Opinion category, Page 174
Paul Kengor: Pearl Harbor and the vanishing WWII vet
I think often of my late friend Charles Wiley. My colleague David Ayers and I plotted to bring Charlie to Grove City College every spring semester for years. Students were enthralled by this extraordinarily colorful old guy holding forth with stories from his incredible life, beginning as a childhood actor...
Michael Puskaric: Regional partnering key to ending opioid crisis
The opioid epidemic has left a trail of devastation across the United States, claiming countless lives and tearing apart communities. In 2022 alone more than 110,000 Americans succumbed to a drug overdose with opioids accounting for nearly 70% of those deaths. Meanwhile, fentanyl and counterfeit pills continue to flood America...
Letter to the editor: Biden should institute freeze on prices, wages, benefits
President Nixon instituted a 90-day wage and price freeze in August 1971. Inflation was rampant, and people were suffering financial difficulties. My husband and I lived through that period. Most workers’ wages were frozen. Most prices were frozen. Wage and price controls did not work perfectly, but they did cool...
Letter to the editor: Veterans follow orders on safety precautions
The writer of the letter “Veteran won’t vote for Biden” (May 16, TribLive), who says he is an Air Force veteran, regurgitates numerous right-wing conspiracy theories about the erosion of “freedoms, values and individual responsibilities” by the left as reasons not to vote for President Biden and extolling the years...
Editorial: Is the NFL Draft or a Super Bowl better for Pittsburgh?
Is the NFL Draft coming to Pittsburgh in 2026 really that big a deal? From a financial perspective, it definitely could be. It seems unlikely Pittsburgh will see a Super Bowl on the North Shore anytime soon. The February weather in Southwestern Pennsylvania is too changeable for 120 million eyes...
Letter to the editor: Abortion should not be an issue
Election Day is racing at us with what seems like breakneck speed. To me, it seems the big issues the candidates will be clashing about are abortion, inflation and millions of immigrants living off the American taxpayer. How many of them are here to do harm to our country? Of...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump and Biden agreed to debates. That’s a lot less important than it was made out to be.
The Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to two presidential debates last week. Who among us can contain our excitement? Well, it depends on what you mean by “us.” In my corner of the professional world — pundits, commentators, political junkies — there was much rejoicing. Watching the Sunday shows, you...
Jennifer Huddleston: AI and privacy rules meant for Big Tech could hurt small businesses most
As lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. consider policy born of their Big Tech concerns such as data privacy and artificial intelligence, they should carefully consider how such changes could end up trampling the small and midsize businesses that drive innovation and competition. While policymakers may have Google and Facebook...
Cal Thomas: 2 contrasting congressional days
Last Friday in Washington, there was evidence of why only 16% of the public approve of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll. During a House Oversight Committee hearing on whether to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a...
Letter to the editor: Border crisis is costing us
The letter “Tired of the whining about the border” (May 18, TribLive) stating that the southern border is a nonexistent crisis has flaws. Taxpayers are being told we must provide food, lodging and medical treatment for many of these immigrants — the real “free lunch.” Our national debt goes up...
Letter to the editor: Allegheny County’s voter rolls should be cleaned up
The election of November 2024 is going to be a historic one. Pennsylvania will be a pivotal state. Allegheny County should be prepared for close scrutiny and have its voter rolls in order. Right now, they aren’t. The county reported 900,464 on the rolls in the November 2023 election. Over...
Editorial: Elected official shouldn’t require babysitting to do her job
The drama in the Westmoreland County Register of Wills office continues. It started with judges ordering Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton to comply with certain timelines. She didn’t. There was a hearing that revealed more of the dysfunction in the office, including a large backlog of uncompleted work delaying...
Letter to the editor: Improving mental health services for correctional officers
The National Institute of Justice has found the very debilitating effects of working as a correctional officer “stem from two primary sources: the demands of responding to critical incidents within the correctional facility (and) organizational stressors ranging from understaffing shifts to toxic environments.” The study found the suicide rate of...
Jen Mizell: UPMC must show moral leadership
I started my career as a nurse at UPMC almost two decades ago because I wanted to make a real difference in people’s lives. That’s what has kept me going all these years, especially through the trauma of the pandemic. But as UPMC has consolidated more and more power, staffing...
Rob Richie: Ranked-choice voting for presidential elections?
Imagine it’s election night 2024. A few close swing states will decide the presidency — and test the health of our democracy. In that scenario, we can be certain of two facts: Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will win a majority of the vote, and votes for independent and...
Danny Tyree: Is it nice to fool Mother Nature?
I was hunkered down paying rapt attention to the weather report on May 8 when an EF-3 tornado rampaged through a neighboring county. Understandably, I was intrigued by a May 11 New York Post article about a technological push to manipulate the weather. Eleven states already maintain “old school” programs...
Letter to the editor: Trump is unqualified for public office
During the Vietnam War, Donald Trump claimed (I say feigned) a foot injury and wouldn’t serve his country. In 2016, as Trump campaigned for president, he disparaged Sen. John McCain’s heroic service as a POW. According to news reports, Trump staffers claim that during a visit to France in 2018,...
Letter to the editor: Can women have it all? Maybe not at the same time.
Reading comments concerning Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College brought back some memories. I grew up in the 1950s, and my first job out of high school was at the home office of the G.C. Murphy Co. in McKeesport. Computers were just being introduced, and...
Editorial: John Fetterman should be careful throwing political stones
Those who live in glass houses are often cautioned about the casual tossing of stones. On Friday, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, decided to pick up some rocks and juggle. “In the past, I’ve described the U.S. House as ‘The Jerry Springer Show,’ ” he posted on X.com. “Today, I’m apologizing...
Letter to the editor: We need Trump back in the Oval Office
Radical Democrats have declared a desperate war on Donald Trump and his America-first agenda. In my opinion, the current court case in New York City is the latest example of America’s justice system being twisted to keep him out of the Oval Office. Despite all the salacious allegations, Trump’s popularity...
J. Peder Zane: The rise of gut politics
A very liberal friend recounted his daughter’s pushback after he gently questioned the tactics of anti-Israeli protestors on campus. “She didn’t disagree with me,” he said, “but said that my concerns were unhelpful because they undermined efforts to stop the war.” I just nodded my head; it was, after all,...
Alexandria Wilson-McDonald: Attempted assassination of Slovak prime minister follows country’s slide into political polarization
The assassination attempt against Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been condemned widely by world leaders as an attack on democracy. In Slovakia, the violent act similarly saw a unified response from the country’s deeply divided political leaders. But how long this lasts is uncertain. Just as outgoing Slovakian president...
Rogelio Sáenz and Selene M. Gomez: Some states’ populations are like the U.S. overall — including 5 key states in the ’24 presidential election
Five of the seven states widely expected to be political battlegrounds in the 2024 presidential election have populations very much like that of the U.S. overall, in a range of demographic and socioeconomic measures. For decades, the presidential selection season has begun with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire...
Letter to the editor: Do we want a criminal as president?
Many Donald Trump supporters claim his legal troubles are due to a conspiracy of Democratic prosecutors, judges, politicians and others trying to keep him out of the election. A letter-writer asks, “Does anyone honestly believe it is a coincidence that all the Trump cases began at nearly the same time...
Editorial: The rematch is set: Biden vs. Trump debates have the right balance
The last time the Democrats and Republicans held a White House rematch with the same contenders was 1956, when Ike beat Adlai Stevenson for the second straight time. Earlier, there were redos with William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan (McKinley won both in 1896 and 1900) and Grover Cleveland vs....
