Opinion category, Page 10
Letter to the editor: 2025 was a success
The Dec. 30 political cartoon stated that the year 2025 was “defective.” Well, our border was finally put in control (after four years of basically ignoring American laws and allowing chaos). The two years of “major” conflict in Gaza has ceased. The amount of illicit drugs smuggled into our country...
Editorial: Health insurance costs drive benefit cut in Westmoreland County
The rising cost of health insurance — and how to pay for it — is a question many families are debating around kitchen tables, strained checkbooks close at hand. Westmoreland County leaders are confronting that same reality. The county salary board, composed of the three commissioners and Controller Jeffrey Balzer,...
Letter to the editor: Vulgarities unfortunately now the norm
When my grandma would hear words she thought to be inappropriate for the age of the speaker, she would always say, “They don’t suck that out of their thumbs.” To her it mattered not whether it was profanity, a racial slur or a lie, nor who said it. Grandma wouldn’t...
Peter Morici: New Year’s resolutions for Washington policymakers
President Trump is the most activist president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. No institution is safe from his scrutiny, but entering his final three years, we should consider the global challenges that confront the nation, no matter who controls Washington. Regardless of its origins, climate change is here. Whether Americans employ...
Letter to the editor: Moving the A-K Valley forward
As 2026 begins, the Alle-Kiski Valley faces a choice. We can continue managing aging systems, stretching them, patching them and hoping they hold, or we can decide, deliberately, what kind of region we want to be going forward. For generations, our communities carried the weight of industry and adapted when...
Editorial: Pittsburgh turns the page — with work still to do
On Monday, Pittsburgh started a new story. Corey O’Connor was sworn in as the city’s 62nd mayor. As with so many such moments, it came with optimism about what comes next. It also has to come with realism. There is much that must be examined with clear eyes and honest...
Letter to the editor: Be mindful of seniors’ mental health
Thank you for highlighting the issue of senior citizens and suicide, loneliness and depression in the editorial “High suicide rate among seniors is a tragedy for entire community” (Dec. 15, TribLive). Southwestern Pennsylvania has a large senior citizen population. In 2024, 20% of Allegheny County residents were 65 or older....
Roman Martinez: The Postal Service can’t deliver without financial reforms
The United States Postal Service has reached a pivotal moment. Challenged by technological disruptions and constrained by outdated regulations, it is in the midst of a major restructuring plan to modernize operations, achieve service excellence and survive financially. But to enable its transformation, the Postal Service urgently needs legislative and...
Craig Haney: Prison methods are as bad as you’ve heard, and spilling onto the streets
I was one of the researchers in the well-known Stanford prison experiment in 1971, demonstrating the destructive dynamics that are generated when one group of people — randomly assigned as “guards” — is given near-total power over a group of “prisoners.” In six short days, inside a simulated prison environment,...
Letter to the editor: Ditch Tomlin and his defenders
Looks like George Pickens is having a Pro Bowl season in Dallas. What kind of genius brings in a Hall of Fame quarterback and at the same time trades away the most talented receiver on the team? We all understand Pickens was a problem child and disruptive influence. But there...
Editorial: Why is Secret Service dropping the ball on protecting president?
President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail has one job: protect the president. Yet even after a 2024 assassination attempt in which then-candidate Trump was shot in the ear while campaigning in Butler, there are appalling lapses in security. In September, the president went to dinner with Secretary of State Marco...
Letter to the editor: Since when do we root for the powerful?
Look what they’ve done to us. Look at how they’ve turned us on each other. Where Americans once would have stood together and done anything for their country, they are now willing to go to war against other Americans for an idea we’ve been sold — the idea that we...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 5
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 5....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 5
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 5....
Daniel DePetris: The foreign policy moves Donald Trump got right in 2025
For President Donald Trump’s supporters, 2025 has been a year of transformation. For his opponents, it’s been nothing short of a long nightmare. The holiday season is a perfect time to look back, reflect and remember the consequential moments of the past year. As human beings, we generally fixate on...
Kevin Frazier: Beware of panic policies
“As far as human nature is concerned, with panic comes irrationality.” This simple statement by Steve Calandrillo, law professor at the University of Washington, and Nolan Anderson, a research specialist at the Eastern Illinois University, has profound implications for public policy. When panic is highest, and demand for reactive policy...
Letter to the editor: Suggested reading for Hegseth
Open letter to Pete Haggis, I mean Pete Hegseth: Hey, Pete. I know you like shooting boats in the water and also the survivors in the water. I suggest you read about Franz Stigler. He is best known for his role in a December 1943 incident in which he spared...
Letter to the editor: Too many politicians
It is my opinion that we have far too many politicians. They don’t play well together and are continually fighting or suing each other rather than doing their jobs. President Trump is spending unnecessary millions foolishly. Italian marble bathroom, extravagant addition for his gala parties and golf trips to Florida...
Editorial: AI is changing the job hunt
Artificial intelligence is everywhere. The technology is being used to refine medicine, science, business and industry. At the same time, concerns about how fast AI is evolving — and what that means for jobs, the environment and daily life — are growing. In Springdale and other communities, those concerns are...
Letter to the editor: Why does Shapiro need a raise?
One thing that I cannot understand is why Gov. Josh Shapiro gets a 3.3% raise, $8,000, when he was already making almost $250,000 (“Shapiro poised to become nation’s highest-paid governor,” Dec. 26, TribLive). But the people that are on Social Security that make maybe $18,000 to $20,000 get a 2.8%...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Resolutions 2026
We often make New Year’s resolutions to help us reach our personal goals for the coming year, but our nation’s founders set their sights on a bigger proposition at the beginning of January in 1776. The Continental Congress passed the Tory Act on Jan. 2. The act was composed of...
Counterpoint: Meet the AI agents of 2026 — ambitious, overhyped and still in training
If 2025 was the year artificial intelligence became unavoidable, 2026 will be the year everyone starts talking seriously about AI agents. An AI agent is a software system designed to plan and execute tasks autonomously, make decisions and interact with digital tools or environments with minimal human oversight in pursuit...
Point: Get ready, 2026 is going to be great
Americans should treasure their time with family and friends during the too-busy and too-short holiday season and be excited for what’s in store for next year. Although my predictions for 2026 come with an asterisk because it is impossible to forecast the future accurately, and black swan events can throw...
Letter to the editor: Pittsburgh residents who vote Democrat get what they want
I do not understand why reporter Julia Burdelski is so concerned about increased levels of taxation faced by Pittsburgh property owners (“Tax trifecta: Pittsburgh property owners take it on the chin,” Dec. 22, TribLive). The vast majority of Pittsburgh property owners either vote Democrat or do not vote. As a...
Editorial: Penn State trustees still aren’t talking enough in public
Penn State’s Board of Trustees deserves credit for spending more time in public discussion this year than it has in the recent past. After years in which outcomes often were treated as foregone conclusions, more conversation is a welcome change. But more is not the same as enough. The measure...
