Featured Commentary category, Page 108
Stephen Segal: Take it from a millionaire, a $15 minimum wage is good for Pa. businesses
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to approve the American Rescue Plan, a major step toward providing Americans the relief they desperately need and deserve. As President Biden’s relief package moves to the Senate floor, tense negotiations still are taking place on key provisions included in the plan. Despite...
Chris Baxter: Why Spotlight PA is spending a year investigating Pennsylvania’s redistricting process
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. In 2021, a handful of politicians will wield power over one of the most consequential and overlooked aspects of our democracy: redrawing Pennsylvania’s political districts. They can...
James Greenwood: American Rescue Plan offers helping hand to struggling Americans
Poverty in America is defined for a family of four as less than $70 per day. That’s about $2,100 a month for food, rent, utilities, transportation, clothing and everything else. The good news is that between 2015 and 2020, the poverty rate in America gradually declined to 10.5%, the lowest...
Mark Schwartz: Remembering Rabbi Abraham Twerski — recounting just one miraculous deed
I was a young Pittsburgh lawyer in the early 1980s, over my head in most things, let alone a no-win criminal case. For God knows what reason, a young man had been referred to me, facing a three-year mandatory minimum jail sentence for vehicular homicide while drunk. When I eventually...
Steven Reske: Bruce Castor needs lesson on the First Amendment
Pennsylvania’s Bruce Castor choked on the First Amendment. Unfortunately, while his performance was nearly universally panned, no critics mentioned one jarring error. His gaffe occurred in the very first moments of his opening salvo and was on an issue foundational to President Trump’s defense. While at first blush his factual...
Cal Thomas: The Rush Limbaugh I knew
The man who picked me up at an airport too many years ago to recall the date asked if I had ever heard of a guy named Rush Limbaugh. When I said I had not, he turned on the car radio and said, “listen.” After 15 minutes I was hooked....
Christopher Welch: Veterans’ role in U.S. economic rebound
With the dawn of a new year comes a fresh start. This is especially true for the servicemen and women returning from active duty. Approximately 2,500 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home. These veterans will be returning to a country that looks very different than the...
Matthew Brouillette: It’s time to do right by kids
“Schools that teach” sounded great as Gov. Tom Wolf’s campaign slogan in 2014 and 2018. But two years into Wolf’s second term, many parents are just wishing for “schools that open.” About 40% of school districts across Pennsylvania aren’t physically open for businesses. So it’s hardly surprising that from fall...
Dr. Reed Tuckson and Jim Weiss: Convincing people to take covid-19 vaccine
The determination on the face of intensive care unit nurse Sandra Lindsay as she got one of the first covid-19 vaccine shots was unforgettable. And what she said about it summed up the task for all of us: “We’re in a pandemic, so we all need to do our part.”...
Ronald Fraser: How crime victims keep offenders behind bars
Victim’s testimony, a time-honored part of the American criminal prosecution process, has sent thousands of Pennsylvania offenders to prison. But justice is not advanced when, years later, crime victims are called again to give emotionally charged encores, moments before parole panel members decide whether or not to release their offenders...
Frederick Winter: Forgive student debt? There’s a better way
Study hard in high school. That and $320,000 (not including living expenses), and four years later you can graduate with a major in gender and sexuality studies from prestigious Ivy League Brown University. As a retired business school professor and dean who spent over 40 years in academics, even I...
CompetePA Coalition: Raising taxes will hurt Pennsylvania’s competitive standing
The following was sent to Gov. Tom Wolf on Feb. 15 by The Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, which manages the CompetePA Coalition. CompetePA is a coalition comprised of statewide and regional business groups, small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as Fortune 500 companies. The coalition, which represents more than...
Five Pennsylvania mayors: Our cities need the American Rescue Plan and we cannot wait
This is from the mayors of five Pennsylvania cities: Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter and Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace. As mayors of Pennsylvania cities, we witness the human toll the pandemic takes each day it stretches on. We see...
Pitt Med students: Give vaccine priority to smaller practices, pharmacies
We are a group of University of Pittsburgh medical students who are extremely concerned about vaccine distribution in the Pittsburgh community. It has come to our attention that vaccines are being sent only to large institutions such as health systems and retail pharmacies rather than the smaller, independent health practices...
Gene Barr: Pro-growth policies will move Pa.’s economy forward
Pennsylvania is at a crossroads. For nearly a year, the pandemic has forced job creators to adapt to ever-changing situations and tackle numerous challenges related to shutdowns, closure orders, less economic activity and making sure they’re complying with state- and CDC-issued guidelines. While the development of a covid-19 vaccine has...
Mark Pinsley: Urge ‘no’ vote on judicial districting bill
In a hasty process with no public hearings and little deliberation, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed House Bill 38, which amends the state Constitution to radically change the way we choose judges for our state’s three appellate courts. Despite bipartisan opposition and immediate outcry from labor unions, civil rights organizations and...
Nickolas Summa: LGBT Americans deserve federal nondiscrimination protection
As an LGBT-affirming marriage and family therapist in Westmoreland County, I see many people who lack any access to important resources and care. It’s disheartening to know that so many people don’t get the support they need due to discrimination in the place I call home. When I came out...
Eric Falk: Republicans all in for Trump
It is tragic to see that one of the Western world’s heretofore great political parties, the Republican Party, has gone “all in for Trump,” including Pennsylvania’s Republicans. In doing so, it has made a profound moral choice, antithetical to its founding principles. The Republican Party was established on the principle...
Ryan O’Connor: Abuse survivors deserve their day in court
I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Between the ages of 4 and 11, I was molested and sexually abused by two different men at two different times of my childhood. The second man was a Catholic priest from my parish, Our Mother of Sorrows in Johnstown. His name...
Nathan Benefield: Pa. budget should care for kids, communities
Pennsylvania confronts overwhelming challenges: a structural deficit; an educational system in free fall; mass business closures and widespread unemployment; and barriers to health care. No doubt, Pennsylvanians expect Harrisburg to deliver education lifelines to families, regulatory and tax relief for business owners, and improved access to care for patients. In...
Dr. Paul Carson: Pittsburgh Public Schools leaders failing our kids
As a parent of two remotely schooled Pittsburgh Public Schools students, I am extremely concerned about my children’s education and mental health during the pandemic. For almost a year now, I’ve watched my children stare at screens for eight hours a day and complain that they think they are learning...
Gov. Tom Wolf: Meeting the needs of Pa. citizens
I want to lower taxes for working families in Pennsylvania. I know in the days since my budget address you’ve probably heard a whole lot from other people about my plan — what they like, what they hate, what they wish I had said instead. This year, because of the...
Baruch Stein: GameStop affair shows need for better regulation
Despite discussions about “common people outmaneuvering Wall Street,” the GameStop affair harmed many of those who think they beat Wall Street and illustrates the need for better regulation. Keith Gill, the man behind the affair, is himself a professional financial adviser who used the GameStop rally to turn an investment...
David Osborne: Union policies force all teachers to strike at Keystone Oaks
Students in the Keystone Oaks School District didn’t attend classes this week, thanks to the strike just initiated by the local teachers’ union — and not every teacher in the district is happy about it. Given the pandemic’s effect on schools, this is already a difficult time for students, parents,...
Rick Stafford: What Dick Thornburgh meant to Pittsburgh
When I first met Dick Thornburgh in 1971, I was one of a small group of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon. We were working under a federal grant to develop a computer model for more effectively allocating law enforcement funds for Allegheny County. In our 20s, idealists about government, none...
