Joseph Sabino Mistick stories, Page 6

Political careers can turn on a dime, as the sudden fate of two Tennessee state legislators proved when they were expelled from the state House of Representatives. Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, both Democrats and both Black, were stripped of their elected positions by a...

The recent move by Florida Democrats to ban Gov. Ron DeSantis’ memoir, “The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival,” raises issues that are more important than the few chuckles it warrants. DeSantis has promoted laws banning books on race, diversity and gender, limiting teachers’ ability to discuss...

When 14-year-old Emmett Till was savagely beaten and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after rumors spread that he had whistled at a white woman, his death would have been little noticed but for his mother’s decision to show the world what had been done to her son. Mamie Till Mobley...

Fight night on Pittsburgh’s North Side was in the final hours of St. Patrick’s Day. There was a packed house at the Grand Hall of the Priory to watch a six-bout card of prizefighters, some local and others from out of town. And it turned out to be much more...

Why are so many big politicians acting so small? There are plenty of opportunities for them to think big and act big, but lately some politicians are stuck on those things that will grab some headlines but have little to do with the future of America. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis...

Just as Pittsburgh weather comes from the west and often through Chicago, local political watchers are wondering what the defeat of first-term Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot could mean for Pittsburgh and the reelection of Mayor Ed Gainey in 2025. Lightfoot, the first incumbent Chicago mayor in 40 years not to...

In the 1950s, the Allegheny County Democratic Party held summer picnics at Pulaski Grove, a long-forgotten wooded patch that carried the name of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish freedom fighter and hero of the American Revolution. The Democratic Party represented everybody, and the picnics were rare and treasured outings for blue-collar...

To many residents, it looked like the end of the world when 50 cars from a 150-car Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, just over three weeks ago. Eleven of the derailed cars carried toxic chemicals and were scattered along the tracks smoking and burning. Thousands of fish...

When Chuck Pascal and the Armstrong County Democratic Committee decided to place a billboard with a welcoming message along one of the main roads into the county, they chose words that they hoped would reach and comfort as many people as possible. Pascal, the county Democratic chairman and a prominent...

I don’t have the wildest idea what the ultimate impact of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech will be. I don’t know if the public will be more persuaded that things are going OK or if they will think that we are on the wrong path. I can’t...

Another Groundhog Day has come and gone. It was started by German immigrants in Pennsylvania in 1887 in Punxsutawney. Historians say it is based on a pre-Christian ritual that used the behavior of small animals to predict the weather, back when believing that you could predict the start of spring...

People are worried about Downtown Pittsburgh. The recent daytime killing of a young man in broad daylight in the heart of Pittsburgh’s business and entertainment district has some businesses and residents worrying that Downtown might be over. It was the latest in a string of violent encounters and brazen shootings...

Most Pittsburghers are sickened and exhausted every time they turn on the news and see another street killing in our town. There was another fatal shooting Thursday in broad daylight on Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. Mayor Ed Gainey, a man who knows the personal tragedy of random gun violence,...

The general public has not heard much about nihilists since “The Big Lebowski” was released in 1998, but during the recent GOP fight to pick a speaker of the House in Washington, D.C., we learned that nihilists now have their own caucus in the Republican Party. In the movie, three...

Police officers have the toughest job in America, and Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire gave it his all while pursuing an armed and dangerous fugitive last week. McIntire was shot and killed doing what we ask our police to be ready to do — protect the public from the terror...

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves,” according to the late William E. Vaughan, author and longtime columnist for the Kansas City Star. It is never that simple. There are always some bad things...

It turned out to be my last chance to shine at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass with the boys’ choir of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in East McKeesport. By the next year, my voice would be changed, one more sign that I was moving along in life, aging out of things....

Everyone has a personal holiday wish list, but we all should have a wish list for our communities, as well. These are not luxury items at all. Those who live in Pittsburgh’s East End or pass through it for work or pleasure or to shop will have one wish come...

The headlines that appeared last week after Republican Herschel Walker lost the Georgia runoff election to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael G. Warnock struck a common theme. The Washington Post said Walker’s defeat “spurs new GOP handwringing, calls for new strategy.” As The New York Times described it, “After Georgia...

Most Americans have moved on from politics now that the 2022 midterm election is behind us. They voted in record numbers, defied the self-proclaimed political experts and rejected extremism in many places. It raised the hope of a revival of good citizenship. Possibly, Thanksgiving dinner was a little less stressful...

On Nov. 12, 1945, just seven months after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman issued a proclamation to mark the first Thanksgiving since the end of World War II. “We give thanks with the humility of free men, each knowing it was the might of no...

If this is what 80 looks like, America could use more of that. President Joe Biden is celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend, and he was the oldest president in American history when he took office on Jan. 20, 2021. Ronald Reagan was nearly 78 when he left office and...

In the dark hours of election morning 2022, before the polls opened, a rare blood moon total lunar eclipse — a sign of revelation and great change, according to astrologers — was visible across America. It was the first time in our history that Election Day coincided with a lunar...

Whoever wins these upcoming elections, the malignant responses to the recent attack on Paul Pelosi show that we all have reason to mourn the near total loss of decency in civic life. A politically motivated, skull-fracturing hammer attack on an 82-year-old man is not funny. But the public air is...

The long-awaited debate last week between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz in the race to become Pennsylvania’s newest U.S. senator produced far more flash than substance, but each candidate gave one response that defined his performance over the whole hour. Fetterman hesitated for too long and then...