Featured Commentary category, Page 3
Stefani Pashman and Rich Fitzgerald: Southwestern Pa. is scouting the digital frontier
Pick up your smartphone and look at your apps — banking, health care, social media, even your morning coffee order. The server holding that data and performing those actions isn’t in your hand; it’s in a data center. From personal lives to global commerce, data centers are the backbone of...
Minky Worden: World Cup needs an ICE truce
With the world’s largest sporting event, the World Cup, slated to begin in June, the United States should call a truce in the campaign of terror being waged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies against immigrants and others. Major sporting events have long relied on the so-called...
Garry South: Kamala Harris is polling well, which signifies nothing
When I read all the hype being heaped on Kamala Harris’ lead in early polls for the 2028 Democratic nomination, I have to chuckle to myself. The release of a Rasmussen Reports poll in February was titled, “Kamala Harris Still Leads 2028 Field for Democrats.” One headline in the Hill...
Hunter DeRensis: Will Pennsylvanians punish Republicans over Iran war?
On Feb. 28, Donald Trump made a bigger gamble than ever took place at any of his Atlantic City casinos. Betting that a joint U.S.-Israeli decapitation strike on Iran would result in another overnight, low-cost operation that the president could tout as a quick victory, Trump has risked both his...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Helicopter parents making Pa.’s teachers miserable
Pennsylvania’s teachers have the lowest morale in the country. According to the most recent Education Week survey, it is not about pay, curriculum or testing. Instead, it’s the parents. Pennsylvania teachers overwhelmingly say student behavior is not improving. In fact, they are among the most pessimistic about whether things are...
Christopher Nicholas: Shapiro’s brand is high gloss, high cost
Pennsylvania’s “Get Stuff Done” (GSD) governor has a favorite state department that he’s willing to staff to the rafters: his personal, dedicated PR team. As published reports last summer detailed, Gov. Josh Shapiro now sports 21 employees in his executive office, “dedicated to promoting” his image. But earlier this month,...
Daniel Katz: Social media platforms aren’t the new cigarettes. They’re worse.
A jury in Los Angeles may have just done for social media what early lawsuits did for Big Tobacco. Outside the courtroom, families who said they have lost children to the effects of these platforms gathered in shirts that read “We Are K.G.M.,” expressing solidarity with the 20-year-old plaintiff. Inside...
Harry Psaros: The day I stopped denying my son’s autism
When my son Gus was diagnosed with autism, my wife saw it first. I did not. Like many fathers, I resisted the diagnosis with a stubborn optimism that masked something deeper: fear. Michelle noticed the early signs — the speech delays, the social struggles, the subtle differences that began to...
Felicity A. Williams: The affordability crisis Pa. families can’t ignore
Across Pennsylvania, families are doing everything right — working, budgeting and planning — yet it still feels harder to get by. The reason is not hard to find: the cost of everyday life has risen faster than paychecks, and the squeeze is showing up in nearly every monthly bill. At...
Abby McCloskey: Universal child care isn’t always good for kids
Free child care is starting to take root in the U.S. But is it good for kids? Last year, New Mexico became the first state to offer free universal child care. This year, New York began offering free child care for children ages 0-3 in certain cities, with a goal...
Jason Gagorik: National help needed to fight cybercrime
Picture a burglar who never sets foot in Whitehall. The miscreant doesn’t cruise our neighborhoods or test car doors under the cover of darkness, nor do they care about patrol routes or municipal boundaries. Instead, the thief sits behind a keyboard — perhaps overseas — targeting our residents with spoofed...
Noah Feldman: A judge’s vulgar dissent is a loss for everyone
A recent opinion by a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a contender for the most vulgar piece of judicial writing in the 300-plus-year history of recorded judicial decisions in the English language. The opinion in Olympus Spa v. Andretti — a dissent from...
Cal Thomas: Sending in the clowns
Even someone with a rudimentary understanding of economics should know that, if you tax a business or individual beyond their level of tolerance, they will pack up and leave the state for one with lower or no state income tax. Unfortunately, one can’t escape the long arm of federal taxes....
