Featured Commentary category, Page 152
Greg Christy: Can the power region afford to miss the shale revolution boat?
We are in the middle of a great American shale revolution. For the first time in decades, the United States is holding its own against OPEC and Russia, going from energy importer to energy exporter. Unlocking previously inaccessible shale reservoirs deep underground using hydraulic fracturing technology is becoming our nation’s...
Wayne Campbell: Keep Sunday hunting ban
The issue of allowing Sunday hunting has surfaced again. Senate Bill 147 sponsored by Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, removing the prohibition, was reported out of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee without benefit of public scrutiny or hearings. It is unfortunate that opponents to Sunday hunting were not given a...
Mitchel Nickols: For Black History Month, let’s celebrate contributions
Here we are, hundreds of years since millions of slaves were deported from the west coast of Africa involuntarily, and millions died because of poor conditions on slave ships. Yet the call for all Americans to join in the celebration of Black History Month is not too much to ask....
John Stossel: Bogus gun research
Last week Rep. Nancy Pelosi warned President Donald Trump that if he declared an “emergency” to build a wall, “think what a president with different values can present… Why don’t you declare (the epidemic of gun violence in America) an emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would … . A...
Walter Williams: Plunder an American way of life
Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and member of the French National Assembly, lived from 1801 to 1850. He had great admiration for our country, except for our two faults — slavery and tariffs. He said: “Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where the law...
Doyle McManus: ‘America first’ increasingly looks like America alone
WASHINGTON — The annual Munich Security Conference is usually a somnolent affair, a ritual renewal of vows between the United States and its European allies. This year was different. Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, finally said what she thinks of President Trump. Without using Trump’s name, she described his “America...
Pat Buchanan: Will diversity be death of Democrats?
Both of America’s great national parties are coalitions. But it is the Democratic Party that never ceases to celebrate diversity — racial, religious, ethnic, cultural — as its own and as America’s “greatest strength.” Understandably so, for the party is home to a multitude of minorities. It is the domain...
Robert Powelson: Misinformation campaign will prolong Pittsburgh’s water woes
Using unequivocal language including “ineptness,” “negligence” and a “lack of training and expertise,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed 161 criminal charges this month against the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA). The filings laid out how the drinking water provider that serves over 300,000 Pittsburghers was criminally liable under...
Nathan Benefield: Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget rhetoric meets reality
Last year, nearly 50 of our neighbors fled Pennsylvania every day. They moved to growing states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina, seeking opportunity. Meanwhile, we literally can’t pay businesses enough to come here. Recall that Amazon rejected $5 billion in taxpayer-funded bribes and set up “HQ2” elsewhere. It’s time...
Doyle McManus: Trump’s bromance with Kim Jong Un faces a reality check as nations discuss nuclear disarmament
WASHINGTON — Persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons will be a long and grueling process that will require President Trump to make significant concessions — and even then, the effort may fail. That dose of caution from Trump’s special envoy to North Korea,...
Michelle Malkin: Oklahoma’s rape kit scandal
If you are puzzled by the nationwide rape-kit testing backlog, Oklahoma provides maddening insight on the bureaucratic forces that create intolerable inertia — and injustice. An estimated 225,000 rape kits have gone unprocessed across the country; more than 7,200 have been neglected in Oklahoma. Last month, a woman who reported...
Richard Serbin: Vatican should chip in for clergy abuse survivors
Finally, decades into a still-unresolved crisis, some Pennsylvania bishops are now agreeing to compensate victims of predator priests. But it seems that one responsible party is getting off scot-free: the Vatican. For four days later this month, bishops from around the world will meet to discuss the child sex abuse...
Antony Davies & James Harrigan: Minimum-wage myths
Gov. Tom Wolf has put Pennsylvania’s minimum wage front and center in the news again, as he tries to raise it to $12 an hour. This is music to the ears of people earning $7.25 an hour, but it won’t be a happy tune for everyone. Politicians would rather you...
Jeff Remington: STEM, pot & our prosperity
I am very appreciative of Gov. Tom Wolf’s generous attention to Pennsylvania’s education needs during his tenure. His recent budget address gave additional credence to how he values education in the commonwealth. He is not alone. The 2019 Senate and House Education Committees are made up of lawmakers who are...
Walter Williams: Marijuana, mental illness & violence
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Twenty-two other states, along with U.S. territories Puerto Rico and Guam, allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Let’s examine some hidden issues about marijuana use. Before we start, permit me to state my values about medical...
Noah Feldman: Democrats’ compromise strengthens case for Trump’s wall ‘emergency’
In retrospect, it seems obvious that President Donald Trump would want to have his cake and eat it, too. That’s essentially what he’s doing by both signing a government funding bill that provides $1.375 billion for a barrier with Mexico and also declaring a national emergency to allocate other federal...
John Stossel: Unique school allows struggling students to flourish
There must be a better way to keep kids interested in school than drugging them. Today, one in five school-age boys is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Many are given drugs that are supposed to help them pay attention. “I was the rowdy kid, the bad kid,” says Cade...
Analysis: Why Pennsylvania needs to ditch fracking and get a Green New Deal of its own
If a foreign adversary announced to the world that it had a new arsenal of destructive nuclear weapons and threatened the imminent doom of the United States, what would we do? Push for a peace deal that would limit and hopefully end the atomic threat? Invest heavily in missile defense?...
Nia Arrington: Young people advocate for safe, supportive schools
On Feb. 14, 2018, 17 people tragically lost their lives in a brutal massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. I was in school when it happened and saw tweets from students in the school. It was terrifying. In the days following, I was inspired by the...
Eric Zorn: A call for supermarkets to stop selling National Enquirer
It’s immoral for stores to sell the National Enquirer. This has been true since long before the Florida-based supermarket tabloid began churning out poisonously and deliberately false propaganda during the 2016 presidential campaign season — “Hillary (Clinton): 6 months to live!”; “Bill (Clinton) caught in teen sex ring!”; “Hillary hitman...
Vince Mercuri: Care for physical, emotional heart
I recall sitting in a health/science class in the early ’70s where the subject was caring for the heart. Topics included the typical instructions about height and weight , exercise, diet, heart-rate monitoring, blood pressure ranges, and overall health and wellness do’s and don’ts. The homework assignments involved tracking daily...
Michael Galant: It’s time to shut down tax havens
For many Americans, February is tax time — or at least the time they are reminded of their need to pay taxes, now that the forms are all in. That means millions of people are starting to sift through piles of paper hoping they won’t owe more than they can...
John Gibson: Setting record straight on Veolia’s PWSA work
In response to Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy’s op-ed “Real culprit in Pittsburgh’s lead crisis” (Feb. 6, TribLIVE), we would like to state that we wholeheartedly agree with the author’s desire to put the interests and safety of the people of Pittsburgh first. We wish to set the record straight, however, regarding...
Pat Buchanan: Has Trump found formula for 2020?
If the pollsters at CNN and CBS are correct, Donald Trump may have found the formula for winning a second term in 2020. His State of the Union address, say the two networks, met with the approval of 76 percent of all viewers — 97 percent of Republicans, 82 percent...
Francis Wilkinson: Elizabeth Warren and the high price of progress
President Bill Clinton claimed at a forum in 1998 that his grandmother was “one-quarter Cherokee.” The assertion, from a politician with a not-always-sterling reputation for truthfulness, went unheralded. Clinton’s mother had earlier been described, in a 1992 article, as a “descendant of Irish farmers and Cherokee Indians.” The genealogical receipts...
