Opinion category, Page 30
Laurels & lances: Red lights & restitution
Laurel: To slowing down. Pittsburgh City Council is taking steps toward using cameras at red lights. Council authorized the use of automated red light enforcement last year. The technology would snap pictures of drivers who run lights and then send them tickets by mail. Now they are working toward a...
Letter to the editor: Protect democracy, protect our votes
As a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and executive director of Mothers of Incarcerated Sons, an organization dedicated in part to voting rights, I want to thank Salewa Ogunmefun for the powerful and timely piece, “60 years after the Voting Rights Act, voting rights under attack” (Aug. 14, TribLive). This op-ed rightly...
Paul Kengor: Pittsburgh scores a big win — Dr. John Byrd
When we think of a person’s impact on a city or region, we tend to think of some titan in industry or even a major sports figure. Perhaps some 19th century industrialist or current tech giant, or big-time quarterback or pitcher or NHL player. When we think of a city...
Joel Burstein: Local business retention most underrated economic development strategy
When it comes to economic development, we all love the ribbon cuttings. Shovels in the ground, billion-dollar factories, gleaming new AI research hubs — they dominate the headlines and photo ops. But the most transformative growth doesn’t always come from what’s new. It comes from what we choose to keep....
Leslie Gromis Baker: Investing in adult literacy helps people help themselves
As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” That’s exactly what adult literacy programs do — they provide people with the tools and confidence to take control of their futures, giving...
Letter to the editor: Are pollution controls working in Clairton?
While watching the local TV coverage of the horrible Clairton Coke Works explosion, I noticed that the hillside across the river from the Clairton plant is covered with vegetation. I was surprised. While I was growing up in the Mon Valley that hillside was bare. Nothing would grow on it...
Letter to the editor: Does Trump really support law enforcement?
It is lovely that the president visited law enforcement officers and National Guard troops stationed in the District of Columbia. I wonder whether he would ever go to see or recognize the Capitol Police and, if so, what type of reception he would receive if he did, given his betrayal...
Letter to the editor: Caregivers need state support
The state budget is several months late, and for Pennsylvanians like us, the consequences are personal. We are sisters living with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. We live together and rely on full-time, participant-directed home care for every part of daily life — bathing, eating, getting dressed. This model empowers us to...
Editorial: Back to school means back to violence
Across Western Pennsylvania, kids are going back to school. College dorms are overflowing. High school football games are lighting up Friday nights. School buses are back on the roads taking little ones with backpacks and new shoes to class. The lazy days of summer are over, and the jam-packed schedules...
Sean Trende: Restoring trust in the heart of Pa.’s political realignment
One of the defining features of late 20th and early 21st century American politics is the loss of faith in our institutions. A recent poll in U.S. News shows that 85% of Americans say “government officials and other community leaders care more about their own power and influence than what’s...
Jonah Goldberg: Republicans won’t let hypocrisy get in the way of a little tyranny
Even before America became a country, Americans already had a habit of freaking out about even minor violations of abstract principles. “In other countries, the people … judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance,” observed Edmund Burke, the great British statesman and philosopher, in 1775....
Jason “J.J.” Park: Three cheers for the (unappreciated) American worker
When doing entry-level, frontline jobs, I often felt (1) overworked and (2) underpaid. But if those few special customers appreciated me, life was still good. I connected to these empathic individuals who understood that doing a good job, all day long, day in and day out, was tough. But there...
Elisabeth Rosenthal: Health insurance price hikes should cause Americans alarm
Wary of inflation, Americans have been watching the prices of everyday items such as eggs and gasoline. A less-noticed expense should cause greater alarm: rising premiums for health insurance. They have been trending upward for years and are now rising faster than ever. Consider that, from 2000 to 2020, egg...
Letter to the editor: We need a moratorium on new coal mines
A moratorium on new mines is the only way the Rustic Ridge II Deep Mine will not happen, as I gather from attending the Department of Environmental Protection’s informal conference Aug. 20 at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Donegal. Even though everyone who spoke was against it being built, the...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s tough-guy act fails
How many chances does President Trump get before Republicans realize their mistake? What a slap in the face with the Putin meeting. Macho Trump cowered to Putin immediately as they met on the red carpet. During numerous handshaking, Trump appeared intimidated. It was apparent things would get worse. It seemed...
Editorial: New drugs, same crisis
The history of drug use in America is not necessarily a story of opium dens and crack houses. It’s a story of substances that weren’t illegal until they were abused. Patent medicines might be everything from a cold medicine on the shelf of a general store to the snake oil...
Letter to the editor: God and prayer are still in our schools
Fall creates a flurry of activity and a return to a routine as teachers and students head back to school. There are those who will say, as they always do, that education went downhill when they took God and prayer out of the schools. Who said that God and prayer...
Paul O’Neill Jr. and Geoff Webster: Supporting Nippon, US Steel in a better, safer way
The Pittsburgh Futures Collaborative leaders have decades of experience in industry, health care, nonprofits and government creating learning systems to make “habitual excellence” results possible. As CEO of Alcoa, Paul O’Neill Sr. proved that the world’s best aluminum could be manufactured efficiently, at a lower cost, while treating employees well,...
Matt K. Lewis: Newsom’s knives-out memes show plausible strategy against Trump
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on TikTok, viral Gavin Newsom memes are taking over social media. There’s Newsom Photoshopped into a classic black-and-white Calvin Klein ad (faux ripped abs and all). Newsom on the cover of a pretend romance novel (Fabio “bodice ripper” vibes abound)....
Harper Brod: We were raised in the storm — why young people still don’t trust politics, but I do
We were raised in the middle of a political hurricane. Our childhoods came with breaking news alerts: lockdowns, impeachments, mass shootings, a pandemic and presidents tweeting threats in real time. We never saw the so-called “good old days.” We learned early that politics wasn’t some distant, dignified machine — it...
Letter to the editor: Down is up, up is down with Trump
There is an old man in the White House living in his fantasy world where down is up and up is down. He says crime is up nationally while it is down. In Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in particular, violent crime rates have dropped sharply. He claims that inflation is...
Letter to the editor: Applications for SUN Bucks food assistance due Aug. 31
No Kid Hungry urges Pennsylvania families to apply for SUN Bucks benefits before the Aug. 31 deadline. These summer grocery benefits are critical at a time when new polling finds the majority of adults are dealing with stress in the face of increasing food costs. The poll from AP-NORC reveals...
Editorial: IUP should clearly spell out hazing penalties
When you have a child or a pet that does something wrong, it’s important to address the situation immediately. Did your son hit his sister? You don’t want to let the fight go on and on and maybe talk about it Saturday. That sends the message the action wasn’t important....
Letter to the editor: Democrats’ desperation
Obviously, the Democrats have learned nothing from their national humiliation last fall. Instead, they are doubling down on their failed, anti-America policies that the citizens have soundly rejected. Democrats refuse to understand America does not want open borders, biological males in female sports and girls’ bathrooms, out-of- control crime in our...
Audrey L. Tanksley: Katrina was bigger than a hurricane
When Hurricane Katrina touched down near New Orleans 20 years ago on Aug. 29, 2005, I was just beginning my journey as a first-year medical student. I remember watching the footage of families stranded on rooftops, hospitals submerged and the bodies of people and pets floating in the floodwaters. I...
