Opinion category, Page 88
Letter to the editor: Who would believe Jan. 6 was a normal day?
If you watched what happened at our nation’s Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, and believe it was a normal day, then you will believe anything. Diane Powell New Kensington...
Letter to the editor: Disappointed in library’s rejection of union workers
Regarding the article “Norwin library renovations begin; library to reopen Wednesday” (Jan. 14, TribLive): The $500,000 renovation project will include a new family restroom, a second meeting room, interior painting, new flooring and automatic doors, which sounds wonderful. Our library has been working hard with wonderful programs for all ages....
Editorial: Can Walmart roll back Monroeville Mall’s decline?
What’s next for Monroeville Mall? The 186-acre retail destination was sold by CBL Properties last week. The price tag? About $34 million. That’s nothing compared with the $231 million CBL paid when it bought the mall more than 20 years ago. But the mall isn’t really the draw it was...
Letter to the editor: Playing politics with Register of Wills
Shame on you, Kim Ward, for letting Republican politics take precedence, as usual, over the interests of the residents of Westmoreland County. It appears you were instrumental in advancing the name of political operative Jon Wian to be the county’s new register of wills (“Governor nominates Wian, Schimizzi to fill...
Jonah Goldberg: Many will lie about the consequences of Trump’s tariffs. The markets won’t.
Thank God for the stock market. The market is one of the only things Donald Trump can be expected to listen to — likely more than polls and certainly more than his advisers — even when he doesn’t want to hear what it’s saying. During his first term, Trump routinely...
Joan Flores-Villalobos: Yes, the Panama Canal was built at a dear price — paid in Black lives
“The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts,” said President Donald Trump in his second inaugural address, on Jan. 20, as he cited his foreign policy initiatives. The Gulf of Mexico would be changed to the Gulf of America and Denali peak renamed as Mt. McKinley. But the...
Letter to the editor: Transform Western Pen for the homeless
Maybe state, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh officials could convene talks to turn Western Penitentiary into a homeless shelter, and then expand into affordable housing. This would require all three government bodies to work together. Might be a better idea than demolishing these buildings Tim Waibel McCandless...
Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaper
A pause. The Seton Hill University student paper is on what my English department colleagues described in a recent email as “indefinite hiatus.” At the time, we didn’t know for how long. I was surprised by the creatively phrased Trib headline “Seton Hill University shutters student newspaper indefinitely” (Jan. 27, TribLive)....
Letter to the editor: Trump’s executive orders an unconstitutional power grab
Donald Trump’s executive orders make one thing clear to me: He is trying to grab power the Constitution does not give him. One order declares that as of Feb. 19, 2025, some babies born in the United States will not be American citizens under circumstances Trump himself has determined. The...
Editorial: Just get the budget done, Harrisburg
Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out a plan for cooperation in his budget address Tuesday. Heading into his third budget negotiation, he outlined priorities that might be consensus builders between his Democratic Party and the Republicans on the other side. He talked about seniors. He talked about kids. He talked about...
Letter to the editor: Reining in Trump’s inappropriateness
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay becomes so involved in the game that he often wanders into the area where the side judge is to have clear passage or sometimes even onto the field. To address this problem, the Rams have employed a “get back coach” who follows McVay...
Letter to the editor: A rundown of the last 8 years
Many Americans are conflicted about what significant events actually happened politically in, and to, our great country, over the past eight years. Both sides accuse each other of continually lying. As a political junkie of many years, here is my summary of the essential, pertinent, verifiable facts of the last...
Letter to the editor: Sheriff is right about dangers of society
Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert is correct that society is becoming more dangerous (“Keeping Westmoreland County safe,” Dec. 10, TribLive). Millions of people coming across our southern border illegally is an invasion. No other country on earth would allow this. President Biden’s handlers made it worse by flying them to...
Letter to the editor: Why no conservative outcry over executive orders?
When Barack Obama was president he signed a few executive orders. Conservatives went ape, accusing him of being a dictator, carrying protest signs showing a Hitler mustache on Obama’s face, and demanding his removal from office for over-using executive orders. Now look what we have with Trump. In a few...
Kevin Frazier: Stuck and stagnant — why Americans need a frontier
The pandemic reshaped our world in countless ways, but perhaps the most insidious effect is the pervasive feeling of being stuck. A recent survey revealed that a majority of Americans feel socially stagnant — unable to take a major step toward a better life, better job, or better community. The...
Sen. Dick Durbin: Big Pharma should disclose prices on drug advertisements
Patients in the United States pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world — on average four times what people in other developed countries pay for the exact same brand-name medications. What makes the U.S. such an outlier when it comes to the high price of prescription drugs? The...
Letter to the editor: Why fund an air show with no air performances?
In the article “Westmoreland commissioners approve $1.7M tourism plan” (Jan. 17, TribLive) was this little nugget: “… nearly $94,000 was earmarked for the county air show at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.” The article then said that the air show was expected to be scaled down, a one-day event … with...
Letter to the editor: Looking forward to fair coverage
A few recent items in this newspaper gave me some hope that political events would be covered more fairly in the coming year. The letter “Fact-checking censorship” (Jan. 15, TribLive) was an excellent rebuttal to Lori Falce’s column “Meta is wrong about abandoning fact-checking”, (Jan. 10, TribLive) which stated that...
Editorial: Black History Month acknowledges the contributions to our communities
February is Black History Month. It is a time when we stop and take a moment to recognize the role Black people have played in the building of our country. From America’s earliest days, Black people were an integral part of the architecture of the nation — whether it was...
Letter to the editor: Costs of deportation
First off, I have no problem deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. As for the remainder: Immigration is using C17s to fly illegals out of the country. The passenger capacity of a C17 is 130 passengers. And it costs approximately $30,000 per hour to operate one. Assume...
Michael B. Poliakoff and Justin D. Garrison: Pa. universities pay lip service to campus free speech, yet self-censorship still persists
Like many universities, Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh are struggling to protect free expression, encourage a plurality of views and foster habits of civil discourse on their campuses. Seemingly aware of the problem, Pitt announced a “Year of Discourse and Dialogue” in 2023-24 that has been extended to...
Letter to the editor: Tyranny should always be opposed
If Donald Trump sends forces to seize Greenland, Denmark is politically and morally justified in stopping them. If American troops threaten Danish forces, the Danes should defend themselves. If Americans fire at them, the Danes should shoot back — however many young American soldiers, sailors and pilots might die or...
Letter to the editor: Fiscal ineptness in Westmoreland
It seems to me that an unyielding virus of fiscal ineptness has developed in the Great Land of Westmoreland (GLOW). It started when two of the three county commissioners — the regular one and the bald one — went scorched earth on taxpayers a year or so ago after they...
Editorial: Federal emergency management could use reform, not elimination
During a tour of communities in western North Carolina and neighborhoods in Los Angeles devastated by natural disasters, President Donald Trump told victims, state officials and assembled media that his administration would look to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation’s foremost disaster response agency, or consider eliminating it...
Letter to the editor: Our tax dollars shouldn’t fund war crimes
As a Jewish resident of Pittsburgh, I support the Not on Our Dime campaign to demand accountability in city policies and ensure our public resources reflect our shared values. Not on Our Dime is gathering signatures for a referendum to align Pittsburgh finances with residents’ moral standards by divesting from...
