Opinion category, Page 65
Letter to the editor: Stand up against tariff madness
Tariffs are paid by importers to the U.S. government. The U.S. government keeps the money. The price of goods sold will go up to cover this government levy. U.S. citizens will then pay higher prices on any and every item that has been tariffed. The U.S. government is setting you...
Letter to the editor: Protecting the least among us, and ourselves
Regarding recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions: This is kidnapping and in another time, in the USA, the perpetrators would be jailed, not the person being abducted. Immigration and visa violations are civil, not criminal, matters. ICE detention, according to its own guidelines, should be “non-punitive” (not intended as...
Editorial: Less participation in local government is a lost opportunity
Pennsylvania has 67 counties, 500 school districts and 2,560 municipalities. With each step down that ladder, there are more and more opportunities for people to step up and participate in their government. There are commissioners, controllers, registers and clerks at the county level. There are directors for school boards. There...
Goldberg: Is Kilmar Abrego Garcia a criminal? Great question.
Is Kilmar Abrego Garcia a good person? I don’t know. In 2021 his wife petitioned for, and received, an order of protection against him after she alleged domestic violence; she said last week that their marriage grew stronger after they worked through that low point and that Abrego Garcia “has...
Keith G. Kondrich: Today’s ‘traitors’ in good company
If it is treason to criticize U.S. health care policies based on pseudo-scientific half-truths and conspiracy theories promulgated by a charlatan, then I am a traitor and should be deported immediately to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. If it is treason to criticize the gutting of critical services...
Letter to the editor: Let’s be classy and support our Pirates
The chants of “sell the team” this past weekend at the Pirates games at PNC Park were disgraceful. Sure, the decisions of Bob Nutting over the years of trading or hiring players grates on many fans. But while players are trying to win ballgames, this kind of noise — “sell...
Letter to the editor: Norwin board’s stadium vote irresponsible
We attended the contentious Norwin School Board meeting April 14 and were very disappointed in the vote to spend $25 million on a stadium, press box and other enhancements. This extravagance will add more to Norwin’s $100 million debt. How will you/we ever pay that debt back servicing $1 million...
Editorial: Delay in announcing Penn State campus closures will impact student choices
Penn State is making decisions about which of 12 Commonwealth Campuses the university might close. The decision has been dangled since February. President Neeli Bendapudi announced then that she had a team compiling recommendations. The university has its flagship campus at University Park and 19 branches scattered across the state....
Letter to the editor: Trump administration’s cruelty
I suggest now is the time to stop the irresponsible, vindictive and basically cruel behaviors of this current administration. In my opinion, they are not working for seniors, women, legal immigrants, working poor, people of color, government workers, veterans or middle-class citizens. You know, just us regular old taxpaying citizens....
Letter to the editor: Tariffs will restore middle class
Donald Trump is our first president to have both publicly acknowledged the international trading system has badly failed America and has the insight and courage to pursue corrective policies. The failed policies over the last 30 years or so have produced middle class economic decline driven by hollowing out communities...
Kimberlee Josephson: The hidden costs of IRS Direct File for Pennsylvanians
Tax season just came and went, but one Pennsylvania congressman appears worried that thousands of commonwealth residents may have overpaid. Republican Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly, chairman of the House of Representatives’ tax subcommittee, has been sounding the alarm about the IRS’s new Direct File program, a government-run tax filing tool....
Thomas C. Willcox: Don’t blame AI for Pa.’s high rent
Pennsylvanians might be more politically divided than ever before, but there’s one thing they can all agree on: the rent is too darn high. In the commonwealth, rents are expected to jump by more than 6% in 2025, well above the national average of 4.8%. This lack of affordability has...
