Opinion category, Page 302
Editorial: Does mandatory death penalty for cop killers make sense?
On Friday, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office filed a notice that it would seek the death penalty for Johnathan Morris. Morris, 31, is charged with criminal homicide, attempted homicide, assault of a law enforcement officer, murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and carrying a firearm without a...
Letter to the editor: Presidents have no control over inflation
Inflation, we are told, results when people spend too much money, driving up prices; too much money chasing too few goods. Wall Street wants to cure it by hammering on working people. The Federal Reserve raises interest rates, in effect sending every employer a memo saying it’s time to lay...
Elwood Watson : Not ‘woke’ enough to understand its meaning
You have to be “woke” to understand it, I guess. Last week, conservative activist and author Bethany Mandel went viral for her screeching response on defining the term woke, which has become the catch-all phrase on the right for everything wrong with our country. During the March 14 edition of...
Pat Garofalo: Ending health care systems’ abuse of nonprofit status
A court recently ruled that the health care system Tower Health did not meet the mandated requirements to receive tax exemptions on four of its properties in Pennsylvania, in part because it was too focused on profit despite its status as a nonprofit institution. “This decision is validation that our...
Jeff Kotula: Unleashing Pa.’s energy resources will grow economy
As the first quarter of 2023 comes to an end, the economy remains a prime concern for many Americans. It has been difficult to ignore the effects of inflation on everyday essentials, and market results have reflected this uncertainty. While the current unemployment rate is at a near 50-year low...
Letter to the editor: McGonigal arrest raises questions
This nightmare just will not go away. We know that Oleg Deripaska was a key coordinator of Russia’s foreign influence operation in the 2016 presidential campaign. We know he was associated with Paul Manafort, the ex-operative for Putin’s puppet regime in Ukraine, ex-campaign adviser for President Trump, and ex-felon whom...
Letter to the editor: Oil and gas changes in Monroeville
The Monroeville Council is considering an update to its comprehensive zoning ordinance that looks like changes in land use are going to make it worse for environmental justice communities near the landfill. Harms to air and water are sure to follow as a result of allowing fracking as a conditional...
Editorial: What is the value of tradition in deer hunting?
The start of deer season is not just a date on the calendar. It is a lot more complicated than that. It involves the science behind how deer move and feed, where they live and when they breed. It is part of a management process that looks to keep a...
Letter to the editor: Dems hurting the middle class
Liberal Democrats are waging war against America, hurting middle-class Americans most. Since President Biden took office, every major policy imposed on the country has had far more deleterious effects on America’s middle and lower classes than on the rich because the elitist Democrats and their rich corporate and celebrity contributors...
Letter to the editor: Alzheimer’s, dementia caregiver burden growing in Pa.
The Alzheimer’s Association’s 2023 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report reveals the Alzheimer’s and dementia caregiver burden continues to grow in Pennsylvania. Today, there are more than 400,000 family members and friends serving as unpaid dementia caregivers in the commonwealth providing 464 million hours of unpaid care, valued at $10.7...
Tom Purcell: Let’s get our kids behind the wheel
The sun is shining and spring is upon us. Such days remind me still of the excitement I knew when I turned 16 in April and was finally able to get my driver’s license — a wondrous rite of passage fewer and fewer teens choose to experience today. According to...
Ryan Costello: Pharmacy benefit managers help keep drug costs down
These days, it seems it is always political campaign season. That is true on the presidential level, with several candidates already seeking the Republican nomination. Here in Pennsylvania, we will also be electing a U.S. senator (Bob Casey’s seat) and a full state and federal House delegation next year. As...
Letter to the editor: An all-electric Air Force One?
The president is calling for the American people to go to all-electric vehicles. With something like 12,000 airplanes in the sky at one time, I believe it’s time for President Biden to show the world he is not all talk. Biden needs to have the “Next Air Force One” made...
Letter to the editor: Try plant-based for one day on March 20
MeatOut was launched in 1985 by Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) and has since grown into the world’s largest annual grassroots educational campaign encouraging the end of the use of animals for food. On March 20, the first day of spring, we ask people to turn over a new leaf...
Letter to the editor: Grateful for lifesavers in Harrison
I would like to express my appreciation for the Citizens Hose EMS crew and director Jim Erb. They were recently honored at a Harrison Township meeting for their lifesaving efforts (“Harrison emergency crews lauded for saving 2 lives,” March 2, TribLIVE). I am extremely grateful that our township has a...
Editorial: Shapiro hears Gideon’s trumpet
State capitals from Honolulu to Augusta, Maine, heard Gideon’s trumpet when the U.S. Supreme Court sounded it in 1963. But Harrisburg has remained deaf for 60 years to the clarion call to provide lawyers for indigent criminal defendants. The court ruled on March 18, 1963, in Gideon v. Wainwright. A...
Letter to the editor: UPMC shouldn’t wait to raise wages
Recently, UPMC announced it would increase its minimum wage to $18 by 2026. While I agree wages should be raised, we can’t wait three years for it to happen. We are in the middle of a critical hospital staffing shortage. Many of my co-workers who’ve left say they’re leaving because...
Letter to the editor: Government must do more on domestic terrorism
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has reported that the incidence of domestic terrorism attacks are on the rise. These attacks come from the far right and the far left. The center emphasized that the words right and left do not refer to the Republican or Democratic parties but...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of March 20
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of March 20....
Editorial cartoons for the week of March 20
Editorial cartoons for the week of March 20....
Michael Reagan: Banking up next for Biden destruction
Banking must have been next on the to-do list of the things the Biden administration is planning to destroy. In two years, President Biden and the wrecking crew of crazies, wokesters and career incompetents he has put into his government have screwed up every corner of America. Everything from the...
Letter to the editor: Americans need help affording medication
Millions of people in the United States have died due to not being able to afford needed medications. The “pill bill” passed last year by Congress does nothing to stop most of these deaths. Oh yes, it helps lower insulin prices, but only for people on government programs, Medicare and...
Letter to the editor: Casino workers should be protected from smokers
I am writing on behalf of Pennsylvania casino workers who are working in secondhand smoke on a daily basis . I lost my mother in 2015 due to COPD. I am also pushing this cause in her honor to save others from this terrible lung condition. Casino workers love their...
Editorial: The educational insanity of March Madness
“It’s the best three weeks in basketball, Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro tweeted. It seems like just about everyone has caught the rabid athletic bug that sweeps across the country every year as winter turns to spring. Welcome to the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. The brackets come out with people...
Letter to the editor: ‘Woke’ lends itself to weaponization
One reads with interest the column “The problem with the word woke” (March 10, TribLIVE). Lori Falce decries how a word supposedly “meant to be about opening eyes turned into a club.” Such linguistic weaponization, however, might be implicit in the term “woke” itself. Merriam-Webster defines “woke” as “aware of...
