Opinion category, Page 456
Letter to the editor: On prescriptions, something is rotten
The only thing in Build Back Horrendously that is salutary is the gubmint being allowed to dicker with insurance and drug companies over the cost of medicine. I have Medicare and Security Blue, and the copay for one of my meds at my pharmacy this year went from 48 bucks...
Letter to the editor: Why our 2-party system works
There have been many negative postings in this forum bashing the two major political parties. I would like to challenge readers to look at the parties in a different light. Democrats are the dreamers. They push for ways to improve the American ideal. Republicans are the pragmatists. They hold dear...
Editorial: CDC and Pennsylvania covid numbers need to agree
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave a great grade to Pennsylvania last week. The agency’s vaccination map proclaimed that 95% of state residents had received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccination. Wow. That’s unbelievable. That’s the problem. It’s not true. Pennsylvania is not head and shoulders...
Letter to the editor: Bells can remind us to believe
When I grew up, we had just ended World War II, which had just ended the Great Depression. We were then fighting the Korean Conflict. My family had fought in those wars. I remember going to church every Sunday and holy day. The churches were full, standing room only on...
Letter to the editor: Stop arguing and educate our kids
It seems as if we have forgotten the most important aspect of attending school. We have become so concerned with school mask mandates that we have overlooked the quality of education our children are receiving. Somehow many parents have equated education with mask-wearing in schools. Our kids have fallen behind...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The men who cleared Pittsburgh’s skies
When it was recently announced in Scotland that Pittsburgh will host the next big global energy and innovation conference in September 2022, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said “the Steel City” has shown how an “industrial-dependent economy can be transformed into a technology and innovation powerhouse.” There are still those...
Sounding off: Bring on the election investigations
Republicans “won” many seats in this election. Every row office in Westmoreland County is now in Republican hands, as is the governorship of Virginia. So I’m sure that they will do the responsible thing and investigate the obvious election fraud and conduct responsible audits of the voter rolls. After all,...
Ryan Shafik: Jake Corman runs for governor, Josh Shapiro rejoices
Dynastic career politician Jake Corman, president pro tempore of the Pennsylvania State Senate, is the latest Republican to toss his hat in the ring for governor of this great commonwealth. Given Corman’s insatiable ambition, his decision to enter the fray isn’t necessarily surprising. What is shocking is that someone with...
James Knights: We’re not learning — genocides on rise
On Veterans Day, I was asked to give a few remarks at an exhibition hosted by the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University in Greensburg. The focus of the exhibition was a collection of my father’s wartime photographs of the little-known German massacre of 1016, mostly...
Letter to the editor: Alternatives to Thanksgiving turkey
Last week, President Biden set infrastructure aside just long enough to pardon two turkeys. With more than 200 million turkeys killed in the U.S. each year, everyone can pardon their own turkey and instead try a plant-based roast this Thanksgiving. Turkeys are bred and raised in toxic fume-filled crowded sheds,...
Letter to the editor: High-end thievery by the .1%
We recently learned that President Trump has lost $70 million on the Trump International Hotel. In 2018, Deutsche Bank gave him a six-year deferral on payment of a $170 million loan for that same hotel. In 2017, the state of New York and the UK won a $630 million lawsuit...
Editorial: Big paychecks can be bad look amid health care struggles
In 2020, Highmark CEO David Holmberg saw his paycheck dip. This isn’t surprising. Plenty of people made less money in a year when the coronavirus pandemic turned everything — especially health care — upside down. There will probably be little sympathy for Holmberg, however, as his $325,000 loss still let...
Letter to the editor: Hypocritical government
We now live in the land of a hypocritical government, one that was dependent on our brave front-line workers a year ago to police our cities, put out fires and keep people alive. They were hailed as heroes. Now this czar running the country says to fire them if they...
John Stossel: Government makes you prove you’re needed
“Why does Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love to do?” asks Ursula Newell-Davis in my new video. Newell-Davis has helped people. She’s a social worker who’s worked with kids with special needs for 20 years. She’s really good at it. Now she wants to...
S.E. Cupp: Cuomo still haunts and taunts New York
As I began my morning reading, I had to do a double-take at the Politico headline near the bottom of the home page: “He’s nuts and he’s got a vendetta:” While that easily could have described former President Donald Trump, or his one-time aide Steve Bannon, who surrendered to authorities...
Kirk Allen and John Kraft: Fauci warned about coronaviruses in 2003 — but didn’t act on it
Few would argue the United States, or any country for that matter, was prepared for the covid-19 pandemic, even though, starting in 2003, the U.S. devoted $5.6 billion to fund Project Bioshield, running through 2013, and another $2.8 billion of funding through 2018. Project Bioshield was designed to prepare the...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Nazis are coming
The Nazis are coming. That, to a distressing extent, is the crux of the argument being mounted by some of those who refuse to obey vaccine mandates. On Sunday, a group of them even showed up at the Bronx office of New York State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz with yellow Stars...
Letter to the editor: Socialist labels on Democrats
Hear, hear, Stewart Epstein (“‘Socialist’ labels on Democrats a dishonest strategy,” Nov. 17, TribLIVE). Sadly, why does it take a university educator to explain what caring and thoughtful politicians are trying to accomplish? What are these nonsupporters afraid of? Leonard Mucci Derry Township...
Letter to the editor: Let’s move past Trump
As part of my morning routine, I read a daily devotional. Part of a recent reading was as follows: “Remember that the evil one is the father of lies. Learn to recognize his deceptive intrusions into your thoughts. One of his favorite deceptions is to undermine your confidence in My...
Letter to the editor: Lucky elk hunting guide
I’m an avid newspaper reader; front page, Opinion, Sports, then comics. Sometimes I even find a hidden gem “somewhere in the middle.” A number of years ago, I came across changes to the Pennsylvania hunting guide program for elk. It seems that 2018 was the last year when one could...
Letter to the editor: Ending abortion would benefit Social Security
Hurrah to Texas voters for eliminating abortions in their state. Hopefully more states will follow suit. Keep up the good fight! More than 60 million babies have been killed since 1973, the year abortions became legal in the U.S. If those 60 million babies had the right to life, they...
Lori Falce: Treat addicts to save children
Keeping kids safe from medicine is something that is taken pretty seriously. Anyone who has tried to unscrew a childproof prescription bottle with arthritic hands or hack their way into the hermetically sealed bubble pack of some over-the-counter cold pills can testify to that. When my husband was taking nitroglycerin...
Letter to the editor: Climate change is a real threat
Climate change is an existential threat. The Government Accountability Offices states that climate-related changes have cost American taxpayers $350 billion over the past decade. The Pentagon has declared climate change to be a national security threat. The U.N. states that if global greenhouse gas emissions are not halved by 2030,...
Letter to the editor: UPMC workers deserve more
I’ve worked in food service assembly at UPMC Presbyterian for almost a year. I make less than $16 an hour, and even with five roommates, there’s not a lot left over at the end of the month. I just want to have some money in my pocket for once. We...
Laurels & lances: Stores, seats and lunch ladies
Laurel: To more stores. After years of the news out of malls being all about closings and going-out-of-business sales, it is refreshing to have the trend at one shopping center going in the opposite direction. Westmoreland Mall is seeing not just new tenants but also returning ones. It’s great to...
