Featured Commentary category, Page 84
Ray Nell Jones: How much would you give to save a life?
How much would you give to save a life? If only we could ask that question three years ago, June 13, 2019 — the day before Stanlee Allyn Holbrook took her own life. She was one of Pittsburgh’s many young and single mothers, all of 26 years old with three...
Aerion Abney: Despite the attacks, let’s vote — mail-in voting’s still an option in Pa.
Part of our role as legislators is to help increase access to opportunities for those we are elected to represent. Act 77 of 2019 did just that. It was a bipartisan bill that expanded access to the ballot by moving the commonwealth on a path toward normalizing no-excuse mail-in voting....
Dr. Andrew Smolar: On guns, abortion and more, why can’t 2 sides come together?
I took a glance at the two sides last week, and it didn’t look pretty. On Wednesday, I attended a township board meeting, where an owner’s right to open a gun shop in our town just west of Philadelphia was challenged. In one corner: an Orthodox Jewish owner, operating a...
Sophie Bjork-James: White nationalism is on rise, attracting violent young white men
White nationalists showed up in the hearings of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Evidence is mounting that white nationalist groups who want to establish an all-white state played a significant role in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead and dozens...
Haroro J. Ingram, Andrew Mines and Daniel Milton: Where does al-Zawahri’s death leave al-Qaida and what does it say about U.S. counterterrorism?
Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of al-Qaida and a plotter of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has been killed in a drone strike in the Afghan city of Kabul, according to the U.S. government. Al-Zawahri was the the successor to Osama bin Laden and his death marked “one more measure of closure” to...
Christopher Decker: Inflation is spiking around world, not just in U.S.
The 9.1% increase in U.S. consumer prices in the 12 months ending in June, the highest in four decades, has prompted many sobering headlines. Meanwhile, annual inflation in Germany and the U.K. — countries with comparable economies — ran nearly as high: 7.5% and 8.2%, respectively, for the 12 months...
Meredith Oyen: Pelosi’s Taiwan visit puts White House in delicate straits of diplomacy with China
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan Aug. 2 — a highly controversial trip that has been strongly opposed by China. Such is the sensitivity over the island’s status that even before Pelosi’s plane touched down in the capital of Taipei, mere reports of the proposed trip prompted a warning...
Alison Fisk: The value of hiring international employees
The current U.S. labor shortage has affected nearly every industry, from education to health services and child care, leaving many organizations at a loss for how to attract, hire and retain new employees. This year, there are 5.5 million more job openings available than there are candidates to fill those...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Covid disrupted global supply chains. Can covid fix them?
Over the past two-plus years, global supply chains have been stretched beyond recognition. Yet stretched is not broken, and covid-19 may serve as the launch pad to create a new and improved global supply chain model. Global supply chains became the norm for most products when labor and materials cost...
Kim Anderson: EPA must address gas leaks that are harming our children
A few years ago, I smelled gas from my kitchen stove. When I called the gas company, they told me to get out of the house immediately and gave me a long list of things not, to do, such as turning on or off lights or dialing a phone. Any...
Elizabeth Zumpe: 5 of the biggest threats today’s K-12 students and educators face don’t involve guns
While many American students and their parents worry that the next mass shooting could happen at their school, schools are also facing a number of other threats that do not involve guns. Many of these threats are related to the mental health of educators and students. From 2018 to 2021,...
Peter Morici: Fed’s inflation promises are simply not credible
With inflation running high for the last 14 months, we can sadly conclude it’s entrenched, will be difficult to conquer and is hardly the province of the Federal Reserve alone. The present morass stems from both sides of the supply-demand scissor. Too much covid spending and the Federal Reserve printing...
Claudine Schneider: America’s oil and gas industry unpatriotic
Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, fossil fuels were a familiar sight during my childhood and since they employed some of my family, I believed these facilities represented America’s “can do” attitude. When I became a Republican member of Congress in 1981, well-paid oil and gas lobbyists were a familiar sight...
Kevin Sunday: Bipartisanship on energy, jobs a better path than reconciliation gamesmanship
In a surprising turnabout, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced last week he has struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a package of tax hikes and energy subsidies. Unfortunately, this proposal, which appears to be designed to game the Senate’s reconciliation process to pass spending...
Sharon Pillar: Time for Pa.’s energy freedom
The Public Utility Commission (PUC) warned customers in May that all of the state’s electric utilities intended to significantly raise their prices on June 1, ranging from 6% to 45%. The PUC said this is because “higher wholesale market prices for electricity, fueled in large part by shifts in supply...
Danielle Zanzalari: US chip makers don’t need handouts
Even during high inflation, Congress chooses to waste money by giving it to large corporations that don’t need it. Last week, semiconductor firms convinced Congress to provide free money and tax credits for expanding their U.S. manufacturing business — business expansion they already started in 2020 and 2021. The logic...
Nicholas Goldberg: Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?
Watching the Jan. 6 committee hearings, one could be forgiven for believing we’re living in the heyday of conspiracy theories, between the Holocaust denialism of the Oath Keepers, the loony pedophilia fears of the QAnoners and the “Stop the Steal” ravings of Sidney Powell, Rudolph W. Giuliani and former President...
Hayley Brown and Katie Barrows: Nonprofits need unions, too
A progressive boss is still a boss. Yet for decades, senior leadership at left-leaning organizations have been excused from providing their staff with living wages, good benefits and inclusive work environments, in part because employees themselves feared holding bosses accountable for their hypocrisy could hurt the cause. But, in recent...
D. Brian Blank: Is the U.S. in a recession? Well, that depends on whom you ask — and what measure they use
The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate 0.9% from April through June, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated on July 28, 2022. It follows a contraction in gross domestic product of 1.6% recorded in the first quarter of the year. Some observers suggest the two quarters of contraction constitute...
Cal Thomas: To ID or not to ID?
During recent election seasons there has been a debate over whether a voter must present an identification card to cast a ballot and if so, what type? Congressional Democrats are considering legislation that would provide secure identification cards, not to U.S. citizens for the purpose of voting, but to those...
Greg Fulton: Campaign promises easy to make, harder to keep
It’s an election year and again Western Pennsylvania voters will be hearing various promises from candidates running for office. In recent years candidates have focused on how to retool the local economy for the 21st century, bring better paying and longer-term jobs to the region, and improve opportunities for local...
Peter Morici: Conservative Supreme Court taking America back to first principles
Judging by reaction to recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion, environmental rule making, freedom of religion, and gun rights, the hard left has as much trouble accepting losses as Donald Trump and Stacey Abrams. In Dobbs v. Women’s Health Care Organization, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and feminist...
Mary Inman and Taline Sahakian: Are high prices really inflation? Pa. lawmakers want your help to find out.
There is no doubt that recent economic forces have driven up prices — inflation is creating hardship for consumers in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. But alongside rising oil costs and supply chain woes, politicians (and pundits) suspect something more sinister may be afoot. The economics that explain...
Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Disastrous police response in Uvalde finally coming to light, and it’s ugly
SAN DIEGO Here’s a riddle: How many local, state and federal law enforcement officers does it take to screw up the response to a deadly mass shooting at a Texas elementary school full of Mexican American kids? Answer: 376. That is the total number of law enforcement officers who arrived...
Sen. Kim Ward: A step toward election integrity in Pa.
The commonwealth’s 2022-23 budget and legislative package delivered many things for Pennsylvanians, but one of the most significant yet underlooked items was an issue that many Pennsylvanians said mattered most: election integrity. The election integrity package recently put forth in Pennsylvania engages both the legislative and constitutional amendment processes. Through...
