement before the Pennsylvania Senate committee on election integrity and reform is a classic case of starting with a valid point and then wildly overswinging to argue that no-excuse mail-in voting must be limited if not eliminated. He begins with the need to educate voters...
Tom O’Brien: Raises linked to filibuster death
Joe Biden did something no other president has. He extolled the virtue of unions and told workers that corporations do not have the right to prevent them from joining a union, and he did it on video. After four decades of U.S. labor productivity rises that have gone unrewarded with...
Elizabeth Stelle: Emergency powers amendment would restore transparency in Pa. government
For over a year, Gov. Tom Wolf has dismissed calls for transparency as he enforces restrictive emergency executive orders. His disaster declaration for covid-19 — renewed four times since last spring — has allowed him to exert a level of control like nothing our commonwealth has experienced in its 340-year...
Howard Dean: Biden must restore seniors’ access to essential medicines
On Jan. 19, Medicare officials announced a new payment model that could wreak havoc on the chronically ill. The proposed model — technically put forward by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation — affects Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit, which relies on private insurers to administer seniors’ drug...
Gisele Fetterman: It’s time for the Dreamers to be safe at home for good
We are at an important crossroads in this nation. We have faced immense, unprecedented challenges in this unimaginably difficult past year, but with a new administration in place and the end of covid-19 in sight, we also find ourselves with a tremendous opportunity to lay the foundation for a brighter...
David Sanko: Pa. needs another ‘shot in the arm’ with broadband access expansion
Pennsylvania, like many other states, has a digital divide that separates the haves from the have-nots. And at no other time has this divide seemed wider than in the last year when the covid-19 pandemic brought the demand for internet service into sharp focus. From students trying to do their...
Angelo McClain: Social workers critical in post-covid world
The covid-19 pandemic isn’t just a historic public health crisis. It’s an economic and mental health crisis unlike anything in recent memory. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Americans of all ages are reporting elevated levels of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, even suicidal ideation. Sadly, there is no vaccine...
Sylvia Rhor: Honoring the dead, one name at a time
I never met Peaster Richie. Or any of his descendants (that I know of). I can’t find a passing reference to him in history books, much less a biography devoted to him. Richie, the grandson of slaves, was one of the countless heroes of the Great Migration who made their...
Adam Marles: A year full of lessons on covid’s impact on older Americans
A year ago, the Wolf administration did something both unthinkable and absolutely necessary: It closed nursing homes to all visitors to combat the covid-19 virus. Long-term caregivers understood that isolating residents from their families was vital in protecting them from a deadly illness, but it was an agonizing decision because...
Gina Diorio: Gov. Wolf is hiding covid data again
Do you remember in the early days of the covid pandemic when Gov. Tom Wolf promised his decisions would be “data-driven”? “We have to follow the science,” he reminded us. So convincing was this supposed “data” that Wolf temporarily shut Right-to-Know (RTK) offices so we couldn’t ask for it. Transparency...


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