Elizabeth Shackelford: Global oil crisis once again makes the case for renewable energy
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and introduced an ambitious solar strategy to Congress. This came on the heels of the oil shocks of the 1970s caused first by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states and then the Iranian Revolution —...
Pat Browne: New tax credit will help working Pennsylvanians
As someone who served as a legislator in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly for nearly three decades, I was part of many conversations that revolved around our commonwealth’s tax system and the policies we could advance to help Pennsylvanians who are most in need. The challenge that has existed for more than...
Dennis Roddy: Lists of Jews never lead to anything good
Fifty years ago, a signup sheet was posted in Krebs Hall at the University of Pittsburgh’s Johnstown campus, asking Jewish students to kindly provide their names. A friend of mine was a recent arrival at the campus. She saw the sheet and phoned home to Wilkes-Barre. She told her mother...
Patrick McGinty: Pennsylvania Promise seeks to carry on local legacy
When high school seniors across the city return to class from their spring breaks, the countdowns will begin. Only 50 school days left. Three more Monday alarm clocks. Two more final bells. Unfortunately, there’s a more dismal countdown underway. The 2026 class will be the third-to-last group of Pittsburgh Public...
Ben Freeman and William Hartung: The trillion-dollar Iran war
In late 2002, as the U.S. was on the precipice of invading Iraq, the president’s top budget official estimated that the war would cost as little as $50 billion. That conflict ultimately cost American taxpayers more than $3 trillion, and we’re still paying the bill. Fast-forward to 2026 and the...
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson: Sacred restraint in a restless world
Across the globe, Muslims, Christians and Jews enter seasons of fasting, repentance and remembrance. Together, the Abrahamic traditions represent over half of the world’s religious population. In their distinct ways, each tradition calls its followers to humility and a deep concern for others, whether through fasting, repentance or remembrance of...
David M. Drucker: Your average Democratic voter isn’t a left-winger
President Donald Trump has a habit of referring to Democrats as “radical-left lunatics.” The unfair pejorative aside, it turns out the typical Democratic voter isn’t even left wing. Let that sink in. According to an expansive poll conducted recently for centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, a majority of Democratic...
Kevin Frazier: We’ve been ‘preparing’ for the future since 1991—it hasn’t worked
“Today, the demands on business and workers are different. Firms must meet world-class standards, and so must workers. Employers seek adaptability and the ability to learn and work in teams.” Sound familiar? It’s the sort of guidance you’ll find on X, in studies issued by nonprofits, and, as I recently...
Abby McCloskey: Republicans are squandering their MAHA moment
The MAHA base is bigger than you think. And the GOP is going to need all the support it can muster to survive what’s likely to be a bruising midterm. Roughly four in 10 parents (38%) identify as supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement, according to a KFF/Washington...
Victoria Elliott: Harrisburg must take action on Pa.’s growing pharmacy deserts
The ongoing pharmacy closure crisis in Pennsylvania has become an alarming issue for communities throughout the commonwealth. Since 2020, over 1,000 community pharmacies have shuttered their doors, creating a massive pharmacy desert that has engulfed cities, towns, suburbs and rural communities. A pharmacy desert is any area where residents no...
Panini A. Chowdhury: Pittsburgh can’t attract families without healthy food access
For more than 40 years the Shop ‘n Save on Brownsville Road was more than a business. It was a community fabric for the Carrick neighborhood. When Shop ‘n Save announced its closure, Carrick tipped toward being a food desert, joining roughly one-quarter of Pittsburgh neighborhoods already struggling with access....
Diana Vahabzadeh: Legislators must help bring down skyrocketing utility bills
Nothing in my life is going up except bills. My rent, car insurance, cellphone and cable bills have all gotten more expensive recently. At 74 years old, I can’t enjoy my golden years, and must work as a private caregiver in order to cover the exploding costs of living. Unfortunately,...
