Opinion category, Page 304
Editorial: Pa. state House needs to get to work
It’s time for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to get to work. On Tuesday, the voters in three Allegheny County districts did their jobs. They showed up for the special election to fill the seats of the late longtime legislator Tony DeLuca, newly installed U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and Lt....
Letter to the editor: Bushy Run needs to continue its battles
The new woke policy on force-on-force reenactments that the National Park Service adopted, and this blue state liked, is being used to censor the history of Bushy Run Battlefield (“Pa. agency explains why it enacted no force-on-force rule for Bushy Run, other sites,” Feb. 6, TribLIVE). They claim it is...
Letter to the editor: GOP, party of violence
Ninety-nine percent of Republican lawmakers voted against banning assault weapons, and 96% voted against commonsense background checks before gun sales. Both of these safety measures are supported by the majority of Americans and would save countless lives. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 648 mass shootings in 2022....
Jonah Goldberg: Ron DeSantis may be the one Republican voters want now. Can he make that last?
Imagine a popular Republican governor from an important state. Despite intense criticism from the national media, he’s notched some huge policy wins that are simultaneously popular with donors, base voters and conservative intellectuals. His key theme is fighting the Washington establishment and the institutions of progressive power. Then, fresh off...
Rep. Greg Vitali: Shapiro must lead on environmental funding
A new governor offers hope that the chronic underfunding of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will finally end. This underfunding has compromised the department’s ability to regulate the oil and gas industry, monitor and reduce air and water pollution, protect the Chesapeake Bay and clean up hazardous waste sites....
Letter to the editor: With Ukraine aid, are we headed for WWIII?
As the U.S. continues to funnel tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and military aid to Ukraine, with what seems like zero accountability, ask this simple question: If Country A supplies Country B with missiles to bomb Country C, does Country C have the moral right to bomb Country A?...
Letter to the editor: Environmental insanity
Hopefully, the talk of banning gas stoves marked the beginning of the end of the radical climate change movement. It’s becoming a bad joke. The effort to switch from internal combustion engine-powered vehicles to EVs sounded like it made good environmental sense, but we are learning that it does not,...
Editorial: Support police by giving room to grieve
If you want to know the toll that a line-of-duty shooting can take, look at the pictures of McKeesport police Chief Adam Alfer. On Monday, he stood alongside other officials making statements and giving information about the death of one of his own, Officer Sean Sluganski, and the injury of another,...
Letter to the editor: We must address our gun violence problem
Our region has a gun violence problem that threatens to undo all progress we’ve made on equity and economic development. Public safety is a just expectation from every person. Our day-to-day existence is shaken to its core without the feeling of safety. Tragically, for many, this means the fear of...
Commentary: How does the U.S.-China relationship continue after the spy balloon saga?
If you thought the Chinese spy balloon saga would deflate as fast as the balloon did over the Atlantic Ocean, you’re sadly mistaken. Days after a U.S. F-22 destroyed the device with a single air-to-air missile at 58,000 feet, the story continues to hover over the news cycle like a...
Elwood Watson: Police interaction with young Black girl had happy ending
Last month, the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony to celebrate Bobbi Wilson, a 9-year-old Black kid from Caldwell, N.J., who efforts to eradicate spotted lanternflies was seen as an environmentally progressive gesture. The ceremony also recognized Wilson’s donation of her personal spotted lanternfly collection to Yale’s Peabody...
Dr. Andrew Smolar: The balancing act of parenting adolescents
The task of parenting adolescents has changed a great deal, given how fast the world is moving. For one, information is plentiful and immediately accessible. When I was 17, we checked card catalogs and descended into the library’s catacombs to research a subject. Now, with the stroke of a thumb,...
John Hinshaw: Where is the Latino vote headed in Pa.?
Nationally, Latinos are flexing their growing political muscle. They now make up 11% of the U.S. House, for example. In Pennsylvania, however, Latino voters essentially sat out the last election. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, turnout in the state’s most heavily Latino districts was less than half that of 2020....
Letter to the editor: Regarding Tyre Nichols — common sense and honesty can save lives
I was appalled by the way police responded to the Tyre Nichols traffic stop. My military training taught me you are only as strong as your leaders. These officers had no skills in policing. The leaders who gave them their jobs should be fired. Giving jobs to people who are...
Letter to the editor: Let the average person see a Super Bowl
The two teams participating in the Super Bowl each year get 17.5% of the tickets. The host city gets 5%. The league gets 24%. The other 30 teams, including the Steelers, each get 1.2%. State Farm Stadium holds 75,000, meaning the Steelers will get 900 tickets. Although the number is...
Editorial: Addressing blight requires planning and action
Eliminating blight isn’t a one-time task. Like weeding a garden, it’s a continual battle against recurrent attacks. As one industry rises, another one falls. Coal to nuclear to gas. Steel to banking to health care. The same happens with evolving lifestyles. Downtown shopping districts gave way to massive one-stop malls...
Letter to the editor: ‘Recipe’ to fix property tax assessment issues
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s staffers finally appeared publicly to discuss the seven-year ratio coding scandal. After fixing one of the seven years of bad luck for taxpayers, Fitzgerald’s chief of staff, Jennifer Liptak, was asked about conducting a voluntary review of the other six years so taxpayers would finally...
Letter to the editor: State of the union stronger when America leads on energy
Solving the energy crisis requires a course correction from Washington — and one that encourages domestic natural gas and oil development, energy security, economic growth and continued progress toward a lower-carbon future. What doesn’t help is the finger-pointing at producers, unfounded accusations of price gouging and threats to impose new...
Tom Purcell: How to write a romance story
All my father ever wanted as a young man was to marry my mother and start a family — plans that were interrupted when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean conflict. As he served in Texas, Germany and other parts of the world, there was only one...
Cal Thomas: Trial balloons
KEY LARGO, Florida — Say the words “espionage” and “communism” to a younger generation and they might think you’re talking about spy novels and Cold War history. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thinks both words describe contemporary threats. During a visit to a town made famous by the 1948...
Letter to the editor: Effective policing required to save Downtown Pittsburgh
I respect but disagree with columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick that saving Pittsburgh requires a coalition of “corporate leaders, the foundations, universities and colleges, neighborhood groups, and political leaders from the state and county and city” (“Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE). A bureaucracy is not needed to get...
Letter to the editor: People should be able to decide who they want to serve
What happened to our freedom? If individually owned businesses cannot decide who they want to serve, then the freedom of the owner is denied. I’m not talking of a hospital, but individual doctors and nurses should not be compelled to provide services against their own beliefs. It’s not as though...
Editorial: Reserve audit tells only part of story
There is little doubt that, as state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor recently reported, some public school districts move around money to avoid reporting excessive cash reserves that would preclude them from raising local taxes. But that is only part of the story. Public school districts don’t operate in a vacuum...
Letter to the editor: Fallout from Tyre Nichols’ death
The video of Memphis police officers inflicting blows that ultimately proved fatal to Tyre Nichols was very disheartening. This was a senseless act by officers who did not deescalate the situation, but instead allowed their frustration and anger to take over. Nichols and the five officers involved are Black, so...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 6
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 6....
