Featured Commentary category, Page 35
Barnet Sherman: International students will offer boost to U.S. economy this back-to-school season
Of the millions of young adults heading off to college this fall, many will be international students. If trends continue, about 1 million students from around the world will come to the U.S. to pursue higher education this year. These young scholars make a big economic impact. Altogether, they pump...
Nealin Parker: Funders can’t wait until the day after Nov. 5 to act
In three months, voters will cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election with two out of three Americans concerned about a repeat of the unrest that followed the 2020 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. As we get closer to Election Day, the media, philanthropic institutions and everyday citizens...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: How I cost Democrats the presidency in 1968
As the Democrats prepare to meet this week in Chicago, I thought back to their tumultuous 1968 convention, the third of the 27 I covered. That’s where I cost the Democrats the presidency. At least that’s what the press secretary for that year’s defeated Democratic nominee told me. Let me...
Tyler Cowen: Maybe legalizing weed wasn’t such a great idea
Depending on where you live and how you want to use it, it is pretty easy to get marijuana in the U.S. At first medical marijuana, which has legitimate palliative uses, achieved widespread acceptance. Over time, however, the requirements for proof of medical use weakened, leading to de facto legalization...
Ken Stringer: Vance’s accusation of stolen valor dishonors himself and all veterans
J.D. Vance has just insulted every veteran who earned and wears an award for valor on their uniform. In saying Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is guilty of “stolen valor” in representing his military career, Vance displays his ignorance of what the term means, and he misappropriates it for personal and...
John G. Geer and Jacob Mchangama: Americans love free speech — until they realize everyone else has it, too
Americans’ views on free speech change directions every so often. One of those times was during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. As scholars of free speech and public opinion, we set out to find out what happened and why. The Supreme Court itself, as recently as...
Gary Franks: Honeymoon with Kamala Harris will end soon
The Democrats’ current strategy is to manufacture enthusiasm and raise money for their presidential candidate. Easy task. Why? Because people are thrilled that President Joe Biden will not be running. Eighty percent of Americans in polls said they did not want him to seek reelection. Thus, it was easy to...
Alyssa Cholodofsky: Reducing food waste key to reversing climate change. Can our outdated food systems catch up?
It’s a cruel summer: Surging temperatures are spiking climate anxieties, and food insecurity concerns remain urgent. In Pennsylvania, nearly 1.7 million people are food-insecure, and 2024 has seen the state’s highest SNAP enrollment ever. At the intersection of these crises is the daunting challenge of food waste: In the U.S.,...
Rep. Dan Frankel: Pittsburgh BDS efforts won’t bring peace
Local activists made a mad dash effort this month to get enough support for a Pittsburgh ballot referendum that would punish local entities for any ties with Israel. Volunteers with clipboards could be found at dance parties and outside of local bars, seeking signatures from a population young enough that...
Will Freeman: Maduro’s landslide defeat hasn’t dislodged him. Is there still hope for Venezuela?
The Latin American left has a decision to make about Venezuela: Oppose Nicolás Maduro’s totalitarian bid to remain in power indefinitely or enable it. Efforts to constrain Maduro may not succeed. But giving in to him will destabilize neighboring countries — with consequences for the United States — undermine the...
Kathryn Anne Edwards: America’s fertility policy gap is bad economics
Even if you didn’t care about or respect women’s choices when it comes to having children, the “childless cat ladies” comments from Donald Trump running mate J.D. Vance still are deeply problematic because they suggest a misunderstanding of a vital policy issue: fertility. In its most basic form, economists care...
Ted Kopas: Restoring trust in Westmoreland County government
Westmoreland County residents are losing faith in their government. A tax increase and the scandal in the register of wills office have rightfully garnered a lot of attention and anger, as have big paydays for elected officials. It’s time to restore the public trust. When I took office a year...
