Opinion category, Page 284
Sounding off: County vehicles, school funding, a better Pittsburgh, Tenn. racism, Turnpike, McCutcheon, socialism
Time to end taxpayer-paid vehicles for county employees Let’s continue to beat the dead horse and reclassify it as living impaired. Why does any Westmoreland County employee have a taxpayer-paid vehicle to commute to work? According to Rich Cholodofsky’s latest expose (“Westmoreland DA vehicle usage declines as a result of...
Letter to the editor: Where are our heroes?
The moral and courageous Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.” So, where are our journalists and authors denouncing censorship and demanding free speech? Where are the doctors upholding their Hippocratic oath of “first, do no harm” and exposing the medical malfeasance that’s destroying lives?...
Editorial: Biden administration must designate Fogel as wrongfully detained
It was March 29 when Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia, charged with espionage and held in a foreign prison. On April 10, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined the journalist was wrongfully detained. It took just 12 days. Teacher Marc Fogel of Oakmont...
Letter to the editor: What if Trump hadn’t been POTUS?
In addition to the Stormy Daniels incident described in the op-ed “This is just the beginning for Trump” (April 5, TribLIVE), the 34 counts in the indictment against Donald Trump include “catch and kill” actions to suppress stories potentially damaging to Trump’s presidential hopes. Prosecutors claim payments were made to...
Gary Franks: Tenn. duo wrongly removed from office while fighting wrong fight
The two Black state representatives from Tennessee — let’s call them the Tennessee Duo — who were kicked out of the state Legislature this month for breaking rules of order (while protesting in the chamber during a debate on gun legislation) brought back memories. Protesting wrongs is truly what Dr....
Rachel Marsden: How Washington is losing its control of the world over Ukraine
PARIS — CIA Director William Burns hightailed it to Saudi Arabia last week, reportedly frustrated, according to the Wall Street Journal, that peace was on the verge of breaking out — the kind that could end the Global War on Terrorism in the Middle East, which has been the pretext...
Madeleine Para and Bruce Cooper: As Earth Day approaches, climate solutions have never been more appealing
As we gear up to celebrate Earth Day, it’s now easier than ever to reap the rewards of embracing a cleaner, greener world. The annual spring event, which reminds us to protect the planet that sustains us, is especially poignant this year. It follows the passage of the 2022 Inflation...
Colin McNickle: The solid case for an Allegheny County reassessment
The next Allegheny County chief executive must make a critical decision on property assessments, says the research director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And it’s clear — as a matter of the state Constitution, basic fairness and repeated litigation, the latest of which is wending its way through...
Lori Falce: Chatting with ChatGPT opens eyes on AI, journalism
The impact of artificial intelligence is a hot topic. Everyone wants to know what AI means for their industry and their jobs — including journalists. We all know that innovation is amazing. It helped us reach the stars and travel the globe. It lets you play amazingly detailed games on...
Letter to the editor: Welcome home, Cutch
The day we have long waited for has come. Welcome home, Cutch. Our Pittsburgh icon has come home where he has always belonged, and our jerseys and No. 22 gear that were lovingly packed away are now proudly on display. We can now start to watch Pirates baseball again after...
Letter to the editor: Zappala’s seeking death penalty is out of step with Pa. Democrats
Allegheny County District Attorney Steven Zappala’s announcement that his office will seek the death penalty against Jonathan Morris (“DA to seek death penalty against man charged in Pittsburgh triple homicide,” March 26, TribLIVE) says all that local Democrats should need to know about his unfitness to represent the party in...
Laurels & lances: Negotiated security and serious pranks
Laurel: To a summer tradition. Kennywood will be open. No, don’t check your zipper. Just rest assured that the West Mifflin amusement park will operate as usual this summer. There were questions about that in March when Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said he would go to...
Letter to the editor: Racism in Tennessee
The state of Tennessee added another chapter to its sordid history of racism when Republican legislators voted to expel three duly elected colleagues charged with violating a laughable rule of acceptable “decorum.” Guilty only of joining protesters demanding gun control, following the killing of six people at a nearby school,...
Paul Kengor: Pa.’s outrageous gas prices and gas taxes
My family just took a long road trip to Florida. We have a 2010 Ford E-350, a 12-passenger van. It’s an ugly thing, with a 30-gallon tank. I call it our “Baptist Church van,” though we’re Catholic. I’d buy a new model, but they’re obscenely expensive. So, I cling to...
Rep. Arvind Venkat: Medical debt, a uniquely American problem
Medical debt is the most common form of debt in the United States, plaguing more than 100 million Americans. Other industrialized nations do not bear the load of medical debt as we do. So only Americans will ever require a GoFundMe or similar crowd-funding page for a beloved community member...
Cal Thomas: Kindness could go a long way in politics
From the beginning politics has always been a contact sport with competing interests attempting to achieve power over each other. A friend recently said to me he has never seen it so bad as it is today. The friend appears to be in his 50s, so he missed the divisions...
Letter to the editor: Vote Smail for Pa. Superior Court
Judge Harry F. Smail Jr. has been a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Westmoreland County since 2014. He was appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett and then won both parties’ nominations to a full term. Initially, Smail served in the Family Court division, proving to be very effective...
Letter to the editor: Comparing Civil, Ukraine wars
The North defeated the South in the Civil War. The Civil War has parallels to the war between Ukraine and Russia. The North had more factories, a standing army, a greater population and more raw materials to manufacture munitions. What it didn’t have was good generals. The South lacked many...
Editorial: Figure out the source for state police fund money first
The idea of a dedicated fund to support the state police is a perfect illustration of Pennsylvania’s ongoing governmental challenges. Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to pay the annual bill for the agency — about $1.4 billion — by replacing the $500 million or so that comes from the Motor License...
Letter to the editor: Drag racing and roundabouts
$25 million to $30 million to revitalize Route 981 (“Design in final phase for Route 981 upgrade between Palmer airport and Pleasant Unity,” Feb. 12, TribLIVE)? This plan is to moderate sharp curves and steep grades and improve drainage and traffic flow. So then we add in the roundabouts, at...
Jonah Goldberg: Putin’s war on Ukraine is in the sinister tradition of the Russian war machine
Vladimir Putin and his war machine get more respect than they deserve from the West. This may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, just 9% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Russia and the International Criminal Court has recently issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes. But...
Morgan Polikoff: 40 years later, are our schools ‘mediocre’?
The National Commission on Excellence in Education’s release of a report titled “A Nation at Risk” in 1983 was a pivotal point in the history of American education. The report used dire language, lamenting that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of...
Ronald Suny: Finland, NATO and the evolving new world order — what small nations know
In the world of geopolitics, great powers make, break and play by their own rules. Smaller states largely have to make do with adjusting to the world as determined by others. Which is why the decision by Finland — a country of just 5.5 million people, noted for decades as...
Habibeh Khoshbouei: Misuse of Adderall promotes stigma, mistrust for patients who need it
The nationwide shortages of Adderall that began in fall 2022 have brought renewed attention to the beleaguered drug, which is used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. Adderall became a go-to drug for ADHD over the past two decades but quickly came under fire because of overprescription and misuse. In...
Letter to the editor: E-ZPass costs the people who don’t have it
Regarding the editorial “Make E-ZPass easier for low-income drivers” (April 3, TribLIVE): You forget the people who don’t use E-ZPass because they seldom drive on toll roads. E-ZPass does have a cost. Although I live in Pennsylvania near Washington, the only time I use a toll road is when I...
