Letter to the editor: Who cried for the children of Gaza?
Did Benjamin Netanyahu cry when he terrorized, scapegoated and denied an entire people a homeland? Or is he so self-righteous that he forgot his own people have been terrorized, scapegoated and denied a homeland for centuries? Did Donald Trump cry as children’s skulls were being pulverized into the coastal sands?...
Editorial: A budget failure doesn’t earn a pay raise
For most people, getting a raise is not a given. It is also a process. You have a performance evaluation. Your whole scope of work over the last year is reviewed. Did you meet expectations? Did you exceed them? What were your strengths? Did you work well with your team?...
Letter to the editor: The real Christmas story
No one in the history of the world ever had to travel to the place of his birth to pay taxes. The concept is not only preposterous, it is just stupid. In my opinion, the Bethlehem story was fabricated to comply with Old Testament prophesy in regards to the Jewish...
Ronald Brownstein: The GOP tried loyalty, then rebellion. Both failed.
For Republicans, November was bookended by two ominous developments: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation and the party’s resounding defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. The Republican candidates in those races — Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia — tried one strategy for dealing...
Kenny Stein: Future of AI in Pa. begins with regulatory reform
Artificial intelligence and data centers are the hottest investment topics at the moment, reminiscent of the Amazon headquarters sweepstakes of the past. This time, increased energy demand, combined with flexibility in location, means that almost any part of the country where the energy supply is abundant is a potential data...
Tim Wesley: If the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet!
Given the recent sports-betting and gambling scandals, this seems like a relevant question: If we knew the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet we would. And we would probably still bet on it, too. It’s our nature. It’s entertainment, and we can’t resist. Examples abound, including Hollywood...
Letter to the editor: Pollard, Huckabee should be tried for sedition
According to news reports Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who is an ordained evangelist minister, cordially welcomed Jonathon Pollard to the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. For those with short memories Pollard was condemned in 1986 by U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger as a traitor and spy for Israel whose...
Letter to the editor: Not impressed with new airport terminal
My first visit to the new Pittsburgh Airport terminal was to pick up my daughter. Her plane landed shortly before midnight on Nov. 25. I was in the wait lot until she texted that she was in the departure area. Signage to get from the wait lot to the terminal...
Letter to the editor: What has happened to us?
So many questions, so few answers! Why does ICE continue to go after innocent people? Why are we fighting each other at the highest levels of government? What is in the Epstein files? Why have we built an invisible wall between the left and right? How can a religious person...
Editorial: Fire hydrants are critical infrastructure
A fire hydrant is part of the landscape, something your eye may just slide past. Like a light post or mailbox, it is expected to be just off the curb of a street. That makes them easy to ignore or to forget — unless, of course, you need one. But...
Dr. Kim-Lien Nguyen: Subsidizing insurance just props up dysfunction. Empower consumers instead
Congress ended its impasse to reopen the government, but the Democrats’ reason for the shutdown remains unresolved: the renewal of expiring subsidies for insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Republicans offered an olive branch to end the standoff by proposing to make payments into Americans’ health savings accounts...
Jason Lias: With respect, Deluzio’s message crossed a line
Rep. Chris Deluzio, let me start with something simple and sincere: Thank you for your service to this country. Your time in uniform matters, and nobody can take that away from you. Americans respect that — I respect that. But respect for your service does not mean giving you a...
Letter to the editor: Russia’s withdrawal the way to end war
I have an idea for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war. Why don’t the Russians withdraw back into Russia, and the war will be over? They invaded and should withdraw, and it is over! Lou Gregovits North Huntingdon...
Letter to the editor: Caregivers are professionals
The term professional (from Wikipedia) “describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of that profession with particular knowledge and skills necessary to perform their specific role within that profession.” You are considered a professional when you are paid for specialized skills, have knowledge in your profession and...
Editorial: Canada measles outbreak shows that vigilance must not slip
The next outbreak of serious disease is merely “a plane ride away,” public health officials have long warned. The current crop of measles cases in Canada proves that point. A traveler infected with measles visited a New Brunswick community with a low vaccination rate, sparking a national outbreak in 2024....
Letter to the editor: Pittsburgh, the most ‘givable’ city
With the holidays upon us, it’s that time of year where the sharing and caring seem to come out of our bodies and warm the heart. There must be something to the saying, “Home is where the heart is.” Seeing the people of Pittsburgh rallying by giving to local food...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Dec. 1
Editorial cartoons for the week of Dec. 1....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Dec. 1
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Dec. 1....
Letter to the editor: Am I no longer a professional?
I have been a nurse since 1982 when I graduated from Penn State. I worked nine years as a critical care nurse. I worked very hard at obtaining new skills, obtaining credentialing as a critical care registered nurse (CCRN), all while going to graduate school to gain additional knowledge and...
Editorial: School funding, cyber charter oversight are state-created problems
Education is built on the basics. ABCs become words, then sentences, then books. Counting becomes adding, then long division, then algebra. If you don’t get a good grounding at the primary level, everything gets harder until the learning process falls apart with the advanced material. That might be the issue...
Letter to the editor: People deserve easier access to lifesaving screenings
As a registered infant nurse, I see how carefully parents protect their children’s health, but I also see how often they overlook their own care, including preventative screenings. Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, despite the fact that it is also one of...
Joeph Sabino Mistick: News of the day in an upside-down world
In the Nov. 20 New York Times, the top three “Most Read Stories” carried the following headlines: “In Outburst, Trump Accuses Democrats of Sedition Over Video to Military”; “Trump Calling Reporter ‘Piggy’ Was ‘Frankness,’ White House Says”; “Coast Guard Says Swastika and Noose Displays Are No Longer Hate Incidents.” If...
Peter Morici: Prosperity without workers — the AI paradox shaping Trump’s economy
The economy is growing, but jobs are harder to find. Second-quarter growth in gross domestic product was 3.8%, thanks to robust investment in information processing equipment, software, and research and development, mostly to build out artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal survey of private prognosticators pegged third-quarter growth at 2.5%,...
Sophia Greene and Dr. Claudia Fernandes: A broken pipeline — costing us our next generation of scientists
Science has always relied on young innovators to drive progress. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still PhD students, founded Google. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, Kizzmekia Corbett, then a senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, led a team of scientists...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Republicans hope the Supreme Court will help them hold the House
Perhaps it was inevitable. But it seems increasingly likely that the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, will play a major role in determining which party wins the U.S. House next year. That possibility increased when Justice Samuel Alito paused a lower court’s rejection of the effort by Texas...
