Opinion category, Page 318
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?
People are worried about Downtown Pittsburgh. The recent daytime killing of a young man in broad daylight in the heart of Pittsburgh’s business and entertainment district has some businesses and residents worrying that Downtown might be over. It was the latest in a string of violent encounters and brazen shootings...
Viewpoint 1: Bipartisanship is alive and well, but that’s not necessarily a good thing
Old habits die hard, as the saying goes. But myths and legends do, too, as Hunter S. Thompson famously said. When it comes to government, there is one idea that endures despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is that bipartisanship is inherently good but essentially dead in our polarized...
Viewpoint 2: Is bipartisanship good? That depends
Bipartisanship is the solution to some problems, but it also helped create them. On the one hand, if you are a classical liberal with a strong preference for fiscal responsibility, bipartisanship generally gets you nowhere. Big Capitol Hill deals mean big spending. On the other hand, the only path to...
Letter to the editor: Jan. 6 — we can never let it happen again
It should have never happened in our country, but it did. The attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago was an attempted coup, an attack on our democracy to try and stop a free and fair election. It certainly wasn’t a tour of the Capitol. I knew that day,...
Sounding off: Politics, Jan. 6, immigrants among week’s topics
We must stop demonizing each other I am tired of reading letters to the editor from so called “conservatives” who equate worshipping at the altar of Donald Trump as being “real Republicans.” Conservatives come in an array of flavors, including this never-Trumper. Apparently if you don’t agree with the far...
Letter to the editor: We must stop demonizing each other
I am tired of reading letters to the editor from so called “conservatives” who equate worshipping at the altar of Donald Trump as being “real Republicans.” Conservatives come in an array of flavors, including this never-Trumper. Apparently, if you don’t agree with the far right section of the party that...
Editorial: The ticking clocks of Pennsylvania’s poor bridges
For the people on the Fern Hollow Bridge on Jan. 28, 2022, the unthinkable happened in a heartbeat. There was a banging sound. There was confusion. Was it a crash? There was a drop. One moment, it was a normal Friday morning, driving in the snowy January weather. The next,...
Letter to the editor: All students deserve an excellent education
In his op-ed ”Now’s the time to tackle the charter vs. public school problem” (Jan. 17, TribLIVE), Isaiah Trumbull blamed charter schools for the Pittsburgh School District’s (PPS) poor performance. Unfortunately, his op-ed is full of misinformation. Far from “underfunded,” PPS receives $27,700 per student, about $12,000 more than the national...
Gary Franks: Comparing Biden’s document handling with past presidents’ misdeeds
In U.S. history there may never have been a time when a sitting president of the United States grossly mishandled or did not properly secure classified documents until President Joe Biden. Depending on what is contained in the documents and who had access to them, significant damage could have been...
S.E. Cupp: Republican liars go far beyond George Santos
“Honesty is such a lonely word.” As the great Billy Joel once sang, “Everyone is so untrue.” That could be the anthem for this modern era, when liars and lying are not only tolerated, but rewarded for their artful deception. Now comically synonymous with the countless lies that he’s told...
Jerald McNair: When a 6-year-old is accused of shooting his teacher, it’s time for a paradigm shift
Six-year-old children should be learning to read, identify new words by matching letters to sounds, count to 100, and do basic addition and subtraction. But now we have a 6-year-old who allegedly shot his teacher in Newport News, Va. Unfortunately, school shootings are not uncommon. There have been more than...
Letter to the editor: We’ll never forget Chief Justin McIntire
I had the opportunity to have met police Chief Justin McIntire. Our community will never forget the dedication and love he gave us. We fly our colors of our police departments proudly. God bless all police officers in our country. We salute you, Justin. Gloria J. Parobeck Brackenridge...
Letter to the editor: NFL kickers missing the mark
In the Jan. 16 Dallas Cowboys/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, Cowboys kicker Brett Maher missed four extra points. After he missed two extra points, why in God’s name did they still let him in there instead of replacing him with a backup kicker? Maher went on to miss two more extra...
Letter to the editor: Women deserve better than abortion
Last Friday, my husband and I traveled with our three young children, ages 6, 5 and 3, to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Having marched many times in the past in hopes that one day Roe v. Wade would be overturned, this trip was an expression of...
Lori Falce: The impossible mission of classified documents
Perhaps I have been misled by a lifetime of movies and television. I have always been under the impression that top secret documents were kind of hard to access. Maybe I didn’t think you needed to drop down from a harness like Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible” to access a...
Laurels & lances: Police and consequences
Laurel: To carrying on. Though the hole created by the loss of Chief Justin McIntire remains, the Brackenridge police are getting back to business as usual. Police from across the region covered the department following McIntire’s death Jan. 2 in the line of duty, allowing the Brackenridge officers an opportunity...
Letter to the editor: Are we seeing a rift between Biden and media?
Having followed politics rather closely for more than four decades, I could only shake my head in disgust as Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020. At least when Donald Trump made stupid, clumsy attempts to circumnavigate the truth, it could be attributed to his unfamiliarity with political articulation. Biden...
Phil Kerpen: Biden’s 2nd student loan bailout scheme is even worse
President Joe Biden isn’t waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on his last $400 billion student loan bailout before rolling out another, even more costly plan. (Oral arguments on the first one are scheduled for Feb. 28; it’s been blocked by lower courts for now). Biden’s new plan to...
Paul Muschick: Pa. House closed for business, but lawmakers still getting paid. Here’s how much gridlock costing taxpayers.
If you couldn’t perform all of your duties, would your boss still pay your full salary? We all know the answer. In the real world, you get paid based on what you can accomplish. In the world of Pennsylvania politics, you get paid regardless of how little you may do....
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh Public Schools must get on with right-sizing
Moving forward this year with a plan shelved two years ago to close six Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) buildings is imperative for the district to reduce its expenses for the benefit of taxpayers, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Those closures were part of a...
Presley Gillespie: Equity and inclusion in action in Pittsburgh
Equity and inclusion are ongoing efforts that are integral to organizational success. They are not one-off activities or training. They are not afterthoughts or buzzwords. They are more than simply showing up or involving everyone. Equity and inclusion are forging more robust connections and cultivating a greater sense of belonging...
Letter to the editor: Hoping for an end to Wolf’s chaos
Gov. Tom Wolf said on March 16, 2020: “I would like people to stay home 24 hours a day.” From that day till now, some Pennsylvana residents have taken that fear to heart. Others mocked and laughed as the shutdowns and mandates continued and we did our best to lead...
Letter to the editor: Republicans holding us hostage
I have some question for voters who cast ballots which nominally granted control of the U. S. House of Representatives to the Republicans: Is it acceptable to you that a high-stakes game of chicken will be played over whether to increase the debt ceiling, an action which enables the country...
Editorial: One-way public comment rules can be malicious compliance
Compliance is the term for acknowledging the rules and following them. You see the stop sign. You gently step on the brake pedal as your car approaches it. You note the speed limit and set your cruise control accordingly. But malicious compliance is different. It’s technically following the letter of...
Letter to the editor: Jan. 6 commission symptom of bloated government
It has been said, “When the government fears the people, there is liberty, but when the people fear the government, there’s tyranny.” Today, we are ruled by an elite group who have weaponized the federal government to serve their self-interest. We talk of “insurrection” on Jan. 6 but ignore that...
