Opinion category, Page 331
Laurels & lances: Election edition
Laurel: To the value of a good book. Or a lot of books, for that matter. While some people may focus on the candidates that walked away from Election Day as winners, some communities had something a little closer to home to celebrate: their local libraries. In Southwest Greensburg, voters...
Lois Bower-Bjornson: We all want clean air
I grew up along the Monongahela River in the once thriving coal town of Fredericktown, where coal barges, orange water and mine drainage were the norm. Eighteen years ago my husband and I moved back to Washington County to raise our four children, despite it being the most heavily fracked...
Letter to the editor: Make illegal gun possession penalties tougher
Regarding the article “Pittsburgh Mayor asks for public’s help to get guns off streets amid Brighton Heights shooting” (Oct. 30, TribLIVE): The answer is quite simple, and it has worked elsewhere. Put anyone caught illegally carrying a gun, adult or juvenile, in jail for three or four years, without any...
Letter to the editor: Biden will take blame for destruction
I have never witnessed this country more divided. In my opinion, this division was planned, and implementation began during the Obama/Biden administration. President Obama spoke openly about fundamentally changing America. They began the process by stoking the flames of racial, economic and religious differences. They placed their proxies in all...
Editorial: The lessons of the 2022 election
So what did we learn? The 2022 election was not just a survey of what people want and don’t want. Those are the polls that have been going on for months. You know, the ones assessing what the most important issues would be, allowing candidates to make subtle — or...
Letter to the editor: Republican Party unrecognizable
I thought I knew the Republican Party. It was the party of family values I once supported because they represented the people’s welfare and were compassionate conservatives. But they’ve changed. The change has been gradual, until the party is now unrecognizable. I can’t understand how this Republican Party has mutated...
Jonah Goldberg: Elon Musk mistook Twitter for the real world
There’s something tragically poetic about Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. There’s a whole subculture of lamentation about modern society that can be fairly well summed up in Peter Thiel’s roughly decade-old gripe that things such as Twitter were distracting us from greatness: “We wanted flying cars. Instead, we got 140...
Darrell Owens: Responding to veteran suicide crisis
Over the past several years, most Americans have learned that veterans face a suicide crisis. We have been told that veterans take their own lives at a rate of 17 per day. The numbers resonate deeply with people across the country. Here in Pennsylvania, 240 veterans reportedly took their lives...
Brian Callaci: Reining in UPMC’s monopsony power key to addressing workforce crisis in Pittsburgh hospitals
What do self-proclaimed freelance writer Stephen King and UPMC registered nurse Jodi Faltin have in common? They’re both fighting back against corporate monopsony power that eliminates competition in the labor market and allows employers to dictate terms to workers. Whether you’re selling horror stories or expertise in providing patient care,...
Garen Wintemute: How a divided America splits on QAnon, racism and armed patrols at polling places
There is much talk about political violence in America these days. Garen Wintemute, a University of California, Davis, scholar who researches firearm violence, has recently led a nationwide survey research project on political violence. The Conversation U.S. asked him for a portrait of what Americans think about political violence as...
Cal Thomas: A ‘sure thing’ election that wasn’t
MIAMI — If Republicans could not score their “red wave” victories predicted by many pundits — and even some Democrats — in these midterm elections, what’s next for them? All the issues were on their side — inflation, high gas and food prices, an open border, underperforming schools. If they...
Letter to the editor: Regulations on industry protect us
Do you believe regulations on industry should be reduced or eliminated? Remember, that includes eliminating the regulations on chemicals industry can release into our rivers and send to our landfills. The chemicals all end up in our drinking water. Vickie Oles Ligonier Township...
Letter to the editor: Are we too lazy to vote in person?
If you can get around and do your normal daily activities, then one day a year you can take 10 minutes to go to your local election site. Here’s the problem: Society is so lazy that people can’t even muster the incredible strength to actually do their own shopping or...
Editorial: Election rules shouldn’t differ county to county
OK, it’s over now, right? The political ads are done. The polls opened. The polls closed. The ballots were cast. The early and absentee ballots came into election offices and through the mail. It’s all done but the final counting and certification, right? Oh, if only that were true. We...
Letter to the editor: Domestic drilling would ease our gas pains
Just as gas prices started to recede somewhat (albeit slowly), we now see they are rising again. Why? Because Saudi Arabia, in coordination with Russia and other oil-producing nations (OPEC), decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day. For Russia, higher gas prices could help them finance...
Letter to the editor: Celebrating the Jayhawks
This season the Jeannette faithful have endured criticism and disrespect from the Tribune-Review. Yes, some kids left the district, not the city. Yes, some kids left the city and now reside in other districts. This letter isn’t about those student athletes or their families; people need to make decisions that...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: What did they do with their humanity?
An 82-year-old man sustains a skull fracture from a predawn home invasion, and you think it’s funny? Or that it’s fodder for another dumb conspiracy theory? What did you do with your humanity? Where did you mislay your souls? Have you no sense of decency at long last? One is...
Luke Bernstein: Autonomous vehicle law puts Pa. in driver’s seat of opportunity, innovation
Pennsylvania’s Legislature recently put the commonwealth in the driver’s seat of innovation and economic opportunity by sending a bill to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk that paves the way for autonomous vehicle development. In the final days of the 2021-22 session, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry worked with state...
Letter to the editor: EV owners should pay their fair share
Regarding the editorial “Concrete EV revenue decisions should come before charging stations” (Oct. 18, TribLIVE): The fair way to get EVs to pay their fair share of the road maintenance is to use what the average internal combustion engine owner pays in gas tax every year and add that amount...
Letter to the editor: Our gun culture makes ‘life’ pleas ring hollow
Kennywood is no longer safe. Bus stops are no longer safe. Funerals are no longer safe. And yet, we continue our obsession with guns. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, reminds us that “The Second Amendment did not come down from Sinai; the right to bear arms will never...
Editorial: Toll scofflaw legislation is easy, but hard work is needed on other PennDOT, turnpike problems
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a new law last week giving the state a stick to smack or prod drivers owing delinquent toll money. The law comes after the state adopted Toll by Plate as an alternative to E-ZPass and eliminated in-person toll workers or the mechanical devices that caught...
Letter to the editor: New Kensington cat sanctuary needs help
Did you ever meet someone who starts a small business and gives it their best effort, only to be in trouble and overwhelmed due to circumstances beyond their control? I recently have and feel compelled to inform people about Anthony Zito and his creation of the nonprofit Zen Cat Sanctuary...
Letter to the editor: Joke is on Steelers, Pirates fans
Case No. 1: Pittsburgh Pirates The team will never be a true competitor until the present owner sells. He makes money from revenue sharing and TV revenue, plus gate receipts and probably concessions. So why pay good players to stay long term when you can pay less for rookies? What...
Tom Purcell: Laughs to ease your Election Day pain
This week half the country will be upset by the midterm election results and half will be elated. Regardless, politics is causing every one of us more stress than it ought to, but, believe it or not, there is, hopefully, still some humor that we can all enjoy. Since Congress...
Colin McNickle: PIT’s shale gas wells not living up to billing
A revenue stream once highly touted as being a double saving grace that not only helped make Pittsburgh International Airport’s (PIT) current $1.4 billion terminal modernization program possible but kept PIT from defaulting on its debt is struggling to live up to its original billing, according to a new analysis...
