Featured Commentary category, Page 90

Momentum is a valuable asset in many of life’s endeavors. In sports, business and entertainment, success can foster optimism and excitement, often creating opportunities for additional achievements. Momentum doubtless applies to politics, too — especially for the Republican Party in this midterm year. In Pennsylvania, the GOP clearly has the...

Last year, it became public knowledge that the state college system in Pennsylvania had dropped to its lowest enrollment in over 30 years. A statement from the state system’s spokes­person , Cody Jones, called the historic tumble the “covid effect on enrollment.” If so, covid’s effect on enrollment is consistent...

“Never has a parent wished they would have been less protective of their missing child.” Those are the words of my colleague, Bill Hickman, CEO of CSI Corporate Security and Investigations . Bill often works with families whose children have gone missing in human trafficking schemes. With January being named...

Three-card Monte is a con game where the shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact the shill is conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. In America’s game of Three-card Monte, the citizen-taxpayer is the unfortunate mark. While many of the issues...

President Biden has taken the Democratic Party to new lows. The Dems have lost 14 points in 12 months in a recent Gallup poll on who the American people want to run the country. Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ polling numbers are at historic lows for this time in...

Every year in Pennsylvania Republican politics, there is a dog-and-pony show that occurs mostly unseen by the average voter. Known simply in Keystone State political parlance as “the endorsement,” it’s a protracted process of wannabe candidates cloyingly ingratiating themselves to the few hundred apparatchiks comprising the Republican State Committee (RSC),...

Taylor Bryner-Spaw and James Kunkel are having a busy January. Both are coaches for Fayette and Westmoreland County residents hoping to make good on New Year’s resolutions. Bryner-Spaw, 25, owner of the newly launched Spin Unlimited, is busy coaching cycling classes so attendees can achieve their fitness goals, while Kunkel...

It is almost surreal to look at numbers and rankings that show Pennsylvania floundering in comparison to other states, but this freakish economic landscape that puts us behind Ohio and Indiana speaks to a rock-solid reality. Our state’s reputation for high taxes, unfriendly regulatory climate and stagnant manufacturing growth quantifies...

I remember the thrill when Mrs. Tanzman organized a fifth-grade circle. We were to become musicians, costume designers and producers of “South Pacific.” I was new to performing, and I learned lifelong lessons: Everyone had to move in a synchronized way for scenes to mesh, and nothing was as uplifting...

Last May, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Mark Nordenberg chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission, I had three reactions. One, what a perfect choice. Two, why would he ever agree to do this? Three, he would do it because he is a man whose career demonstrated the value...

Since the approval of the preliminary plan for Pennsylvania’s state House of Representatives on Dec. 16, there has been a significant amount of discussion about how this map impacts communities of color across the commonwealth. As Latino members of the House, we feel compelled to address these important concerns. We...

Last month, seven environmental groups wrote a misguided letter to Philadelphia officials bashing legislation that I sponsored as counterintuitive to the city’s decarbonization goals. In October, six Democrats, including two from the southeast corner of the state, joined all 28 Republicans and our chamber’s lone independent to approve Senate Bill...

On Jan. 11, 2002, a U.S. military plane landed at our base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the first men deemed “the worst of the worst” by then-Vice President Dick Cheney were brought into the now-infamous detention center. Jumah Al-Dossari, a citizen of both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia whom I...

For many Pennsylvanians, the people I call our caring workforce that make up the fabric of our social safety net give us the freedom to do our jobs and provide for our families. For those of us with young children, we depend on our early childhood education providers to keep...

For the third straight day last week, the Chicago Teachers Union canceled classes, choosing to return to virtual learning and citing dangers from the omicron variant as their excuse. To many, this is seen as nothing more than a teachers’ strike and power grab executed by a union that historically...

With the Steelers unpredictably making it to the playoffs and being a long shot in going further, it’s a good time to reflect on another fortuitous long shot in the team’s past. You won’t see Rocky Bleier’s name associated with many individual records, but he was a key part of...

The start of a new year is always a time of reflection. As I enter my final year in office, I want the people of Pennsylvania to know that I continue to be deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve you as governor. It has been the greatest honor of...

On Dec. 23, as the Centers for Disease Control released its emergency guidance for health care facilities on returning to work, my ob/gyn residency program was split into three groups. Some of us were preparing to celebrate the Christmas holiday during our time off, making difficult decisions about whether or...

The historic American Rescue Plan passed because working people of all races stood up, turned out and demanded a government that works for all of us. By the end of January, Westmoreland County commissioners have to finalize a plan to use the first portion of the $100 million the county...

In recent months, European gas prices have risen as much as 700%, leaving millions of citizens vulnerable to a dangerously unstable grid and burdened with high electricity costs heading into this winter. Disruptions from this energy crisis have been felt by households and many industries that rely on affordable power...

In the past few years, several high-profile cases of sexual abuse in the U.S. — Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and R. Kelly — have prompted serious soul-searching. How could abuses like these have persisted for so long, given the number of people who had to have known what...

Two years ago, I wrote about the pending global population implosion. Demographers predict that 90 countries will lose population between now and the year 2100. Shrinking populations have portentous implications, including major shifts in geopolitical power and the possible financial collapse of welfare states. The United States’ population is part...

Now that the House has voted to hold former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt for refusing to appear before the Jan. 6 Select Committee, Washington insiders are gripped in a typical, inside-the-Beltway dilemma: Whether or not the Justice Department should file criminal charges against him. After...

Once again, Pittsburgh’s pandemic-strapped taxpayers are being asked to pony up more of their household incomes to close a purported $5.3 million shortfall, even as the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board sits on more than $145 million in surplus dollars tucked away in a “reserve” fund. That’s right. Pittsburgh Public Schools...

Imagine being a leader exiled to an island with only one other person. Now imagine that instead of shrinking under the wound of political isolation, you become stronger. Courage somehow thrives in this seclusion. Truth, honor and integrity build the foundation of a lighthouse that becomes a beacon of leadership....