Opinion category, Page 360
Letter to the editor: Why aren’t unpaid turnpike tolls collected?
Why is the turnpike raising tolls when they have almost $150 million of tolls that are past due (“Pa. Turnpike tolls to go up for 15th straight year,” Aug. 2, TribLIVE)? Sen. Kim Ward and her staff have known about this for several years and haven’t done anything about it....
Letter to the editor: New Kensington intersection needs safety upgrade
For a while now, I’ve notice highway markings around the valley have been missing, unnoticed or disappearing. The public works departments are great and hard workers, especially in the winter when roads are snow- or ice-covered. But the markings at Route 366 (Tarentum Bridge Road) and Leechburg Road in New...
Letter to the editor: Lessons for Pa. from Kansas
Kansas voters’ crushing rejection of the amendment that would have removed the right to abortion from the state’s Constitution sends a loud message to Pennsylvania’s GOP legislators. Underhanded tactics likely won’t play well here either, even with many conservatives. The Kansas amendment was deliberately worded to confuse voters and hide...
Lori Falce: The crippling cost of insulin
Insulin is not just a drug. It’s a hormone that is produced in the pancreas. It is part of how the body controls blood sugar. When you talk about it like that, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal. But it is — because the sugar in your blood...
Letter to the editor: Shapiro will deliver results for Pa.
We need to elect a leader for governor who will take the initiative to get things done. But, wait, what sorts of things? Josh Shapiro, as attorney general, stepped up when a fight between health industry behemoths UPMC and Highmark threatened the care of thousands of Pennsylvanians. He brokered a...
Letter to the editor: Joe Biden and the Peter Principle
To understand Joe Biden, you must understand the Peter Principle. Laurence J. Peter developed The Peter Principle, which states that a person rises to the level of their incompetence. In a hierarchical management system, a person is promoted due to past success until they reach a level where they can...
Laurels & lances: Fuel, funds, a dog and guns
Laurel: To trying new things. The Westmoreland County Airport Authority is pondering a proposal from Kilocharge, a Rostraver-based company, that would designate up to 16 parking spots at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to a specific purpose. The idea is to have eight charging stations at the airport, allowing people...
Colin McNickle: PIT’s post-pandemic passenger recovery falters
One thing is clear: Passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), which had been rebounding as the covid-19 pandemic subsided, faltered in June. But another thing is quite unclear — the reason for that slippage, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “PIT is struggling to get...
Rep. Eric Nelson: Pennsylvania is Exhibit A for why election integrity matters
The recent fiasco that was the Pennsylvania Republican primary for U.S. Senate is Exhibit A on why every state needs to make election integrity a priority. It took nearly three weeks to determine the winner of the election. Imagine attending the Super Bowl and having to wait three weeks, or...
Letter to the editor: Cheney’s integrity admirable
I share letter-writer Maria Maliszewski’s concern for Liz Cheney’s future (“Liz Cheney won’t get reelected,” July 30, TribLIVE). Not that I’m her biggest fan; we couldn’t be much farther apart on the political spectrum. And if the people of Wyoming would elect a reasonable replacement, perhaps someone more centrist, I...
Letter to the editor: Plenty of evidence for Jan. 6
Letter-writer Kathleen Bollinger (“Jan. 6 witch hunt,” Aug. 4, TribLIVE) compares the investigation into the attempted coup against our government to the terrible events of the Salem witch trials, wherein hundreds of people were imprisoned and 20 were executed for their alleged crimes of “witchcraft,” all without a shred of...
Editorial: Too much Super PAC money in Pa.’s U.S. Senate race
Money makes elections go around. That’s nothing new. Political fundraisers are the only things more common in a campaign than stump speeches and kissing babies. Like it or not, they make the rest of a campaign possible. They provide the capital to pay for ads on television and online, the...
Letter to the editor: Gun ownership and freedom
Rights can be considered to be individualistic or society-wide. The Founding Fathers, understanding that individual rights don’t actually lead to freedoms, wrote the Bill of Rights to provide the American society with certain freedoms. Take the Second Amendment. When people cite it as justification for our lax gun laws, they...
Jonah Goldberg: DOJ needs to clarify intentions in Trump search
On Monday, evening news broke that the FBI searched the Florida home of Donald Trump, the former president. Trump himself informed the world, calling it a “raid” and an “assault.” While both words are colloquially defensible, it wasn’t some Eliot Ness style breach with a battering ram or sledgehammer. The...
Cal Thomas: McCullough’s history never boring
I hated college history. The textbooks were mostly about dead white men, Abigail Adams excepted. The lectures were boring. I didn’t see how any of it related to my young life and future plans. Historian David McCullough, who died this week at age 89, helped change my attitude toward history...
Ray Nell Jones: How much would you give to save a life?
How much would you give to save a life? If only we could ask that question three years ago, June 13, 2019 — the day before Stanlee Allyn Holbrook took her own life. She was one of Pittsburgh’s many young and single mothers, all of 26 years old with three...
Letter to the editor: Democracy in action in Kansas
Finally, true democracy in action. Hooray for the all the voters of Kansas. The issue of abortion was put on the ballot for the voters to decide. I think there was a bigger issue decided here. It wasn’t just the right to keep abortions legal, but the rights of the...
Letter to the editor: ‘Election integrity’ is the Big Lie, rebranded
Pennsylvania Sen. Kim Ward is creating fear about a problem that doesn’t exist. That is clearly the point of her op-ed, “A step toward election integrity in Pa.” (July 24, TribLIVE). Voters are losing confidence in elections solely because of the Big Lie told by Republicans. The 2020 election was...
Letter to the editor: Big cat legislation will protect animals, community
The House made the right decision in overwhelmingly passing the Big Cat Public Safety Act, House Resolution 263. Law enforcement and animal welfare groups agree that it’s reckless to allow private citizens without the resources and know-how to keep endangered tigers and lions in their backyards and basements. It is...
Editorial: Nursing home fraud crimes aren’t just about money
When looking for a nursing home, there are a number of things to consider. You can look to online reviews. You can consider recommendations from hospitals or doctors. You can visit websites that specifically help you find the right facility to treat medical, mental or emotional needs. But the one...
Letter to the editor: Ideas to solve housing crisis inspired by Gerald Ford
People who are quite old (me, for example) may remember the 38th POTUS (1974-77), Gerald R. Ford. He took some actions to stanch inflation, which was serious at the time and a walk in the park compared to what is happening now. He instituted a wage/price freeze and distributed lapel...
Letter to the editor: Denying rights, supporting lies
While growing up in North Irwin, I knew people with many different political and religious views. We still got along for the most part, and I miss that. During my lifetime, I’ve seen civil rights afforded to Black people. I’ve seen women get the right to own property without a...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Dare we hope?
“Dare we hope?” That was the rather plaintive response of a man on Twitter when news broke that Kansas voters had rejected an attempt to remove the right to abortion from their state constitution. We are talking about a fire-engine-red state. It went for Donald Trump in 2016 and repeated...
Aerion Abney: Despite the attacks, let’s vote — mail-in voting’s still an option in Pa.
Part of our role as legislators is to help increase access to opportunities for those we are elected to represent. Act 77 of 2019 did just that. It was a bipartisan bill that expanded access to the ballot by moving the commonwealth on a path toward normalizing no-excuse mail-in voting....
Dr. Andrew Smolar: On guns, abortion and more, why can’t 2 sides come together?
I took a glance at the two sides last week, and it didn’t look pretty. On Wednesday, I attended a township board meeting, where an owner’s right to open a gun shop in our town just west of Philadelphia was challenged. In one corner: an Orthodox Jewish owner, operating a...
