Featured Commentary category, Page 10

There’s one area of surprising agreement in the often adversarial relationship between conservatives and the scientific community: the need to phase out animal testing in biomedical research. The new leaders of both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have said they plan to reduce their...

An Ivy League degree has long been central to the Asian dream — a ticket to success and status. But President Donald Trump’s message to international students is clear: Far fewer of you are welcome. The blunt statement and growing chaos across the university sector has left families wondering if...

The beginning of summer offers a columnist the opportunity to address subjects he might avoid the rest of the year because of his focus on domestic and foreign issues. Inattention to proper English seems to be a subject that few are bothering to address. I have been making a list...

Recently, the Trump administration froze over $2.2 billion in grants and contracts from Harvard University, to quash antisemitic and pro-Hamas sympathies, dismantle DEI initiatives, and revoke international student rights. Harvard chose to litigate, and recently, a judge blocked President Trump’s ban on international students, as the legal case heats up....

Mark Twain, a respected journalist and author, said: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Let’s test that. Instead of ALL CAPS social media posts telling you what to think, here are some actual facts for you to decide for yourself how the...

My name is Sunshine, and my father, Gary William Miller, died in February 2011 inside Alle­gheny County Jail. To this day, I still don’t know exactly how or why. No clear explanation. No compassion. No closure. Just silence. Just death. Just another addict written off by a system that punishes...

Democracy can be exhausting and frustrating, especially representative democracy, which takes the immediate responsibility of ruling out of the hands of ordinary citizens and puts it in the hands of representatives, who govern from far away. Nothing seems to get done. All you hear about is arguing and squabbling. Your...

It’s hard to think intelligently about public debt and deficits. The economics of fiscal policy is complicated and defies straightforward prescriptions. What’s most striking about budget-making in Washington today, though, is not that legislators are confused about what good debt-management requires. It’s that they’ve just stopped thinking about it. If...

They came to the baking desert to honor one of their own, a political professional, a legend and a throwback to a time when gatherings like this one — a companionable assembly of Republicans, Democrats and the odd newspaper columnist — weren’t such a rare and noteworthy thing. They came...

I want Josh Shapiro to succeed. As a centrist Pennsylvanian who voted for him over woefully out-of-his-depth Doug Mastriano back in 2022, I see a governor who could help lead the disorganized Democrats out of the wilderness. His pragmatic style, ability to work across the aisle and Obama-lite rhetorical style...

When Pennsylvanians open their electric bills this summer, few realize that the price they will pay may be inflated not by the energy they use — but by energy that may never be used at all. Earlier this month, in a little-noticed hearing in the Pennsylvania state Legislature, a stunning...

In Turtle Creek, a quiet industrial revolution is brewing. Inside a sprawling manufacturing facility, workers are building batteries that will power 130,000 homes — part of a broader economic renaissance reshaping the commonwealth’s industrial landscape. Through strategic federal investments in clean energy and manufacturing, Pennsylvania is witnessing the creation of...

Ten months ago, the Allegheny County Board of Health proposed a fee increase for processing Title 5 operating permits for polluters, the most significant of which is U.S. Steel. Because of staffing vacancies, the Board of Health has an extensive backlog in processing such permits. Over the years, the Environmental...

You can walk into almost any American high school right now and feel it. Students aren’t just frustrated. They’re disillusioned. The message we’re hearing isn’t “get involved,” it’s “good luck.” We’re told to pick a side, vote blue or red, join a cause or take a stand. But when you’re...

When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO’s ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out...

Public transit isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. It’s a platform for opportunity, connection and growth — and can be the foundation for the kind of future Pittsburgh says it wants. For decades, our region has worked to reverse population decline and position itself for long-term,...

The country has now witnessed and felt the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term. These days were filled with unrelenting, fast-paced executive action. He signed a record-breaking number of executive orders, though many have been challenged and may be reversed. Working with Congress to pass legislation, though...

Last week, just steps from the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., two staff members of the Israeli Embassy — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — were shot and killed. They were attending a gathering hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an event meant to promote understanding and stand against...

As we approach Memorial Day and honor the hundreds of thousands of young, brave Americans who have lost their lives in defense of the United States, one can’t help but wonder if today’s youth would answer the call to duty as eagerly as their parents and grandparents did during times...

As we approach Memorial Day, it is sobering to recognize that today’s young people are unlikely to respond as enthusiastically to a call to serve their country as members of the World War II generation did 80 years ago. Young people do not exhibit the high levels of patriotism and...

The wise minds at Moody’s Investors Service finally acknowledged this month what the other two main credit rating agencies did years ago: America has a debt problem. Now it’s time for America to recognize that solving its debt problem will require addressing another hard truth: Americans have a retirement problem...

Bill Gates is an optimist. He believes the world will be a better place in 20 years, that diseases like polio, measles and malaria will be eradicated, and that there will be other rich people lining up to fill the void when, as he announced recently, his foundation shuts its...

Penn State must evolve to survive. Penn State New Kensington already has. At a time when the university faces a choice between retreat and reinvention, it is poised to close one of the few campuses already evolving — and succeeding. That’s what is at stake in the May 22 vote...

On July 2, 1862, this nation was at war for its very existence. The Union Army was retreating from a campaign to capture Richmond. Victory was far from certain. On that day, the United States Congress and President Abraham Lincoln had their eyes on a future clouded by massive uncertainty....

One of the first and most promising uses scientists envision for the rapidly evolving technology of quantum computing is a new approach to drug development. A quantum computer could, in theory, eliminate much of the trial and error involved in the process to help researchers more quickly zero in on...