Featured Commentary category
Nathan Deron: Pa. needs answers — free online tool shows health impacts of regional pollution
Everyone deserves clear and timely information about air pollution they may come into contact with. Residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania face a particularly high risk of breathing pollution from the region’s various heavy industries that rely on fossil fuels. This pollution can contain toxic chemicals and may result from day-to-day operations...
Claire Kovach and Yomarilis Gueits Rodriguez: Groundhog Day 2? Minimum wage déjà vu
As Pennsylvanians observe our dapper rodent weather prognosticator’s forecast, workers across the commonwealth will continue to wake up each day faced with the same reality we’ve known for 17 years now — we still have a $7.25 per hour minimum wage. As legislative efforts to raise it stall year after...
Eric M. O’Neill: Verizon shutdown a warning
When Verizon customers across the country watched their phones slip into “SOS mode,” most people treated it as a temporary inconvenience. It wasn’t a cyberattack, Verizon said, and service was eventually restored. Some customers will receive credits. That’s good news. But it would be a mistake to treat the episode...
Nosakhere Griffin-EL: We can’t wait for schools to do right by Black children
What if we decided not to wait for the school district to do right by Black children? In November, parents protested against the potential closing of nine Pittsburgh Public Schools. Parents stressed the lack of benefit to children, the potential harm to children and that school closures kill community culture....
Cal Thomas: The effects of the words we use
Ancient proverbs can be helpful in adjusting our language and behavior in ways that can benefit every generation. They have become ancient because they work. One example: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger ” (Proverbs 15:1). It means calm, patient and kind words...
Jordan Frei: Mission — focus on your health to stay alive
Mission-driven. That’s how’s I define myself. In my profession, my social life and in my house. Articulate and prioritize the missions. Forge the paths to accomplish them. Often though, I treated preventive health care as an obstacle, rather than its own mission. At 53 years old and on the winning...
Christina Jones: Social media addiction lawsuits matter
Like many people, when I first heard about the lawsuits against major social media companies over algorithmic addiction and youth mental health, my initial reaction was complicated. Part of me thought about parenting, supervision, personal responsibility and mental health. Those things matter. They always will. But the more I’ve learned,...
Carol Borden: Service dogs part of the veteran suicide prevention solution
Veteran suicide is a persistent public health crisis in the United States. Though veterans make up just 7% of the adult population, they account for nearly 14% of adult suicides — 20 veterans lost every day. In Pennsylvania, the crisis is even more severe. The state’s veteran suicide rate is...
Eugene DePasquale: Pa.’s energy future depends on balance, not absolutes
Pennsylvania is helping power America’s energy transition. As the nation’s third-largest electricity-producing state and the second-largest natural gas-producing state, we generate more electricity than we consume and export surplus power across the region. Today, natural gas generation fuels nearly 60% of our electricity — more than double its share a...
Rep. Lindsay Powell: Pennsylvania must act to protect safe access to health care
“I can tell you which protesters will arrive at which times on Saturday, and where they’ll set up to intimidate patients,” a security guard at Allegheny Reproductive Health Center told me, gesturing toward the clinic’s front window. “Procedure days are by far the most intense — physically and emotionally.” I...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Pa.’s SNAP numbers are falling. The debate is just beginning.
Did it actually work? It is what we hope most policymakers ask themselves after a piece of legislation is passed. In the case of work requirements for food assistance, the question has lingered for nearly a decade: revived, rebranded and reheated across administrations. But in Pennsylvania, we finally have enough...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Getting air travel back on track is easier than it once was
The recent winter storm impacted over 245 million people spanning 2,000 miles as it crossed the country. Cities in the Midwest and the Northeast were blanketed with a foot or more of snow. Areas in the south were not spared, with Atlanta hit with ice and below-freezing temperatures and Dallas...
