Opinion category, Page 500
Editorial: Remove the mystery around Westmoreland elections bureau
The position of Westmoreland County Elections Bureau Director is up for grabs again. Officially now. It’s been almost three weeks since JoAnn Sebastiani was suspended with pay on June 8. Since then, the county commissioners have done little but confirm her absence while remaining tight-lipped on the reasoning. Until Tuesday,...
Colin McNickle: Port Authority must reorder its disorderly fiscal house
The Port Authority of Allegheny County could find itself between a rock and hard place given its rising budget, higher employee count, still-flagging ridership but higher fares and uncertain future funding, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “(T)the egregiously high costs at (the Port Authority) …...
Jonah Goldberg: Infrastructure battle bodes well for our politics
The ongoing infrastructure drama in Washington is a perfect illustration of how, when dysfunction becomes normal, normal politics looks dysfunctional. Let’s set the context. For most of U.S. history, major legislation worked its way up the committee system in Congress. Deal-making, logrolling and agenda-setting would get hammered out over months...
Letter to the editor: Manchin makes fools of Republicans
How does Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin keep making fools of the GOP? They haven’t realized by now he is never going to vote against whatever the Democrats put out there. And yet time and time again the GOP think he is going to do the right thing. Nada. John Newhouse...
Letter to the editor: The audacity of Coke
I question the motives of Coca-Cola and other Atlanta-based companies boycotting the MLB All-Star Game and forcing the game’s move to Denver. Many Atlanta restaurant, hotel and stadium workers, many minorities, will not have the advantage of baseball fans nationwide coming to town. This only to protest honest voting measures...
Editorial: Some drug laws catch wrong targets
The world of illegal substances can create webs of other social or legal problems — child or domestic abuse, theft, assault, death. Those problems then have to be handled by the government, which can mean new laws being written or old ones being tweaked. Yet government involvement almost always means...
Letter to the editor: Radiologist assistants key to effective care
Having worked in health care for nearly 30 years, I am passionate about ensuring timely access to quality care for patients. Unfortunately, even before the covid-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of radiologists in Pennsylvania and across the U.S. Thus, our seniors, especially those in rural areas, already were facing...
Pat Buchanan: The return of ‘Law and Order’ in New York
Last week, Brooklyn Borough President and former police captain Eric Adams took the lead in the New York mayoral race with 32% of the Democratic primary vote, 10 points more than progressive Maya Wiley, who had the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Adams’ anti-crime and pro-cop campaign carried four of...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: No mystery why conservatives find education dangerous
I owe a lot to Gary Mahoney. He was the campus conservative back in the middle ’70s, when I was a student at the University of Southern California, and we went at it hammer and tongs a few times on the opinion pages of the Daily Trojan. I no longer...
Ronald Linden: Changing the rules — in life as in baseball
The Little League World series began in Pennsylvania in 1947 and for most of the next 20 years, American teams won. Then, as baseball grew in popularity in other parts of the world, Asian teams began to take the championship. Teams from Taiwan and Japan took all but one title...
Letter to the editor: Liberals’ class envy will cost Americans dearly
I have never understood class envy. I think most liberals are guilty of this behavior. It is vindictive, punishing people who take risks and succeed. Also, it is very expensive. Rich people will pay more but they will pass their increased expenses on to their customers. No one wins. In...
Letter to the editor: Youngwood mine fields
If any of you unlucky people either live or drive through the small town of Youngwood, I’m sure you’ve noticed that the roads are like minefields. They say it’s to make improvements to all the underground systems and the roads themselves. I don’t know who the genius is who decided...
Editorial: The Steelers and Saint Vincent belong together
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t done with the economic gut punches yet. As more and more people have been vaccinated, the covid-19 precautions have been slowly rolled back. On Monday, Pennsylvania’s mask mandate was lifted. That means the state isn’t requiring the unvaccinated to wear masks in public places anymore. Individual...
Letter to the editor: Voter fraud ‘what-ifs’
Regarding “Pa. GOP proposes major election overhaul, including stricter voter ID and in-person early voting” (June 10, TribLIVE): What if someone goes to rest homes and other elderly people to harvest ballots? What is the advantage for a ballot harvester? Does he just get the voter to sign the ballot?...
Tom Purcell: Civics lesson for the Fourth
You become an American citizen by being born in the USA or you can become one by getting “naturalized.” Becoming naturalized is a heck of a lot harder. It not only means having to meet all the legal and residency requirements Congress has established, it means passing a U.S. civics...
Joyce Lukima: Funding for crime victims must be restored
“I finally decided to press charges against my father for 11 years of sexual abuse. I didn’t know where to turn or what to do … I called your center and spoke with a woman who changed my life. After four years of an unbearable legal process, I’m so happy...
Rep. Tony DeLuca: Republican voting legislation leads to a path of taking voters’ rights away
There is no greater right than voters participating in democracy by casting their ballots to elect those who will represent them. However, legislation Republicans recently pushed through the House would restrict access for voters and impinge on their rights. It is vital to remove barriers for voters to use ballot...
Letter to the editor: Biden is upholding his oath
President Joseph Biden swore an oath that he “will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The writer of the letter ”Biden’s actions are not in line with Catholic faith” (June 17, TribLIVE) seems angry that Biden is upholding that oath...
Letter to the editor: Save the bees; we depend on them
Humans are smart. We’ve learned how to transplant organs, pack millions of books worth of data into a microchip and travel through outer space. And yet our lives still depend on little buzzing bugs to grow our food. Seventy-five percent of food crops require pollinators like bees, but bees are...
Editorial: Exotic pets call for logical local regulation
Pennsylvania has rules about animals. There’s a whole Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement. Many others fall under the Department of Agriculture’s umbrella. State law can be brought to bear in cases of neglect or cruelty. Local ordinances can come into play, too. They regulate how people are required to handle...
Letter to the editor: Church should clean its own house first
The Catholic Church has some nerve (“U.S. Catholic bishops OK steps toward possible rebuke of Biden,” June 18, TribLIVE). Some priests have relations with women in their parishes, and others abuse children. Maybe they made babies and told the women it’s a sin to get an abortion. They are the...
Letter to the editor: Biden administration not putting Americans first
President Biden and America’s checkbook were greeted with open arms at the G-7 Conference. Boris Johnson embraced Biden like he was his long-lost brother. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Biden to “The Club,” aka the global swamp. Our current administration declared that America and its people are not first and...
Editorial cartoons for the week of June 28
Editorial cartoons for the week of June 28....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of June 28
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of June 28....
Mona Charen: The difference a father makes
There was a Father’s Day parade in Washington, D.C., that warmed my family-obsessed heart. It was called the Black Fathers Matter motorcade, and it featured silver and black balloons, a band serenading the crowd aboard a flatbed truck, kids singing their dads’ praises, community leaders, politicians and at the end,...
