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Featured Commentary category, Page 104

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Dan Heit: Funding must continue to ensure help for abused children
Dan Heit founded JusticeWorks YouthCare in 1999 and serves as its CEO. JusticeWorks YouthCare serves families within the child welfare system and youth on juvenile probation. We also operate alternative high schools for students with behavioral problems. Based in Pittsburgh, we work in 45 counties throughout Pennsylvania. Just as nurses,...
John Ash: Preparing for the worst
In the early 1900s, Spanish-American scholar, philosopher and humanist George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His five volumes of “The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense” rank as one of the greatest works in modern philosophical history. That well-known...
Harry Hochheiser: Earth Day in the time of coronavirus
This is not how anyone expected to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. With the world on a coronavirus lockdown, planned celebrations join events from all walks of life in the canceled column, with Earth Day, like everything else, going virtual. For those of us who are alarmed about...
Rex Huppke: Protests against coronavirus stay-at-home orders put us all at risk, may delay America’s reopening
While they are few in number, those who’ve decided it’s their duty as Americans to protest coronavirus lockdowns are putting their self-interest over the health of others. Period. You can disagree with me and call me a liberal schmuck and stand by President Donald Trump and the protesters he’s egging...
Pat Buchanan: What will be the new American cause?
After the Great Pandemic has passed and we emerge from Great Depression II, what will be America’s mission in the world? What will be America’s cause? We have been at such a turning point before. After World War II, Americans wanted to come home. But we put aside our nation-building...
John F. Rohe: Remembering the first Earth Day, 50 years ago
John F. Rohe is vice president of the Colcom Foundation. In 1970, the first Earth Day set a high bar for long-range plans. Its aspirations stretched well beyond the 50th anniversary that we observe on April 22. Now, perhaps more than ever, the original vision of Earth Day brings intergenerational...
Stacy Gallin: Learning from Holocaust in time of covid-19
As we commemorate Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — this week, I keep thinking about the Hebrew phrase, L’dor V’dor. In English, this phrase means “from generation to generation.” It refers to the essential task in Judaism of passing down traditions and education from one generation to another. It...
Eric Rittmeyer: Push emotional intelligence instead of college
There isn’t a single parent who doesn’t want what’s best for his or her child. Watching them do well in school and getting that dream job is what parenting is all about. Or is it? As a society we’ve shifted our emphasis way too much onto academic success and way...
Ryan Costello: Stopping covid-19 surprise bills in Pa.
When Danni Askini, a registered nurse and two-time cancer survivor, began to feel ill — chest pains, headaches and shortness of breath – she did the right thing and immediately got tested for the coronavirus. Unfortunately, the tests came back positive. While receiving treatment, she got another shock — a...
Frasat Ahmad: Fighting covid-19 during Ramadan
“Mom, don’t leave. It’s too dangerous.” “If I don’t,” my mother replies, “my children will starve.” “I’m your child,” I respond. “So are they,” she says. I have had this debate with my mother for more than a month. Deemed an essential worker, my 61-year old mother leaves her house...
David Zurawik: ‘Frontline’ traces start of covid-19 crisis in America, telling a tale of two Washingtons 
It has been a punishing last week for the White House as some of the biggest guns in American journalism have taken aim at President Donald Trump’s failed leadership in the covid-19 crisis. The reckoning started last weekend with a major piece from the New York Times titled “He Could...
Kristy Trautmann: Help victims of domestic violence
Across the country and around the world, rates of domestic violence have soared during the coronavirus crisis. People who abuse are taking advantage of social distancing to isolate victims from their friends and family. Over the past month, domestic violence calls to the Pittsburgh Police have increased by 20% to...
Dr. Lawrence John: Covid-19 could devastate medical practices
We have all seen the images of crowded hospitals overrun with patients infected with covid-19. As a result of covid-19 regulations, another significant health care dilemma is developing, as medical practices witness a significant decline in patient visits during this pandemic. Government-mandated cutbacks on elective procedures and routine check-ups have...
State Rep. Bob Brooks: Getting Pa. to work while dealing with coronavirus
During the early stages of the highly contagious coronavirus, we had little statistical information, but there was much concern over hospital space for treatment and the loss of lives. Health officials here and abroad are continuing to work to track and contain the pandemic. Our government has tried to slow...
John Stossel: China’s tech totalitarianism
The media tell us China “beat coronavirus.” I don’t believe it. The Chinese government lies. AEI’s Derrek Scissors argues that they’ve underreported the number of covid-19 cases by millions. Still, it’s possible that China has the virus under control. But at what cost? Most of us in America now practice...
Walter Williams: Fixing college corruption
America’s colleges are rife with corruption. The financial squeeze resulting from covid-19 offers opportunities for a bit of remediation. Let’s first let’s examine what might be the root of academic corruption, suggested by the title of a 2018 study, “Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship.” The study was...
Lou Weiss: In memory of ‘Freddie’ the garbage collector, the first city worker taken by covid-19
I lost my garbageman this past Wednesday. While his name hasn’t been officially released from the Pittsburgh Department of Environmental Services, word is that he was the first covid-19 related fatality of a public employee in the city. I’ll call him “Freddie” for now. Not knowing his last name, I...
Dr. Joseph Answine: Nurse anesthetists’ role
We can agree that all medical personnel should be utilized to fight the covid-19 pandemic. However, this is not the time for nurse anesthetists to push a long-fought personal agenda, which is independent practice separating the physician from the patient during the highly complicated and risky period while under anesthesia...
Charles Mitchell: Lawmakers offer way out of coronavirus chaos
Since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak, I have been rooting for our governor, Tom Wolf. We all need him to be successful in protecting our neighbors from this disease, and initially his response was consistent and transparent. But now, his secretive approach is harming his multi-state effort to reopen...
Josh Shapiro: Major victory for abuse survivors
We’re working overtime right now in the Office of Attorney General — protecting your financial security and stopping price gouging during the public health emergency — and still meeting our core responsibilities to public safety. In fact, we just won two major victories that will protect Pennsylvanians from the most...
Suzanna Masartis: The race for a covid-19 cure
America traditionally has turned to its biopharmaceutical industry for solutions to our ailments and diseases, with the demands for treatments and vaccines created by the coronavirus pandemic underscoring what members of rare disease communities feel every day. Although biopharmaceutical companies are committed to developing solutions to help diagnose and treat...
State Sens. Lindsey Williams & Maria Collett: Essential workers need our help now
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across our state, country and world, every day we wake up to new unsettling statistics. As of this writing, in Pennsylvania alone, there are 25,345 cases of coronavirus, but there are surely hundreds, maybe even thousands more, who have contracted the virus but...
Tracy Gordon Fox: As a nurse, not much scares me, but coronavirus does
My patient lay on her side, her back heaving up and down. At first, I was afraid that perhaps she was becoming increasingly short of breath. As I moved closer and saw her face, I noticed she was crying. Streaks of tears rolled down her smooth brown skin. “Are you...
Dr. Christopher Koman: Normalcy bias hampers fight against covid-19
Christopher Koman, M.D., is a family physician with Genesis Medical Associates in McCandless. A farmer has a pond. On day 1, there is one lily pad. He knows that they grow fast and will double every day and completely cover his pond in 30 days. On what day will his...
Michael Hiltzik: Trump can’t reopen the economy after the coronavirus, but governors can’t either
President Donald Trump’s assertion Monday that he has “ultimate,” even “total” authority to dictate the reopening of the U.S. economy raised eyebrows among constitutional scholars and set up a conflict with governors and local officials who have placed their own states and communities on lockdown. “In the coming weeks, the...


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