Featured Commentary category, Page 28
Beth Dale: Working together on gun violence
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...
Lawrence McCullough: Pittsburgh arts rise to the political moment
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...
Colleen Friend: My school district has saved over a million dollars by going solar. With Solar for Schools, your district could be next
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...
Conor Sen: Trump inherits an economy at a tricky time
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....
Jonathan Levin: Trump is stuck with the Fed’s Powell. Will he make peace?
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...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Defeated Democrats face an uncertain future
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...
Tyler Cowen: Trump’s tariffs won’t work, just as McKinley’s didn’t
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...
Cal Thomas: Trump’s chance to change taxation
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...
Lainey Newman: Trump made sweeping promises to the American people. It’s time to see if he delivers.
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...
Commentary: 7 crucial things to remember as we look back at the election
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 —...
Renaud Foucart: How the Trump presidency might change the global economy
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...
Jamie Goldenberg, Emily P. Courtney and Joshua Hart: Existential terror of hurricanes can fuel climate change denial
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...
Jen Forsyth: Please don’t drink and drive
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...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Stanley Cups must be won in the front office before they are won on the ice
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...
Jim Nowlan: This is an obvious time for a Centrist Party in America
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...
Lowman S. Henry: Time to stop playing politics with USS deal
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....
Jordan Batchelor: Military veterans are disproportionately affected by suicide, but targeted prevention can help reverse the tide
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...
Counterpoint: The battlefield requires individuals with STEM backgrounds
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...
Point: Young people aren’t joining the military — sky-high military spending is to blame
As Veterans Day approaches, the military is concerned about a growing recruitment crisis. Survey after survey reveals young people aren’t inspired by military service. Ironically, decades of sky-high military spending — and the endless war it enabled — may have much to do with that. And reversing that trend is...
Gary Blumenthal: All eyes on Shapiro for essential ID/A funding
As the dust settles from the 2024 election, Pennsylvania’s leaders must now prepare for the 2025 legislative session and the forthcoming fiscal year budget debate, as families, caregivers and individuals in the intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/A) community look to Gov. Josh Shapiro to champion crucial funding needs. Last year’s...
Rabbi Michael Pollack: Pa. leaders must step up to fight foreign election interference
Senate Republican leaders decided to end our two-year legislative session without passing HB 2433 and banning foreign influenced corporations from political spending in Pennsylvania elections, and our Pennsylvania state Senate has now gone home until the new year. The editorial “Why would Pennsylvania elections need foreign money?” (Sept. 19, TribLive)...
Cal Thomas: Democracy lives in brightness
In the end, Kamala Harris was the wrong candidate with the wrong message at the wrong time. President-elect Donald Trump won the greatest comeback in American political history — bigger than Richard Nixon’s 1968 victory — by surviving two assassination attempts, a media that was shamelessly in the tank for...
James Stavridis: North Korea troop deal exposes Putin’s weakness
Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering grievous manpower losses as a result of his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. He has lost about 200,000 killed, double that number wounded and at least 500,000 young men fleeing the Russian Federation to avoid the draft: a butcher’s bill of over a...
Ken Zapinski: Maintaining a robust economy is also a public health issue
Most of the major metro regions in the U.S., including Pittsburgh, would not meet the new Clean Air Act standard for tiny soot pollution, according to the latest data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Of the 50 largest metro areas, 26 would violate the new standard established by the EPA...
Rev. Erik Hoeke: Community is what we make of it
Seventy-two percent of Americans agree that in our complex society we have a shared responsibility to engage with people different from us, according to a 2023 study conducted by More in Common US. So why are politics so partisan and divisive? And how might we meet these challenges in our...
