Featured Commentary category

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Pirates’ last game in Three Rivers Stadium — Oct. 1, 2000. It would also be the last time the fans would see Pirate great Willie Stargell. The ballpark and Stargell were intertwined, and their time together represented some of the most remarkable years...

Two years ago, when Act 1 of 2023 was passed unanimously, Pennsylvania became the first state in the nation to require insurers to cover supplemental breast cancer screenings such as MRIs and ultrasounds, as well as BRCA-related genetic testing and counseling for high-risk individuals — all at no cost. The...

Freedom of speech has always demanded courage, and courage is the one virtue universities cannot delegate. When free speech becomes fatal speech — as it did recently with the assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus — Americans demand — and deserve — a change. I believe our nation’s...

Artificial intelligence is changing nearly everything about the way we live, work and — before long — govern. We see the headlines about breakthroughs in generative models and predictive engines, but what we don’t see as easily is the physical backbone powering all of this: data centers. Every AI application...

During a recent military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin was caught on a hot mic saying to Xi Jinping, his Communist Chinese counterpart, “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality.” Xi responded:...

This month I began teaching a new undergraduate course on Dissent and Democracy in the World. I started developing the course over a year ago, convinced that the subject is not only essential to well-­functioning communities, but also not well understood or appreciated in American society today. When the class...

President Donald Trump’s promise to ratchet immigration levels back is colliding headlong with his other goal: a thriving economy that brings manufacturing and foreign investment back to the U.S. He can’t have it both ways, but he doesn’t seem to understand that. Perhaps that’s why his administration keeps dangling —...

President Donald Trump is right. The Smithsonian is “out of control.” And it should be a concern to all Americans, whether you agree with Trump on other issues or not. It is the heritage of us all that is under assault. The Smithsonian’s 19 museums and galleries in the Washington...

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Trump administration is rewriting history by wielding the tools of censorship and erasure. At the National Park Service site honoring Charles Pickney, who wrote a draft of the Declaration of Independence, for example, references...

If we lose our fundamental universal right to access to information, and if independent journalists lose the ability to report the facts, then our rights and democracies may vanish entirely. Access to information is a fundamental human right empowering us all to make informed decisions, participate in democratic processes and...

This summer, the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council banned a local news outlet from engaging with any of his 40 elected representatives. Councillor Mick Barton of Reform UK also instructed council officials to stop sending press releases and event invitations to journalists at Nottinghamshire Live. Why? Because these journalists had...

Governments around the world are chasing the AI dream, pinning their hopes on these technologies to drive economic prosperity. And yet, they are not investing in the foundational resource that underpins all our 21st century economies — independent, verifiable information. Well-functioning economies rely on widely accessible, verified and trustworthy information....

Even before the first touchdown is scored in the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Dublin, where the Steelers host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, the Pittsburgh region already has won big. With deep cultural ties, Southwestern Pennsylvania and Ireland have long shared a spirit of resilience and complementary economic...

The assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk by a rogue gunman led to renewed calls on both sides of the aisle to quell gun violence. As a Harvard graduate who has a severe mental illness and a felony arrest record, I believe my academic qualifications and lived experience are well-suited...

The school year is well underway for most children. They are settling in with new teachers, new friends and new experiences. But for some students, an old problem will creep into their lives — vision issues. These children will suffer from anxiety and the threat of falling behind academically and...

What is the federal offense of “hate speech”? It’s a good question because there is no such offense. That didn’t stop U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from threatening to use the authority of her office to combat it. “We will absolutely target you, go after you,” she said, “if you...

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Trump administration is following a very specific, very old script. It argues that political speech causes political violence, and that this speech must therefore be punished. It is imperative that all defenders of free speech — whether on the left, right or...

The start of the new NHL season is nearly upon us. With artificial intelligence (AI) regularly in the news, professional hockey is not immune from its influence. Given the surfeit of data available, AI may transform hockey in ways that few can predict. Yet for AI models to be most...

The assassination of Charlie Kirk has cast a dark shadow over the country, not only because the deed itself was abominable, but also because the reaction to it has been so disturbing. Instead of bringing out the best in America, as tragedies once did, it is bringing out the worst...

The day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University, commentators repeated a familiar refrain: “This isn’t who we are as Americans.” Others similarly weighed in. Whoopi Goldberg on “The View” declared that Americans solve political disagreements peacefully: “This is not the way...

This Sunday is SUN DAY, a day of action celebrating clean energy. This is an opportune time to discuss a big problem in Pennsylvania. Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency may be the shiny new frontier of technology, but behind the hype lies a brutal truth: They are devouring electricity, straining Pennsylvania’s...

The District of Columbia should not become a state. Ever. The Constitution established the District of Columbia to be the home of the newly created federal government so that it was not “in” and thereby “under the control or influence” of any one state. Put the capital city in New...

President Donald Trump took over the Washington, D.C., police force and deployed the National Guard under the pretense of “rescuing the nation’s capital from crime.” Of course, masked officers roaming the streets and intimidating and harassing residents haven’t made the city feel safer. A checkpoint was set up just a...

The buggy whip endures. Not, of course, as a commonly used piece of equipment to spur on a steed or two on your daily travels, but as a short-hand epithet deployed in conversations about the need to adapt or perish in the face of technological change and innovation. “It’s really...

Gov. Josh Shapiro recently defended using natural gas to power data centers in Pennsylvania, calling it “environmentally sustainable.” As an organization committed to public health, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania strongly disagrees. The evidence shows that relying on natural gas — or labeling it as sustainable — poses serious risks...