F.D. Flam: Olympic boxer’s gender is a manufactured controversy
When Italian boxer Angela Carini reported that she had “never felt a punch like that” after conceding to Algeria’s Imane Khelif 46 seconds after their Olympic match began, social media exploded with accusations. Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling chimed in, accusing Khelif of being a man posing as a woman...
Counterpoint: There’s an equality issue in women’s sports — and it’s not about transgender women
This year, 2024, might be the year of women’s sports. Incredible stories of women competing abound — from Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese catapulting women’s basketball into the spotlight to Olympians Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky breaking records in Paris. With the uptick in exposure to women’s sports, some are...
Point: Biological males competing against females is a farce
On average, adult men are physically stronger, more powerful, faster and have higher endurance than adult women. This is not a theory; it is an indisputable scientific fact. Although anyone with a functional brain intuitively understands that men and women are fundamentally different when it comes to athletic prowess and,...
Robin Abcarian: Even Trump and JD Vance can’t match the unbearable weirdness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It took a decade, but the man who left a dead bear cub in Central Park finally ‘fessed up in a social media post . Why now? Because he wanted to get ahead of a New Yorker profile that included the bear story. The magazine also obtained a photograph of...
John Hinshaw: How Walz helps Harris win Pa. — and beyond
Even before being named Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had been having a moment. His description of President Trump and J.D. Vance as “weird” resonated with Democratic activists and the Harris campaign. His online presence for the last two weeks pleased many Democrats. He came across as...
Terrie Baumgardner: Fracking and Harris — how close is too close?
Kamala Harris’ change in position on banning fracking has been a hot topic of discussion, and for good reason. On the one hand, political 180s are hard to justify; but on the other, for most of our history, Americans have expected their presidential candidates to gain pragmatic wisdom through political...
Matthew Levitt: Hezbollah’s deadly rockets aren’t the most serious threat to Israel’s northern border
After nearly 10 months of constant rocket and drone attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border, Israel and Hezbollah stand at the brink of full-scale war for the first time since 2006. But more dire than Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal is the threat that it will launch an Oct. 7-style ground incursion into...
Tyler Cowen: Want more moderate candidates? Demand ranked choice voting
Ranked choice voting is on many state and local ballots this year, so it’s worth considering how it works in practice. Or, as we economists like to say: It’s time for some game theory. There are many ways to run a ranked choice system, but they all basically allow voters...
Chris Hunter: Amid growing mental health crisis, why are a third of Western Psych beds closed?
There’s an ongoing national conversation about the spiraling mental health crisis — which was aggravated by the pandemic — and the urgent need to put more resources toward our faltering behavioral health system. Here in Pennsylvania, this health care emergency is in many ways more dire than the U.S. overall....
James P. Pinkerton: Hanwha and Nippon deals are good for Pa.
There’s so much bad news that it’s sometimes hard to spot the good news. But here’s some: An economic and strategic win-win between the United States and South Korea, injecting capital, jobs, and tech knowhow into eastern Pennsylvania. Yes, that’s good news. And we can have more win-wins, if we...
Robet Weiner and Olivia Ardito: What the U.S. can learn from Canada about ending gerrymandering
Over the past few years, the legitimacy of American elections has been called into question by Democrats and Republicans. Both sides can point fingers and claim the opposing party might try to cheat, scheme or tamper with the election results in some way. At all levels, American elections have been...
Jackie Calmes: Reports of the death of Trump’s Project 2025 are greatly exaggerated
This summer, more and more voters have gotten to know the gist of Project 2025, the policy opus intended to guide a second Trump administration, and they thoroughly dislike it. Which explains the project’s purported demise in recent days at the Trump campaign’s hands, just as Democrats have jump-started the...
Ralph J. Cecere Jr.: Solar for Schools can power — and empower — school districts
This year’s state budget may have arrived 11 days late, but it wasn’t without some important wins for Pennsylvania schools. Headlines have highlighted $526 million to improve education funding inequity and $100 million for school facilities repairs. But another exciting opportunity lies inside the fiscal code bill: the Solar for...
