Featured Commentary category, Page 60
Christopher Briem: The painful truth of population decline
Few Americans have studied the plight of formerly industrialized cities more closely than Alan Mallach. Throughout his career, the noted community development expert has delved into the challenges facing many small and medium-sized communities that have had to deal with concentrated deindustrialization, disinvestment, and population contraction. He has distilled much...
Kevin Sabet: Pa. politicians’ pot push won’t be boon they claim
Over the last decade, the drive to legalize marijuana has been the subject of a significant public relations campaign. Throughout the country, the push to erase any stigma associated with marijuana has essentially become part of contemporary pop culture. In a vast effort to influence perceptions, musicians, actors, media personalities...
Dr. Asif Ilyas: Education needed for opioid prescribing in Appalachia
The escalating opioid crisis, especially in the Appalachian region, is a stark reminder of the harsh realities of addiction. A recently published study by the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute Foundation for Opioid Research and Education illuminates the alarming rise of opioid- related deaths in the Appalachian region, disproportionately higher than the rest...
Matt Bradford: A self-inflicted Pa. budget crisis
In a very complicated place like the state Capitol, for once, things are simple. There is no budget impasse. And there was no “Great Betrayal.” The hyperbolic rhetoric from the Senate over the past few weeks would make you think otherwise and requires that the record be set straight. As...
Point: Colleges should solely consider merit in selecting students
On June 29, the Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 ruling that essentially prevents colleges from using affirmative action and race-based quotas in the college admissions acceptance process. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “The race-based admissions systems … fail to comply with the twin commands of the Equal Protection Clause...
Counterpoint: Affirmative action has ended; the need for diversity hasn’t
When a conservative Supreme Court majority effectively ended the use of affirmative action in college admissions, it disregarded more than 40 years of precedent — and the realities of systemic racial discrimination. Meanwhile, the court left affirmative action for the wealthy in place. While colleges no longer can consider race...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: An AI Bill of Rights would be unenforceable and may do more harm than good
President Joe Biden put forward a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” that provides five guiding principles for the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. They outline aspirational goals that also align with principles in the Democratic Party platform. Technology leaders also have expressed concern about the untethered growth...
Elwood Watson: Aldean learns critics have freedom of speech, too
This week, Country Music Television pulled Jason Aldean’s highly controversial music video for “Try That in a Small Town” after its release last week sparked controversy. Aldean, one of the biggest country music stars, has been criticized widely for the song and video, which features intense hostility and threats of...
Barry Markovsky: Why people tend to believe UFOs are extraterrestrial
Most of us still call them UFOs — unidentified flying objects. NASA recently adopted the term “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP. Either way, every few years popular claims resurface that these things are not of our world, or that the U.S. government has some stored away. I’m a sociologist who...
Peter Morici: How Ukraine joining NATO would keep critical technology out of China’s hands
The future of Ukraine in the NATO alliance will prove critical to the balance of power in the Pacific and U.S. economic leadership around the world. Tensions within NATO on the embattled nation’s status were on full display at the Vilnius Summit last week. On the agenda was Ukrainian membership,...
Brad Bushman and Sophie Kjaervik: A 1-minute video helped preteens be more careful around real guns
Children who watched a 1-minute-long gun safety video were more cautious when they found a real handgun hidden in a drawer in our lab compared to children who watched a car safety video, according to our randomized clinical trial published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. We observed this difference even...
Elwood Watson: Teaching about racism without discussing race?
Ryan Walters, a far right-wing education official who currently serves as Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, recently caused a political firestorm when he insisted the Tulsa race massacre can be taught in public schools without amounting to “critical race theory” — so long as it’s taught without discussing race. Walters,...
Nathan Benefield: Shapiro, lawmakers must choose — students or special interests?
In education policy, there are two main groups of stakeholders: parents and special interests. Parents want the best opportunities for their children, while special interests benefit from maintaining the status quo. The first group is much more numerous. The latter, unfortunately, has far greater political power — with dozens of...
Zach Kennedy: In Allegheny County, progressives are now the establishment
A political powerhouse now rivaling Philadelphia as the bedrock of Democratic electoral strength in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County has been consistently trending more progressive. This past May’s primaries in Pennsylvania’s second-largest county added another layer of icing on a cake that’s been baking for nearly a decade: In Allegheny County, progressives...
F.D. Flam: How much heat can the human body stand?
The June that just ended was the Earth’s hottest — ever. And the first week of July saw the trend continue. The surging summer temperatures made me wonder: Just how much heat can the human body stand? Deaths from heat are pretty common and, as the world heats up, may...
Nicole Woitowich: Clinical trials are better at including women. But data analysis is still a real problem.
The summer of 1993 was an eventful time: Prince changed his name to a symbol, “Jurassic Park” was released and Congress passed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act requiring the inclusion of women in clinical research. Most people aren’t aware of this law, which requires that women be included...
LZ Granderson: Jailing unhoused people for sleeping in public is no solution to homelessness
Earlier this month, a group of conservative judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit spoke out against allowing homeless people to sleep in public spaces, after the court’s liberal majority decided that those with nowhere else to rest cannot be subject to criminal penalties. It’s the...
Anthony Pahnke: Farmers deserve to be able to control what they grow
My grandma calls him the “seed man.” He used to come by our farm outside of Fond du Lac, Wis., every year, trying to persuade us to buy the latest variety of corn and wheat seeds. If the “seed man” didn’t have something we liked, then there were the options...
Mark Nicastre: The letter that sank school choice in Pa.
One of the most overused expressions in sports, politics or any competitive endeavor is “they pulled defeat from the jaws of victory.” But sometimes the expression fits. School-choice advocates and lobbyists this month made one of the biggest errors I’ve seen in almost 20 years of working in politics and...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Pence has difficult path ahead
Mike Pence has wanted to be president for a long time. That was one factor that impelled him to seek — and win — Indiana’s governorship in 2012 at a time when he was a rising power and potential speaker in the GOP-controlled House. It was certainly a factor in...
Jonah Goldberg: Yes, cluster munitions are awful. No, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give them to Ukraine.
The controversy over the Biden administration’s decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions reminded me of my old boss William F. Buckley’s famous rejoinder to claims the United States and the Soviet Union were morally equivalent because they both possessed nuclear weapons and spent a lot on defense. His phrasing...
Leland Lazarus: China’s ties to Cuba and growing presence in Latin America raise security concerns in Washington
There is a push by leaders in Washington and Beijing to get U.S.-China relations back on track. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Xi Jinping in China in June to reopen the lines of communication between the countries. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this month spent four...
Christopher Devine: Why do U.S. voters have to pick a Republican or a Democrat?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why does it have to be Democrat vs. Republican in elections? Why can’t it be Republican vs. Republican or Democrat vs. Democrat? – Gianna, age...
Sen. Ryan Aument: Young people need opportunity, not student loan forgiveness
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposal on June 30. While this ruling is a win for taxpayers, there are still millions of Americans with trillions of dollars in outstanding student loans who now need to pay back that debt. I applaud the high court’s...
Thomas Zeitzoff: ‘Idiots,’ ‘criminals’ and ‘scum’ — nasty politics highest in U.S. since the Civil War
Joe Biden, “together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy.” This is what Donald Trump said to his supporters hours after pleading not guilty in federal court in June 2023 to his mishandling of classified documents. The indictment of a former president...