Letter to the editor: Pecarchik cleaned up register of wills mess, is most qualified for office
The writer of the letter “Wian right pick for register of wills” (April 11, TribLive) insinuates that Katie Pecarchik was complicit in political maneuvering by the court-appointed conservator, and/or was entangled in the office’s troubled history. In actuality, Pecarchik cleaned up the years-long backlog left by Sherry Hamilton. Does the...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s war on coal miners
The U.S. government is ending the leases of four Mine Safety and Health Administration offices in Pennsylvania and has plans to cut 200 jobs at the Pittsburgh Mining Research Division of OSHA (“Pa. mine safety, research offices targeted for closure as president touts coal,” April 8, TribLive). This drastic reduction...
Letter to the editor: There’s another Liberation Day coming
Well, Liberation Day has come and gone. The good news is that we’re making a slow recovery, although people have lost possibly trillions in their individual retirement accounts. Hopefully these people will recover from the massive losses they incurred. The bad news is that President Trump instituted tariffs, and the...
Editorial: Pope Francis provided a voice for many — and an example to be emulated
Requiescat in pace. That is the Latin phrase abbreviated as R.I.P. on so many memorials. The common English use “rest in peace” does not do it justice. “Rest in peace” is a direction or an order. A more accurate translation is “May he rest in peace.” The simple addition of...
Letter to the editor: Correctional officers’ life expectancy
The correctional officers’ life expectancy at the Allegheny County Jail is 61 years of age, 16 years below the life expectancy of the average American. Experts agree that a critical difference in what makes this expectancy so low is the constant exposure to the possibility of physically intervening in a...
Letter to the editor: What will colleges do about escalating costs?
Regarding the article, “Faced with a perfect storm, small local colleges try to navigate the future” (April 13, TribLive): the “Skyrocketing Tuitions” chart and other publicly available data shows the extent of how much college tuition costs have increased relative to other economic indicators since 1980. The chart shows that,...
Jim Howell: Shapiro’s proposal to protect seniors and the lottery deserves bipartisan support
Given the charged political environment that we are enduring, I am hopeful that lawmakers will come to a consensus in support of a key component of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposal: the need to protect older Pennsylvanians who rely on programs funded by our state lottery. Our state lottery...
Christine Flowers: Big part of being Catholic is speaking out over injustices
My alma mater was wrong. Villanova should have barred a young man from walking at graduation after filming a young woman being sexually assaulted. Instead, he basically skated. No arrest, no charges, no penalties. It took an intrepid journalist with a solid moral compass to bring the story to the...
Letter to the editor: Pa.’s gas prices due to high taxes
Regarding the letter “Oil prices vs. gas prices” (April 14, TribLive): Pennsylvania has the third highest gasoline taxes in the country. When the federal levies are added to those imposed by the state, Pennsylvania consumers are paying 77 cents per gallon in taxes. I suspect the 77 cents per gallon...
Letter to the editor: Pecarchik’s hard work, results make her best choice for register of wills
As a critical thinker, I found there to be no logic to the letter “Wian right pick for register of wills” (April 11, TribLive). It appears her support of Jon Wian is based solely on the fact that he wasn’t involved in the mess created under the former register. If...
Letter to the editor: Shapiro’s leadership refreshing
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s leadership is a dazzling contrast to the leadership at the federal level. His proposed 2025-26 budget has an emphasis on public service, not aggrandizement. Gratefully, Shapiro is working to counter the mean-spirited approach of the Trump administration that unlawfully terminated the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program (LFPA),...
Editorial: The financial crisis of 2025? Better to be ready
If there’s one thing investors have learned in recent days, it’s that there’s no way to guess what America will do next. With its on-again, off-again tariffs, the administration has demonstrated a willingness to shock markets. Amid such radical uncertainty, a financial crisis isn’t out of the question. Policymakers need...
Letter to the editor: Why we’re protesting Trump’s actions
I attended the recent “Hands Off” rally in Pittsburgh for many reasons: unreasonable tariffs, attacks on science, education, health and health care, voting rights, free speech and freedom of the press, inhumane deportations. We have been living in chaos and attacks on our democratic way of life ever since the...
