Opinion category, Page 363
Letter to the editor: Representatives don’t represent us
When our Harrisburg representatives run for office, they tell voters that they will represent us. But they don’t. In fact, they willingly agree not to. As every new session begins, legislators vote on procedural rules. Currently, those rules allow only majority party leaders and committee chairs to bring bills out...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Sept. 6
Editorial cartoons for the week of Sept. 6....
Tom Purcell: Health insurance perplexity
I’m confused. I got the flu a few months ago, the worst flu I’d ever had. It wasn’t covid — I have never tested positive for covid — but it was a humdinger. For more than a week, I was a lump on a bed, completely unable to move or...
Nathan Benefield: Government unions are outsized bullies holding workers, taxpayers hostage
As we enter election season, it’s time we address the elephant in the room. It’s an elephant with an outsized influence on Pennsylvania politics — and few people realize who holds the purse strings and the puppet strings behind the scenes. Government union executives. These union executives enjoy a host...
Paul F. Clark: Today’s workers want a voice at work
It has been a very eventful 12 months for American workers since last Labor Day. At that point in time, the “Great Resignation” was well underway. Spurred by covid, millions of American workers had quit their jobs in the months before Labor Day and millions more would resign in the...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Sept. 5
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Sept. 5....
Letter to the editor: Reasons to be an independent
Republicans say I’m a chump for believing that the candidate who wins an election in a certified, judicially reviewed process gets to hold the office. Democrats say I’m a chump for paying off my college loan. That’s why I’m an independent voter. Jay Lynch Upper St. Clair...
Kenneth J. Broadbent, David Callahan and Jim Snell: Pa. natural gas and labor, forging a reliable, sustainable energy future
While President Grover Cleveland did not make it a federal holiday until June of 1894, Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882. Nearly 400 miles away that same year, natural gas from the historic Haymaker No. 1 well in Murrysville was delivered to consumers...
Letter to the editor: Hollow words from Pirates leadership
Next year! That’s the battle cry from the Pirates’ general manager and owner. I think it’s now time to put up or shut up! If the Pirates’ owner is not ready to turn loose of some of his money to pay key players, it’s all hollow words. We don’t need...
Letter to the editor: Diabetic seniors need help now, not in 2026
In the Inflation Reduction Act, a section was included for Medicare to negotiate prescription prices for diabetics. What senior citizens don’t realize is that, if you read the fine print, those negotiations will not take effect until 2026, which the administration has failed to point out to the general public....
Editorial: More people in the workforce is good news
On Labor Day, we don’t honor the work that people do. We celebrate the people who do the work. It is a day off at the end of summer, as kids go back to school and schedules revert back to the norm after three months of vacations and heat and...
Letter to the editor: Someone’s always paying for that ‘something for nothing’
Let’s look back to the start of the Pennsylvania Lottery … one game once a day. Today, 16 daily drawings! When it started, it was touted to be strictly as a benefit to the elderly. Just where is all this money going? I’ll bet that we the people will never...
Letter to the editor: Kindness keeps us connected
Whenever my family visits our relatives, we drive past people in need who live under the overpasses on the North Shore. Living outside must be scary and lonely. I felt so bad when I thought about what their lives must be like, and I wanted to try to do something...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pair’s industrial art a love letter to steelworkers
An accidental discovery on social media led to a partnership between New Castle businessman Chip Barletto and Pittsburgh industrial artist Cory Bonnet, and, because of that, our community will always have permanent reminders of why we celebrate Labor Day. Barletto has been visiting old steel mills for 50 years, starting...
Point: Unions have a stake in ending minority rule in the United States
In 2021, just 10.3% of American workers were members of unions, less than half the proportion we had four decades prior. This collapse in union membership didn’t happen in Canada; it occurred in the United States for reasons specific to this country, including unpleasant changes in labor law and the...
Counterpoint: A free marketeer’s love of Labor Day
One hundred forty years ago, the first Labor Day parade almost ended before it began. On Sept. 5, 1882, thousands of union workers, police officers and gawking onlookers gathered at City Hall in lower Manhattan. Everything was in place, the route was set and the marchers were ready to go,...
Sounding off: Abortion, free lunches, Mastriano, debates, drugs, separation of church/state
Eyes are finally opening on abortion Mary Sanchez’s editorial “Every vote in America now about abortion” (Aug. 23, TribLIVE) gave me cause to celebrate. It’s about time! Before Roe v. Wade was recently overturned, and the question of the legality of abortion was returned to the states, the silence in...
Letter to the editor: Wolf’s stimulus check money should go to us
Gov. Tom Wolf’s $2,000 stimulus checks would go far to help needy families. I believe what Pennsylvanians need to know is that Pennsylvania’s Republican Legislature is hoping for a Republican win in the governor’s race, then the money will surely be divided and sent to special interest groups that support...
Letter to the editor: Voters deserve debates
It has come to my attention there may be no debates by the candidates for Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Senate. If that is indeed the case, it is unacceptable. This is not a middle school popularity contest. It is a job interview, and these candidates will be making decisions that...
Editorial: Are Catholics key to the Tree of Life shooting jury?
Tree of Life shooting suspect Robert Bowers will go to trial next year. The federal criminal case has dragged on for almost four years since that Saturday morning in October 2018 when Squirrel Hill joined the list of mass shooting locations in the U.S. Eleven people died at the synagogue,...
Letter to the editor: Jeannette mayor is naïve
I think our mayor in Jeannette is extremely naïve. Apparently, if a Jeannette student is enrolled into Hempfield Area School District, his or her family automatically will become financially stable. Hey, Mayor, how about taking care of your own business? What happened with the Monsour property? Should we list all...
Letter to the editor: Compromise part of a democracy
President Biden is deservedly receiving praise for his landmark bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. From the historic climate change policy to the improvements in health care to the minimum tax on large corporations and the stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals, this bill is a win for average Americans. Finally,...
Gary Franks: Student loan debt relief? How about service instead?
President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan should have been debated and voted on by Congress. Even Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi once said it could only be done via a vote of Congress. For Biden to just do it is considered noble by some, political by others,...
S.E. Cupp: The Democrats’ real November abortion advantage
With just a little more than two months to go before the 2022 midterm elections, one issue is emerging as a top turnout driver. And if Democrats do the historically unimaginable in November, staving off what was predicted to be an off-year Republican bloodbath, we can likely trace the root...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s government-induced economic funk
Private employment in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had still not returned to pre-pandemic levels in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And that remains a dysfunction of the same old — and same wrong — calcified government practices, concludes an analysis by the...
