Opinion category, Page 315
Elwood Watson: Police interaction with young Black girl had happy ending
Last month, the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony to celebrate Bobbi Wilson, a 9-year-old Black kid from Caldwell, N.J., who efforts to eradicate spotted lanternflies was seen as an environmentally progressive gesture. The ceremony also recognized Wilson’s donation of her personal spotted lanternfly collection to Yale’s Peabody...
Dr. Andrew Smolar: The balancing act of parenting adolescents
The task of parenting adolescents has changed a great deal, given how fast the world is moving. For one, information is plentiful and immediately accessible. When I was 17, we checked card catalogs and descended into the library’s catacombs to research a subject. Now, with the stroke of a thumb,...
John Hinshaw: Where is the Latino vote headed in Pa.?
Nationally, Latinos are flexing their growing political muscle. They now make up 11% of the U.S. House, for example. In Pennsylvania, however, Latino voters essentially sat out the last election. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, turnout in the state’s most heavily Latino districts was less than half that of 2020....
Letter to the editor: Regarding Tyre Nichols — common sense and honesty can save lives
I was appalled by the way police responded to the Tyre Nichols traffic stop. My military training taught me you are only as strong as your leaders. These officers had no skills in policing. The leaders who gave them their jobs should be fired. Giving jobs to people who are...
Letter to the editor: Let the average person see a Super Bowl
The two teams participating in the Super Bowl each year get 17.5% of the tickets. The host city gets 5%. The league gets 24%. The other 30 teams, including the Steelers, each get 1.2%. State Farm Stadium holds 75,000, meaning the Steelers will get 900 tickets. Although the number is...
Editorial: Addressing blight requires planning and action
Eliminating blight isn’t a one-time task. Like weeding a garden, it’s a continual battle against recurrent attacks. As one industry rises, another one falls. Coal to nuclear to gas. Steel to banking to health care. The same happens with evolving lifestyles. Downtown shopping districts gave way to massive one-stop malls...
Letter to the editor: ‘Recipe’ to fix property tax assessment issues
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s staffers finally appeared publicly to discuss the seven-year ratio coding scandal. After fixing one of the seven years of bad luck for taxpayers, Fitzgerald’s chief of staff, Jennifer Liptak, was asked about conducting a voluntary review of the other six years so taxpayers would finally...
Letter to the editor: State of the union stronger when America leads on energy
Solving the energy crisis requires a course correction from Washington — and one that encourages domestic natural gas and oil development, energy security, economic growth and continued progress toward a lower-carbon future. What doesn’t help is the finger-pointing at producers, unfounded accusations of price gouging and threats to impose new...
Tom Purcell: How to write a romance story
All my father ever wanted as a young man was to marry my mother and start a family — plans that were interrupted when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean conflict. As he served in Texas, Germany and other parts of the world, there was only one...
Cal Thomas: Trial balloons
KEY LARGO, Florida — Say the words “espionage” and “communism” to a younger generation and they might think you’re talking about spy novels and Cold War history. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thinks both words describe contemporary threats. During a visit to a town made famous by the 1948...
Letter to the editor: Effective policing required to save Downtown Pittsburgh
I respect but disagree with columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick that saving Pittsburgh requires a coalition of “corporate leaders, the foundations, universities and colleges, neighborhood groups, and political leaders from the state and county and city” (“Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE). A bureaucracy is not needed to get...
Letter to the editor: People should be able to decide who they want to serve
What happened to our freedom? If individually owned businesses cannot decide who they want to serve, then the freedom of the owner is denied. I’m not talking of a hospital, but individual doctors and nurses should not be compelled to provide services against their own beliefs. It’s not as though...
Editorial: Reserve audit tells only part of story
There is little doubt that, as state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor recently reported, some public school districts move around money to avoid reporting excessive cash reserves that would preclude them from raising local taxes. But that is only part of the story. Public school districts don’t operate in a vacuum...
Letter to the editor: Fallout from Tyre Nichols’ death
The video of Memphis police officers inflicting blows that ultimately proved fatal to Tyre Nichols was very disheartening. This was a senseless act by officers who did not deescalate the situation, but instead allowed their frustration and anger to take over. Nichols and the five officers involved are Black, so...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 6
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 6....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 6
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 6....
Tracey L. Rogers: Teach Black history — don’t ban it
When Republican President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, he called on Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans.” He also acknowledged that Black Americans had shown “courage and perseverance” when our country had failed to live up to its...
Michael Reagan: IRS tightens the screws on the gig economy
The IRS is so kind. Our most beloved federal agency has delayed until next year a new income-reporting law it has carefully designed to squeeze the last drops of tax revenue out of many of us. The new IRS rule is aimed at millions of self-employed people and small business...
Letter to the editor: Giving up guns won’t end carnage
Regarding “‘Don’t be numb to this’: Battling despair over gun deaths” (Jan. 29, TribLIVE): As a lifelong hunting and firearm enthusiast, I would gladly give up my modern firearms if it would end the active shooter carnage we are now experiencing. But it won’t because the bad guys who have...
Letter to the editor: Let’s live up to Franco’s legacy
During his swearing-in ceremony as our new governor, Josh Shapiro said, “Pennsylvanians can indeed find light in the midst of darkness and drown out the voices of hate and bigotry. ... Here in Pennsylvania, we didn’t allow the extremists who peddle lies to drown out the truth. ... We assume...
Editorial: Let’s not forget what working at home taught us
It’s back to normal for Pennsylvania government. Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that 2,300 state employees will be heading back to the office. That move came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s decision that federal emergency measures related to the coronavirus pandemic will end in May. These are positive...
Letter to the editor: School book proposals problematic
The Hempfield Area School District recently drafted a proposed update to the district’s resource material policy, which applies to library books (“Hempfield book policy draft could provide guardrails to sexualized content,” Jan. 19, TribLIVE). The proposed changes are extremely problematic. One proposed revision says that high school students may view...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Our real Groundhog Day, an endless loop of tragedy
Another Groundhog Day has come and gone. It was started by German immigrants in Pennsylvania in 1887 in Punxsutawney. Historians say it is based on a pre-Christian ritual that used the behavior of small animals to predict the weather, back when believing that you could predict the start of spring...
William D. Hartung: Can Biden keep sending Ukraine weapons without provoking Russia?
The Biden administration announced last month that the U.S. will provide 31 Abrams M-1 tanks to Ukraine, and Germany said it will send 14 of its Leopard tanks to Kyiv. The tank deal and the first anniversary of the start of the war in February offer an opportunity to evaluate...
Jim Warren: NewsGuard tested ChatGPT’s potential for misinformation. Here’s what we found.
The Oscar-nominated short film “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” could be the name for Silicon Valley’s latest gift to Western civilization — and to many practitioners of misinformation. The artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has been heralded as if it’s a techno-...
