Opinion category, Page 327
Letter to the editor: Happy New Year, Team America!
We the people, for the people and by the people, team Democrat or team Republican, we should all be on team AMERICA! God bless, Happy New Year, peace out. Marianne Glesk Harrison...
Letter to the editor: Here’s what Democrats have done for us
Regarding Gary Pallone’s letter ”Republicans don’t improve lives” (Dec. 19, TribLIVE): First of all, let’s understand one thing — voting strictly along party lines throws your vote away; it doesn’t help anyone. Pallone states that voting for a Republican is only thinking of yourself and that he doesn’t believe the...
Lori Falce: What do you want in 2023?
Many of our New Year traditions are not, despite our well wishes, about happiness. Well, not on its own. We want to be happy, of course. But, when we are cracking open a new calendar, we are shrugging off a different truism. On Jan. 1, we embrace the idea that...
Laurels & lances: Results, delays and education
Laurel: To finishing up. The 2022 election is officially complete, as far as the state of Pennsylvania is concerned. The Department of State announced this week that the acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman has completed certification of results. That process was delayed because of recounts and challenges in 27...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland’s high-paid commissioners
I doubt most Westmoreland County residents received a 13% raise in their paychecks over the past two years, like our current county commissioners (“Westmoreland elected officials to receive record raises,” Dec. 18, TribLIVE). The commissioners’ nearly-six-figure salaries are now 60% more than the county’s median per capita income. The 20-year-old...
Cal Thomas: An old debt carries over to a new year
”Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” — Herbert Hoover “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” — Benjamin Franklin Eighteen Republican senators voted for the monstrosity known as the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, thus forever relinquishing their claim to belong...
Paul Muschick: Is your New Year’s resolution to make more money? Here’s one idea.
If you’re looking for a resolution to make for the new year, here’s a suggestion. We’d all like to find a way to bring in some extra cash, right? So check to see if you have unclaimed property in your name. The Pennsylvania Treasury is holding more than $4 billion...
Peter Morici: Degrowth solutions won’t solve global warming
Climate change, pandemics, Putin’s madness and China’s ambitions threaten humanity with droughts and floods of biblical proportions, nonnavigable rivers and disappearing island nations, fractured global supply chains and shortages of vital resources like commercial fertilizer, and famine and mass migrations. Much of this has been enabled or exacerbated by industrialization...
Letter to the editor: Essential workers, not football players, are heroes
Let’s praise, salute and give many thanks to everyone who has to work outdoors and bear the bitter sub-zero-degree temperatures, especially over the last week. The workers for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, Columbia Gas, Allegheny Power, the mail carrier, the person picking up my trash for a living...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland raises outrageous
An 8.1% cost-of-living increase for county retirees and a 7.8% raise for elected officials and non-union county workers is outrageous (“Westmoreland retirees raises to cost $6.7 million in 2023,” Dec. 21, TribLIVE). How others are not outraged is beyond me. Most of us working class people are lucky to get...
Editorial: What do you really care about?
What is an editorial? It isn’t an article that keeps close to the events as they unfold, like with a car crash or a fire. It isn’t an investigation that takes a larger incident and digs into the background, unearthing truths that were perhaps not just unknown but unexpected. It...
Letter to the editor: Republicans, it’s time to pull together
Open letter to all Republican senators and Congress members: Please get your act together! This is not the time to be bickering amongst yourselves. Debating on the speaker of the House and holding things up … . You do realize that some of your fellow Republicans are speaking with Democrats...
Sarah Green Carmichael: What we learned about hybrid work in 2022
This was supposed to be the year of returning to the office. The same could be said for 2021, and even the second half of 2020. The office seems to have become a place where we’re always “returning” but never quite “arriving.” Although office occupancy rates have risen meaningfully, they...
Letter to the editor: We’re better off now? Are you kidding?
I have been an independent for years, leaning toward the Republican Party, but have voted for Democrats if I knew they were good people. But reading recent letters praising current conditions under President Biden, I have to ask the question, “Are you kidding?” Inflation, recession, buying oil from foreign countries,...
Letter to the editor: How about a bottled water plant at Yough River Lake?
It is in the interest of Southwestern Pennsylvania that I write on the prospects of a purified bottled water plant or facility being placed near the Youghiogheny River Lake reservoir in Somerset and Fayette counties. Such a facility could bring revenue into the state and also help with with water...
Editorial: Did Tom Wolf understand politics?
Gov. Tom Wolf is about to close out his two-term tenure. It’s been quite a ride. Over the years, we have not been shy about laying criticism at the governor’s door. We have castigated him for budget issues. We have harangued him for administrative hiccups and staff pay raises. We...
Letter to the editor: Blessings in bitter weather
Last Friday, I walked down my long driveway, laden with snow and amidst the howling wind, to retrieve my Tribune-Review and the mail, because I knew both likely had been delivered and the least I could do was make the effort to get them. Earlier that day I received a...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump has supplanted Nixon as the saddest figure in post-presidential politics
“The tapes are the real man — mean, vindictive, panicky, striking first in anticipation of being struck, trying to lift his own friable self-esteem by shoving others down,” Gary Wills wrote of Richard Nixon in the 2017 preface to his book, “Nixon Agonistes.” Wills added, perhaps unfairly, that “Nixon’s real...
Joseph Friedman: Finally, some promising news on opioids for patients in severe pain
The U.S. remains in the midst of an ever-worsening drug overdose crisis. Because prescription opioids drove its earlier phases, the nation responded by drastically reducing access to those drugs — with prescriptions dropping by nearly 50% over the last decade. But it’s now clear that approach was ineffective at combating...
Letter to the editor: George Will has become a Trumper
George Will, fool on the hill. President Biden and Vice President Harris have done nothing wrong. They are a great team. Instead of giving support to Biden and Harris, you have turned into a Trumper with your negative waves. Go away. Francois Vukosic Bridgeville...
Letter to the editor: Free speech is critical
Why would anyone oppose a social media platform supporting free speech and open debate? Unless of course your position is indefensible and can’t withstand scrutiny, or maybe you’re intentionally hiding facts to achieve an agenda; otherwise it makes no sense. The censorship and disinformation we’re now experiencing is antithetical to...
Letter to the editor: Time to reform legislative rules
On Jan. 3, Pennsylvania state legislators will begin the new session by establishing procedural rules governing their operations. This is where, behind closed doors, a handful of majority leaders and committee chairs assume control over all state legislation. It’s where our elected reps are pressured to permit their “leaders” to...
Tom Purcell: Best 2023 resolution: Get a pet
It was late December of 2020. Covid cabin fever was hitting me hard. As a writer and communications consultant, I’ve long worked from an office in my home. I was used to working alone at home, but covid isolation was pushing me beyond my limits. Family issues were also weighing...
Tom Ruscitti: Pittsburgh lost a treasure in Franco Harris
I grew up in Aliquippa, the son of a steelworker and a Steelers fan as long as I can remember. Franco Harris transformed an entire city in nine seconds — the “Immaculate Reception” gave an entire city hope, hope that we could be more than a dirty, smoky mill town...
Letter to the editor: Abuse of power
In 1908 an investigative bureau of 34 special agents was formed that later became known as the FBI. At the time, Congress was leery of creating a “national police force.” Their concern was that the bureau would become a political tool for whomever was in office. It now appears those...
