Featured Commentary category, Page 11

President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services has provoked a lot of objections, many of them explaining how he would be a danger to scientific progress and public health. But too little has been said about the...

One big takeaway from the 2024 election cycle has largely escaped notice in the Northeast: Voters decisively rejected every state ballot initiative to legalize the sale and marketing of marijuana for recreational use. This rejection marks a clear victory for families over the marijuana industry’s addiction-for-profit business plan. In Florida...

After winning the presidency by focusing on immigration, inflation and a vague notion that life was better in 2019, Donald Trump is widely expected to proceed with plans to … eliminate the Department of Education. It’s hard to see how this makes sense — for him, his party or the...

It’s been nearly eight months since avian flu was first detected in U.S. dairy herds, and cases in both cows and humans continue to pile up. That slow burn of infections through our nation’s livestock, a new vessel for the virus, has never been good for public health. It creates...

A full inbox awaits President-elect Donald Trump when he returns to the Oval Office. Most individual tax reductions in the 2017 tax overhaul expire at the end of 2025. He has promised to extend and enhance those. But even if he let those lapse, the federal deficit would rise from...

Many of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees just don’t have the gravitas or institutional experience in dealing with giant bureaucracies to serve effectively, critics say. That whining you hear is the sound of progress. Trump, who has spent his entire business career in real estate taking a wrecking ball...

Fifty years ago when Ron Paul (father of Sen. Rand Paul) was running for Congress from Texas, a billboard featured an obese Uncle Sam with the caption “let’s put big government on a diet.” Since then, the federal government has grown even more obese. To seriously address the problem, President-elect...

Schools in Pennsylvania are back in full swing, but with the excitement that comes with a new school year comes growing concern to ensure our school communities are kept safe from gun violence. In March, a statewide survey found that nearly half of Pennsylvania parents are more worried about gun...

A hallmark of live theater is presenting plays that offer audiences the opportunity to examine important social issues of the day in a fresh, often provocative light. That recently transpired in an unexpected manner when Fowlerville Community Theatre’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” was menaced by a masked...

As a superintendent for Carlisle Area School District, I have a lot to balance. CASD encompasses 77 square miles, with seven elementary schools, two middle schools and a comprehensive high school boasting its own Career and Technology Center. We educate approximately 5,200 students, and our student body is diverse and...

Donald Trump will inherit, to all appearances, a solid economy when he assumes the presidency in January. After all, the stock market is at record highs, unemployment is low by historical standards and gross domestic product has been expanding at a healthy pace of around 2.5% so far this year....

U.S. bond markets have had a minor meltdown since former President Donald Trump pulled ahead in prediction markets and then won a second term, putting upward pressure on mortgages and other household borrowing costs. If the move continues, it could be a major source of disappointment for voters who trusted...

In the wake of their sweeping election defeat, it didn’t take long for Democrats to turn on one another, seeking explanations — or scapegoats. Some faulted defeated presidential nominee Kamala Harris for tactical errors in her hastily constructed but lavishly financed campaign. Others blamed President Joe Biden’s ill-considered insistence on...

Donald Trump’s return to the White House means that one of his signature issues will soon return to the center of Washington’s economic policy agenda: tariffs. And while the evidence of their harm continues to grow, which is why economists like me oppose them, economists like me should also admit...

If any constitutional amendment can be hated, it would be the 16th Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, it allowed Congress to “levy income taxes without apportioning them among the states based on population.” At first the collection of revenue came from the...

Republicans have made their bed — now they have to sleep in it. The party has won a decisive victory this election cycle, taking control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court has a conservative supermajority made up of three justices appointed by Trump...

At the heart of American democracy is a shared principle that has guided our nation for nearly 250 years: The people decide. Elections don’t just happen in a vacuum every two or four years. They are a collective effort requiring all of us to participate and be engaged citizens —...

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election — and his threat to impose tariffs on all imports to the United States — highlights an important problem for the global economy. The U.S. is a technological powerhouse, spending more than any other country on research and development and winning more Nobel...

As TVs across Florida broadcast the all-too-familiar images of a powerful hurricane headed for the coast in early October, people whose homes had been damaged less than two weeks earlier by Hurricane Helene watched anxiously. Hurricane Milton was rapidly intensifying into a dangerous storm, fueled by the Gulf of Mexico’s...

As the holidays approach, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, you will hear reminders for shopping deals, reminders about holiday food, reminders about family and yes, reminders not to drink and drive. It may feel a little early for that last one. I certainly thought it was two years ago...

The 2024-25 National Hockey League season is well underway. All 32 teams began with a fresh start in the standings, and for some, a fresh roster on the ice. Though every team hopes to raise Lord Stanley’s cup in June, there are only a handful of teams that have a...

There is an open space for a significant new, centrist political party, created by the pull of the progressive and Donald Trump bases to their respective, opposite poles on the political spectrum. This is a daunting challenge, of course, yet there is precedent. Only once in American history has a...

On Sept. 21, then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stopped by President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware. Official reports indicate the two leaders warmly greeted each other. Biden lauded the “special friendship” he has with the prime minister. The conference concluded with a joint statement indicating: “Japan and the U.S....

America’s military veterans make up about 6% of the adult population but account for about 20% of all suicides. That means that each day, about 18 veterans will die by suicide. In the U.S., the overall rate of suicide has largely increased since the start of the millennium, but veterans...

Only 1% of Americans serve in our nation’s military. It should be unsurprising that many don’t understand military service, the types of jobs it offers, the way of life and the long-term opportunities it provides. One common misconception is that there is no future in the military for individuals with...