Featured Commentary category, Page 22
Dwight Boddorf: Regional authority would solve EMS crisis
Across Pennsylvania, emergency medical services are in crisis. It is not just a rural issue. It is not just about volunteers. It is a systemic failure; unless we act now, lives will be lost waiting for help that never comes. In recent years, local EMS agencies have struggled to maintain...
Megan Zeigler: The regional cost of inaction — what EPA clawbacks will mean for SWPA
At the very moment when bold, urgent action and strategic investment are needed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded its pledge to provide essential funding for southwestern Pennsylvania (and the rest of the country) by terminating contracts under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). These grants were a once-in-a-lifetime...
Kim Foxx and Cristine Soto DeBerry: Deleting the federal police misconduct database makes us less safe
President Donald Trump’s administration quietly deleted the first federal police misconduct database — a critical tool created to prevent federal law enforcement officers with histories of serious misconduct from being rehired by other agencies. This reckless decision undermines accountability, weakens public trust and makes our communities less safe. Ironically, it...
Meg Snead: What Kim Ward gets wrong in her fight to cut Medicaid
Earlier this month, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Harrisburg Republicans sent a letter asking the Trump administration to shut down a Medicaid program designed to help new mothers, children and poor families. I previously served as the acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and have...
Frank Barry: Call ‘migrants’ by their true name — immigrants
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s Juliet asks, making the point that what matters is a person’s essence, not what we call them. That’s true in love. In politics, not so much. People entering the U.S. at our southern border are now routinely called a name — migrant — that is...
David M. Drucker: Reagan Republicans didn’t disappear. They were just demoted.
Over the last decade, it’s become commonplace to describe President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party as hostile — as if the one-time New York real estate mogul was the political version of a corporate raider. That’s a gross mischaracterization, one that has contributed to a misunderstanding of the...
Greg Fulton: Remembering our nation’s Vietnam veterans
For many, March 29 is just another day on the calendar. However, for those who served in Vietnam and their families and friends, the day has much more meaning. March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. It is a day to honor and show appreciation to the 2.7 million...
James Thrasher: NCAA’s NIL policy — No Integrity Left
$4.8 million is the NIL (name, image and likeness) valuation of Cooper Flagg, a freshman Duke basketball player. How is that even possible? In essence, Duke was able to buy the hired gun, Flagg, one of the most highly decorated high school players in the country. Do you think Duke...
Seth T. Kannarr, Derek H. Alderman and Jordan Brasher: America is caught in a name game where place names become political tools
Place names are more than just labels on a map. They influence how people learn about the world around them and perceive their place in it. Names can send messages and suggest what is and isn’t valued in society. And the way that they are changed over time can signal...
Betsy Sinclair: Avoiding your neighbor because of how they voted? Democracy needs you to talk to them instead.
Are you angry about politics right now? Seething? You’re not alone. According to the Mood of the Nation Poll by researchers at Penn State, 9 in 10 Americans can name a recent news event or something about American politics that made them angry. Political scientists Steven Webster, Elizabeth Connors and...
Peter Morici: A recession could leave Americans humming ‘Oh, Canada’
President Trump’s convincing victory and mandate ignited optimism for more stock market gains, continued economic growth, and higher inflation. A leaner government, less regulation and lower taxes, combined with U.S. leadership in semiconductors and software for artificial intelligence, were expected to spark more innovation and investment. From Nov. 5 to...
John M. Crisp: Are Americans really all that lazy, corrupt and inefficient?
The conventional wisdom — really, it’s an Article of Faith for the Republican Party — is that the federal bureaucracy is a hopeless swamp of waste, fraud and inefficiency staffed by lazy, incompetent idlers. But is it? It’s a question worth considering, since it’s the rationale that drives the chainsaw...
Rep. Abby Major: Adult-use cannabis should be a Republican issue
I’m a Republican, always have been. I believe in small government, low taxes, a free market and personal liberty. For these reasons, I support the legalization of adult use of cannabis. Every state surrounding the commonwealth with the exception of West Virginia has already legalized, and it seems almost a...
Mike Tedesco: In defense of the Esplanade project
Colin McNickle’s column casting doubt on the merits of Pittsburgh’s Esplanade project is a tour de force that illustrates all the erroneous misconceptions surrounding it (“The problem with Pittsburgh’s ‘Esplanade’ project,” March 17, TribLive). McNickle’s perspective is based on a policy brief published by his co-workers, our local thinkers at...
Ted Kyle: Medicare should cover anti-obesity medications
In countless reports and studies, obesity is often reduced to just a number: 42% of adults in the U.S. have obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s in charts, statistics and graphs that dominate the conversation. But what these numbers fail to capture is the reality...
Jason W. Park: Third term president vs. No Kings Act
I have been getting strange texts on my phone for months now. The two most memorable catchphrases I can recall are “third term president” and “No Kings Act” precisely because they are so contrarian. Are they grist to the mill? Or fly-by-night partisan politics? As a concerned citizen with a...
Stephen J. Benham: Who will speak for Ukraine victims if we do not?
I am an American without any Ukrainian heritage. So I have no “ethnic” bias at play here. What I write below is based on 28 years of experience working in Ukraine. I have made 60 trips to the region since 1997, including four since the war began. I have visited...
Christopher Nicholas: Is Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary déjà vu all over again?
The Democratic primary battle for Pittsburgh mayor, between incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, looks to be yet another Western Pennsylvania-centered test case on the strength of the state’s progressive movement. Gainey, a progressive Democrat, has stumbled throughout his term and is widely seen as an...
Cal Thomas: Due process for all, or none
President Trump is using an 18th-century law, the Alien Enemies Act, to justify the deportation of hundreds of people he says are members of a vicious Venezuelan gang. That law was last used during World War II by the Roosevelt administration to justify the internment of Japanese Americans. The government...
Dan DeBone: Economic shock wave of Penn State New Kensington closure
Across the country, we are witnessing a troubling trend: the closure of regional college campuses. Some may see these as mere financial restructuring decisions, but I see them for what they truly are: economic earthquakes that shake the very foundation of local economies. The possible closure of Penn State New...
Cal Thomas: Putin on the blitz
The cliche has been that the ball is now in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s court. Not any longer. Putin has responded to U.S. appeals for a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine with a strong backhand, rejecting a ceasefire in his unprovoked invasion. Now the ball is in President Trump’s...
F. Willis Johnson: Liberation through the womanist perspective
Women’s History Month finds us at a critical crossroads. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population faces increasing backlash against women’s rights, while technological disruption and economic uncertainty threaten to deepen existing inequalities. Yet, within this challenging landscape lies an opportunity to radically reimagine our approach to gender equality through a...
Aaron T. Redis: Public cyber charter school saved my life
Last spring, I read a lot of articles calling for cuts to public cyber charter school funding here in Pennsylvania. It’s hard to believe these schools continue to be targeted for cuts at a time when more people are moving away from traditional public schools and toward these public cybers....
Lara Williams: Woolly mammoths? Mars? Let’s take care of what we’ve got.
Earlier this month, science delivered a really cute experimental result. Researchers created a “colossal woolly mouse,” a fluffy rodent that’s purported to be a step on the way to resurrecting woolly mammoths from the age of dinosaurs. But that project — along with Elon Musk’s obsession with establishing a colony...
Counterpoint: STEM is key to our future
By nearly all objective measures, the U.S. education system is not fulfilling its primary duty of ensuring that today’s students are prepared to achieve in the world of tomorrow. As we all know, modern society is becoming ever more dependent on technology. Hence, if American students are to compete in...
