Opinion category, Page 506
Letter to the editor: Severance tax not solution for Pa.’s recovery
For the seventh consecutive year, Gov. Tom Wolf proposes a severance tax in the state budget. The Wolf administration claims that the severance tax, along with other proposed taxes, will help us recover from the covid-19 crisis. The natural gas industry plays a critical role in developing products we use...
Laurels & Lances: Celebrated centenarians, slippery silence, real recycling
Laurel: To longevity with brio. Newspapers usually wait for an occurrence of threes to cite a trend, but two will do in this case. This week, we observed the 100th birthdays of two dynamic men: Ufemio “Fem” Biagioni of Leechburg and Frank Pugliano Sr. of Washington Township. Both are Italian...
Letter to the editor: Wolf cutting charter school lifeline
Like a lot of parents across America, I watched as state governments and public school monopolies failed our children when schools were closed during the covid-19 lockdown. For years, states like Pennsylvania told anyone who could listen that they could do online learning better and cheaper than charter schools. But...
Paul Kengor: Highway robbery on the Pa. Turnpike
In a column around this time last year, I wrote about the toll that covid was taking on tollbooth workers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I had been prompted by an eerie ride to Latrobe from my home in Grove City. Like many Pennsylvanians under lockdown, I hadn’t been on a...
Letter to the editor: Why do Buffalo residents get biggest tax hikes?
Why does it always seem that the biggest tax increase goes to the residents of Buffalo Township (“Freeport Area School District set to raise taxes next school year,” May 29, TribLIVE)? Why can’t it be the same across the board? Also, I think it’s time Freeport be considered a Butler...
Letter to the editor: Applauding Loyalhanna supervisors
In her letter “Roads sacrificed for pricey garage?” (May 14, TribLIVE), Jane Kelley implies that Loyalhanna Township supervisors Ken Walters and Mary Trunzo neglected roads by constructing a new public works building and office. If they, as reported, saved up to half the cost of a potential expenditure of $1...
Letter to the editor: Not all who are vaccinated are immune to covid
Many people heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that the mask mandate was lifted for fully vaccinated Pennsylvanians. I did not. As of June 6, 45% of Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated against the covid-19 virus. This does not mean that 45% of the state’s population has immunity against the...
Editorial: College students, step up and get the vaccine
The team project has been the bane of many an educational institution. There are the ones who have done the reading, come up with a plan and broken it all out into a series of tasks. There are the ones who will do what they are told. And there are...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s job to restore our dignity
Letter-writer Jack Juris (“Biden will destroy our country,” May 8, TribLIVE) states that President Biden has made our country a laughingstock on the world stage. James Cataldi says “Biden proving to be worst ever” (May 10, TribLIVE). Archie Atkinson says “Biden will ruin country” (May 20, TribLIVE). I see it...
Letter to the editor: Lower, middle classes will pay for Biden spending
President Biden and the Democrats are saying only the rich will pay for their spending bills. They are lying. Biden said he “will not increase taxes on the middle class.” He is simply going to let their tax cut expire, which will effectively raise their taxes. Even if income tax...
Jonah Goldberg: Manchin taking heat for what should be political normalcy
It’s official: In the great existential battle between a return to normalcy and a new progressive era, normalcy is winning. Recall that Joe Biden ran as a moderate in 2020, not just in the general election but also in the Democratic primaries. Biden triangulated off the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth...
Letter to the editor: Pirates stink, but still valuable to Pittsburgh
I enjoyed Lori Falce’s column “Pirates owe taxpayers better baseball” (June 4, TribLIVE). I had Penguins season tickets for 34 years. The Penguins have 41 regular-season games, two preseason games and two playoff games, equaling 45 games; with sold-out attendance of 19,000, that equals 855,000 tickets sold. The Steelers have...
Letter to the editor: Languages and taxes in Latrobe
It was great to see students and alumni speak out at the recent Greater Latrobe School Board meeting trying to save the German and French language programs (“Greater Latrobe plan to shift French, German instruction online draws protest,” May 26, TribLIVE). They were passionate and well prepared. It gives us...
Editorial: Community health centers are essential healers
The first hospital in Pittsburgh opened its doors in 1847, when the Sisters of Mercy built on their mission of aiding the sick. It has been 174 years, and, today, healing the sick and maintaining the healthy has become a billion-dollar industry in the region. On June 2, UPMC released...
Letter to the editor: Thanks to the politicians those who listen
I’ve always been interested in how our government functions, but during the covid lockdown in Pennsylvania I asked a lot of questions of our public officials as to why we were being shut down and why seemingly nothing could be done about it. I contacted my state senator, Kim Ward,...
Pat Buchanan: What is America’s cause in the world?
“Take away this pudding; it has no theme,” is a comment attributed to Winston Churchill, when a disappointing dessert was put in front of him. Writers have used Churchill’s remark to describe a foreign policy that lacks coherence or centrality of purpose. For most of our lifetimes, this has not...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: What’s next after democracy dies?
So what will you do after democracy dies? Who will we be after democracy dies? After democracy dies, will we remember the country we had? Will we remember all that we lost? How will we explain what we allowed to happen? Will we be ashamed after democracy dies? After democracy...
Editorial: Judge Feliciani proves value of human element in sentencing
A judge’s job in a courtroom is to enforce the rules as the prosecution and defense go through the steps of a trial. It is frequently less about being the hammer of judgment than it is about interpreting and enforcing the law as written by legislators and determined by years...
Letter to the editor: Slaughtering our offspring
It occurs to me that since time immemorial every species that has ever existed — cockroaches, fleas, dinosaurs, dolphins, antelopes, garden slugs, all of them — and even the ones that are extinct for various reasons had as their chief aim to perpetuate the species. Procreate, reproduce, perpetuate. Except one....
Letter to the editor: RGGI will make Pa. citizens safer
My father is one of millions of Americans suffering from asthma, a condition that worsens with deteriorating air quality caused by climate change. As one of the top five producers of greenhouse gases in the country, Pennsylvania needs to take immediate action to help stop this rising issue. The Regional...
Letter to the editor: UFOs could be the threat that unites us
If you haven’t noticed, Tucker Carlson, Marco Rubio, Harry Reid and others have been legitimizing the UFO topic. UFO disclosure was supposed to come in 2016 from Hillary Clinton, who attended Laurance Rockefeller’s 1995 Wyoming retreat on the subject and can be seen carrying the book “Are We Alone?” John...
Tom Purcell: The dying art of conversation
Texting is replacing talking as the preferred form of communication? According to a recent survey by OpenMarket, 75% of millennials chose texting over talking when given the choice between being able only to text versus call on their mobile phone. To be sure, the powerful digital devices almost everyone is...
Colin McNickle: The right-to-work difference in pandemic jobs recovery
Right-to-work (RTW) states so far have experienced a better jobs recovery than non-right-to-work (NRTW) states as the coronavirus pandemic fades, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. But a move by the federal government to effectively kill right-to-work laws “would be a disaster for the nation’s economic...
Letter to the editor: Lies of Trump, Republicans
Regarding President Trump and the Republican Party: When a crime is not punished, quickly people feel it is safe to do wrong. The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. They may cover their hatred with pleasant words, but they are deceiving you. Smooth words may hide...
Letter to the editor: Bidens, Babbitt shooting should be investigated
I am demanding at least two investigations that must happen. At minimum, it’s time that the Joe and Hunter Biden families get investigated for their dealings with and business ties to Russia, the Ukraine and China and any protection given them, including the origin of the Wuhan virus. This especially...
