Featured Commentary category, Page 28
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Fired college football coaches are doing better than ever
As the end of the college football season approaches, many teams are beginning to eye which bowl they will be playing in. It also marks the time when coaches who have not met expectations are being fired. The list of fired coaches is already long and growing, likely to be...
Counterpoint: How conservatives can win over women
Republicans, and particularly President-elect Donald Trump, did better with women than the media, the polls or recent history would have led anyone to expect. Here are five ways Republicans can make this the beginning of a permanent realignment. Follow through on campaign promises Millions of women — including young first-time...
Point: Working-class men have abandoned the Democratic Party; here’s what we should do about it
I know the moment when I knew in my gut that Donald Trump would win the 2024 presidential election. I will not pretend I have all the answers because I don’t. However, I am a Democrat who has run for office in four consecutive cycles. I have overperformed at the...
Robert Smith: Steel City’s steel saga continues
Pittsburgh was truly the Steel City. Coke plants, tar plants, steel mills, glass manufacturers and other ancillary heavy industry lined the banks of the rivers, producing the raw products of the country’s industrial revolution. A remnant of these days are the current U.S. Steel facilities still occupying their locations in...
Robin Abcarian: President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is understandable. It’s also unforgivable
It came as a surprise that President Joe Biden unconditionally pardoned his son Hunter, a convicted felon, after repeatedly vowing that he would not. For the past few months, each time Biden or his press secretary was asked whether a pardon was in the cards, they both emphatically said no....
Sam Daley-Harris: Learning to make a difference between elections
For most Americans, this election has brought exhaustion, divisiveness and, for many, fear and deep pain. After the election, Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic: “Americans must stay engaged and make their voices heard at every turn.” And Liz Cheney tweeted, “Citizens across this country … must now be the...
Cal Thomas: Institutions vs. We the people
New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is about as close to a conservative as that liberal newspaper publishes, wrote something last week that gets to the heart of why Democrats, especially, but also some Republicans, fear a second Trump administration. After extolling what he believes to be the personal...
Peter Morici: Computers will make mischief once they learn to talk, listen and reason
Personal assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and generative artificial intelligence tools now appearing at work can amuse, streamline tasks and leverage productivity by gathering and organizing information, drafting documents and performing time-consuming tasks. But they can’t yet duplicate the prescience or situational awareness humans possess by virtue of our rearing,...
Mark Compton: Open road tolling to power economic development along turnpike system
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is proud of its designation as “America’s First Superhighway.” Our system opened in 1940, and, over the past 85 years, its groundbreaking innovation reinvigorated communities across the state and served as a model for the nation’s Interstate Highway System. Our core mission — to ensure safe, uninterrupted...
Andy Macey: Nippon best for future of US Steel
I read your editorial “Are there any guarantees with Nippon Steel?” (Nov. 23, TribLive). As a steelworker, I wanted to share my perspective. I started my career at U.S. Steel in 1977, had to leave the company for four years because of the horrible downturn in the industry in the...
Barbara McQuade: Trump skipping FBI checks threatens national security
President-elect Donald Trump has been bypassing FBI background investigations for his cabinet appointees in favor of screening by private companies. The reasons? The normal process can be slow. And it can reveal embarrassing personal information. Of course, it can! But those are not reasons to scrap an important safeguard to...
Sheldon H. Jacobson and Dr. Janet A. Jokela: Is bird flu a risk yet to people?
You may have encountered the term “bird flu” increasingly online and in the media. It refers to a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A, classified as H5N1. Wild birds carry and transmit this flu, though most do not get sick from it. However, it has been detected in birds and...
Cal Thomas: Fluoride — good or bad?
Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo has joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in opposition to fluoride in the water supply. Ladapo cites controversial studies that claim the additive poses a risk to developing brains. I shall resist the temptation to draw a link between such studies and our politicians. The...
Kathryn Anne Edwards: The IRS shows what government efficiency really looks like
Between all the talk of fiscal commissions and efficiency agencies, it seems like the question of the day is how to make the U.S. government operate more proficiently. There is no shortage of ideas on what should be cut and by how much. Before any actions are taken, officials should...
Ernie Tedeschi: A better way to pay for extending the Trump tax cuts
One of the first orders of business in 2025 for Congress and the incoming administration will be the extension of President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), most of whose individual provisions are set to expire late next year. There’s one problem: America’s...
Joanne Kilgour, Jeaneen Zappa and Lindsay Fraser: To keep Allegheny home for all, county council must pass Innamorato’s budget
Allegheny County residents are living through an ongoing housing crisis. Western Pennsylvania has some of the oldest housing stock in the nation and decades of disinvestment, and the climate crisis is driving increased costs for homeowners and renters through increased utility bills. Many of our homes lack insulation, are badly...
Dan DeBone: Avoid quick fixes for public transportation funding
As the Southeastern Public Transportation Association (SEPTA) recently announced a potential fare increase due to a lack of state funding, it is hard to ignore the familiar pattern that has plagued Pennsylvania’s public transportation system for years: short-term solutions, funding crises and finger-pointing. This time, the frustration comes after the...
Biswa Das: Young families are leaving many large US cities — here’s why that matters
Young families with children are a shrinking part of the U.S. population in many areas. The decline is especially pronounced in major urban centers, including Boston, San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Jose and Washington, D.C. During the covid-19 pandemic shutdown, many families with...
Tad Weber: If Trump deports farm workers, who will be left to pick California’s crops?
Do you enjoy fruits and vegetables? Assuming the answer is yes, come next year who do you think will harvest the oranges, almonds, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes and the other 300-plus crops grown in California? Who will work in the state’s dairies, meat plants, and food processing factories, most located in...
Christine Flowers: I discovered the meaning of Thanksgiving in a Paris apartment
Thanksgiving was never an important holiday for me. Gathering the family from near and far for a celebratory meal wasn’t unusual; our family was composed of Italians and a small sprinkling of Irish. Growing up, we always gathered around different tables at different houses, broke out the biscotti and anisette...
Bethany Mandel: How super glue saved my childhood Thanksgivings
For most kids, Grandma and Grandpa’s house is their favorite place to visit. Filled with toys and endless affection, treats and hugs. For ordinary people, Thanksgiving is a particularly special time to spend with family. That wasn’t my childhood. Don’t worry — this isn’t a sob story. My grandparents were...
Allison Schrager: Trump’s economic policy can’t be just nostalgia
President-elect Donald Trump’s economic legacy may well depend on whether he prefers the comparative form of an adjective. Specifically, does he believe it is hard to make a living in the U.S. — or harder than it used to be? It is not an insignificant distinction. The central conceit of...
Jason W. Park: Trump has a clean slate; we’ll see where it goes
President-elect Donald Trump will wield what he calls an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” handed to him by voters to help him reach his goals. There is no doubt on the part of Democrats that he will ram his agenda down their throats while all three branches of government have swung...
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Why I voted third party and I’m not sorry
I’m a progressive Californian, a Black man, and I did not vote for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris this year or Donald Trump. I voted for Claudia De La Cruz, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for president. The decision was easy. With two exceptions over the past four decades...
Victor Peskin: ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leader doesn’t mean those accused will face trial anytime soon
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Nov. 21, 2024, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and one leading Hamas official. Those named in the action are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the Palestinian...