Dan Grzybek and Jordan Botta: It’s past time to reform Allegheny County’s LERTA program
Allegheny County’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program was created with a worthy goal: to encourage investment in deteriorating properties by temporarily reducing the tax burden on new construction and major improvements. In theory, the LERTA program helps spur development where it wouldn’t otherwise occur, revitalizing communities that have...
Richard Fellinger: Reaction to McCarthy’s hire shows ageism exists
Suddenly, I’m rooting for new Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, and I mean really rooting for him. I would have rooted for him anyway as a Steelers fan old enough to rattle off names like Terry Hanratty and Frenchy Fuqua. But I’m really rooting for him now because I want to...
Lester C. Olson: Communication can help de-escalate our current situation
Armed conflicts and U.S. citizens’ deaths in Minneapolis have riveted attention across the nation. We’ve seen the videos and the photos of graphic violence. We’ve seen the heartbreaking photos of a 5-year-old preschool boy and a 2-year-old girl detained by ICE. We have read the upsetting media accounts of countless...
Gene Baur: New food pyramid is a recipe for health disasters
The meat industry’s celebration of the Trump administration’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans should be a clear sign that these new guidelines aren’t for the people. It’s true that “the United States is amid a health emergency,” as Secretaries Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brooke Rollins state. However, in claiming to...
Abby McCloskey: Too many kids already know someone who’s been deepfaked
The pre-AI world is gone. Estimates suggest that already, as many as one in eight kids personally knows someone who has been the target of a deepfake photo or video, with numbers rising to one in four who have seen a sexualized deepfake of someone they recognize, either a friend...
Imran Khalid: America’s 2 economies — soaring stocks and slashed food stamps
The close of the 2025 holiday season has revealed a stark divide in the U.S. economy. As 2026 begins, the United States appears to be operating in two financial realities: record corporate profits and soaring stock values for the wealthy, alongside deepening hardship for millions of ordinary households. For many...
Llewellyn King: The rule of law is the foundation of civilization
The men you see in masks on your television savagely arresting people may not seem like your affair. But they are your affair and mine, and that of every other American. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates outside the law. It doesn’t disclose charges, and no one arrested sees a...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s globalist era is going to make everyone poorer
I’m not sure what to call the new era we seem to be entering. But I am sure it will make people poorer. Let’s start with some basics. Imagine you inherit a thriving department store chain. Rather than listen to experts on consumer trends, supply-chain logistics, human resources, etc., you...
Cal Thomas: Sports gambling, a bad bet
It wasn’t that long ago when sports betting was illegal. Then suddenly it was as though profit, rather than controlling this vice, became paramount. It was inevitable, given human nature, that bad things would follow legalization. Last week, The Wall Street Journal carried a front-page story that reported “one of...
Hugo Balta: Washington loves blaming Latin America for drugs — while ignoring the American appetite that fuels the trade
For decades, the United States has perfected a familiar political ritual: condemn Latin American governments for the flow of narcotics northward, demand crackdowns and frame the crisis as something done to America rather than something America helps create. It is a narrative that travels well in press conferences and campaign...
Erika Strassburger: Clean energy provides jobs, consumer savings
It’s a challenging and uncertain time for America’s clean energy industry. Congress repealed the federal clean energy tax credits through President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” last summer, and Trump has made his love for fossil fuels and disdain for renewable energy clear through his statements and his policies. In...
Colin McNickle: Is Pittsburgh trading one vacancy problem for another?
It is a deeply troubling number by any accounting: Nearly a full quarter of all classes of downtown Pittsburgh office space was vacant through the third quarter of 2025, concludes the latest report from the Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) real estate firm. “Keep in mind (that) one year ago, the...
Jason Lias: High school theater politics — Democrats take stage against ICE
Some Democrats treat Immigration and Customs Enforcement like the villain in a high school play — except they forgot they’re in the real world. Lots of yelling. Fake crying. Dramatic gasps. Signs, hashtags and calls for “resistance” everywhere. Meanwhile, most Americans are just trying to get through the day. Front...
