Featured Commentary category, Page 42
Meredith Elizalde: Legislators must save our children from gun violence
The Democratic Party has traditionally been supportive of gun safety legislation. Therefore, it should be a safe assumption when you cast a vote for a state representative on the Democratic ticket, that you are also casting a vote for gun safety. However, Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, consistently defies this, as...
Gillian Kratzer: Pa. surplus should help all residents
I guess it’s not important to keep $14 billion sitting in a bank account in Harrisburg after all. In February, Gov. Josh Shapiro introduced a budget with strong investments in education, community development and public transit. It included proposals to address housing, gun violence, teacher recruitment, higher education costs, medical...
Jason W. Park: Keeping guns from falling in the wrong hands — lessons from Charlotte
On April 30, four police officers were killed in a shooting while attempting to serve a warrant at a home in Charlotte, N.C. Four other law enforcement officers were wounded during the incident. Officers returned fire and the suspect was killed in the ensuing melee. How can we prevent another...
Erika Strassburger: Keep Pa.’s clean energy momentum going
Pennsylvania has the potential to become a leader in 21st-century clean energy like wind and solar. To realize that potential, we need to make concerted efforts to invest in these industries across the commonwealth, continuing to grow the number of good-paying, clean energy jobs created through President Biden’s clean energy...
Peter Morici: Americans are down on the economy — but there are good reasons to be optimistic
Americans are down on the economy, and many believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Yet the aggregate metrics of U.S. economic health are good. Consumer spending and business investment, especially in industrial equipment, information processing and software, continue to power growth, while U.S. unemployment has been below...
Katie M. Shipp: Addressing sexual violence with young people
As the academic year draws to a close, it’s important to spend some time reflecting on the lessons our children have absorbed over the past school year and the values we hope they will carry with them as they journey forward. Amidst the current landscape punctuated by headlines such as...
Dr. Debra Bogen: Applesauce recall shows importance of testing all children for lead poisoning
For more than 50 years, we have known that lead poisoning can have devastating effects on children’s developing brains. Lead is a neurotoxin, and there is no safe blood lead level for children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead exposure in children can result in...
Danny Tyree: Yearning for random thoughts about Mother’s Day?
Believe it or not, Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” makes me think of Mother’s Day. Remember the scene where Allen’s character Alvy was stuck in line at the movies, subjected to the pompous blathering of a pseudo-intellectual? When the topic turned to media philosopher Marshall McLuhan, Alvy handily produced McLuhan himself...
Kislaya Prasad : AI is moving fast; AI regulation needs to catch up
Artificial intelligence is already affecting our lives in many positive ways, automating tasks, helping to diagnose medical issues and acting as a voice-controlled virtual assistant for many. Still, there is a very real danger of misuse and unintended consequences of the technology, as we saw recently in Maryland, with the...
Joyce M. Davis: Student’s death alarms Black parents who fear for children’s safety
“For sure in this township … if it was Blacks that did this there would be no hesitation … they would already at DCP (Dauphin County Prison).” That’s only one of a slew of angry comments on social media following the death of 16-year-old Justin Johnson. It’s reminding many of...
Alejandra Marquez Guajardo: Mexico emerges as a destination for Americans seeking reproductive health services — not for the first time
When its six-week abortion ban went into effect on May 1, Florida joined nearly two dozen other U.S. states that ban abortion or greatly restrict it. These laws came into effect after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ended nearly 50 years of the constitutional right...
Commentary: Americans might finally get a real privacy law to fight Big Tech intrusions
Last month, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., unveiled a rare government feat: a bipartisan bill that has lawmakers feeling “optimistic” and “fired up.” It’s the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), and it’s long overdue. The U.S. lags far behind the rest of the world on...
Counterpoint: Students’ struggle for justice in Gaza must be protected at all costs
University campuses nationwide have long been the focus of political debates and battles in the form of protests and demonstrations. In recent weeks, students galvanized by their consciences have been leading an anti-war movement that our nation hasn’t seen the likes of in decades, and it is spreading like wildfire....
Point: Protesters are adamant — eliminate Israel
The protesters taking over college campuses are not antisemitic, so we’re told, but they want to destroy the only Jewish state. They just want all of the Jews to go … somewhere else. They chant for the creation of Palestine “from the river to the sea,” an explicit call for...
Patrice Tomcik: New protections will save lives and slash climate pollution from coal plants
In Southwestern Pennsylvania where I live with my family, the Keystone and Conemaugh power plants have been burning coal for more than 50 years, filling the air with potentially life-altering pollution and fouling the region’s water and soil with mercury-laced waste. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency took action that...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: If inflation is down, why are so many people unhappy?
The Federal Reserve reports inflation is down, though it continues to remain above its 2% target level. The most recent report showed inflation was hovering around 3.5% (year-to-year), from a high of 9.1% in June 2022. Yet many people do not feel good about their financial situation, with inflation one...
Oliver Schilke: Trust in the shadows — how loyalty fuels illicit economic transactions
When you think about economic activities that society tends to frown on — like offering bribes, paying for the services of a sex worker or even selling human organs — “trust” and “loyalty” might not be the first things that come to mind. But these seemingly positive characteristics play a...
Lauren Lassabe Shepherd: College administrators falling into tried and true trap laid by the right
Interrogations of university leaders spearheaded by conservative congressional representatives. Calls from right-wing senators for troops to intervene in campus demonstrations. Hundreds of student and faculty arrests, with nonviolent dissenters thrown to the ground, tear-gassed and tased. We’ve been here before. In my book “Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the...
Mary M. McCarthy: Japan’s diplomatic charm offensive in U.S. aims to keep Washington in committed relationship
April 2024 proved to be a busy month in Japanese-U.S. diplomacy. The month saw a state visit to the U.S. by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that included a White House sit-down with President Joe Biden on April 10. The next day, both men were joined by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos...
Ariel Kalil: Multigenerational households key to better support for kids of single mothers
Decades of research show, on average, children who grow up with parents who are not married and living together have worse achievement and behavioral and well-being outcomes than children of two-parent homes. Despite this evidence, rates of nonmarital childbearing have risen dramatically in the U.S., especially among the noncollege-educated. What...
Alexandra Paskhaver: Pick of the litter in the suburbs
Just because I think littering should be punishable by death doesn’t mean I’m an unreasonable person. I leave tips at restaurants. I smile when dogs get on public transport. Sometimes, I cry during sitcoms. I also have a freshly oiled chainsaw in my garage. But most suburbanites do. The suburbs...
Danny Tyree: Does your town need renaming?
The venerable comic strip “Gasoline Alley” is wrapping up a storyline in which the dastardly assistant mayor schemed to change the town’s name from Gasoline Alley to the ostensibly more modern Electric Acres (without even offering a compromise such as Hybrid Hollow). Sentimentality saved the day in the funnies, just...
Jeb Bush: What the U.S. can learn from Indiana’s high school redesign
Across the country, most high school classrooms still resemble their 20th-century counterparts despite massive changes in the workforce over the past 50 years. Today’s jobs require advanced skills and education or training, yet many graduates feel unprepared for their next steps. A 2022 YouScience survey found three-fourths of high school...
Robin Abcarian: Criminalizing homelessness is unconscionable, but is it unconstitutional?
Last Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about whether a small Oregon city can cite and prosecute homeless people for sleeping in public places when they have nowhere else to lay their heads. If the case reveals nothing else about the state of our country, it reveals this: We...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Proof that bipartisanship is possible
For months, supporters of the embattled Ukrainians have contended there was a bipartisan House majority that would back continued U.S. military support if only its Republican leaders would allow a vote. Their contention was proven correct last weekend when the House passed a $95 billion package of support for Ukraine...
