Opinion category, Page 334
Lori Falce: Bad actions hurt good police and all communities
Tyre Nichols was 29 years old the day he was stopped by police officers in Memphis. Body cam videos released by the police department showed an agonizingly long process that led to his death. He was dragged from his vehicle. He was beaten and Tased and pepper-sprayed. He broke free...
Laurels & lances: Vaping, heating and smiling
Laurel: To adding new tools. As the song says, “Everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school.” That historically has been about cigarettes but has branched out to the modern version — vaping. It is illegal to sell any tobacco products, including vaping products, to those under 21 in Pennsylvania....
Letter to the editor: Voting encouraged in Feb. 7 special election
If there is one thing we know at AARP, it’s that Pennsylvanians 50-plus vote. That’s why we want to ensure that people age 50-plus and their families know about the quick-approaching elections in Allegheny County. Although the first opportunity to vote in the 2023 election cycle was anticipated to be...
Paul Kengor: The sad, slow death of cinema
“Watching cinema inexorably die … brings me little pleasure,” writes cultural observer and film critic Lou Aguilar. “I dedicated most of my life to the art, first as an admirer then a critic.” Aguilar is a colleague of mine at The American Spectator. What inspired his lament, a piece that...
Maggie Rose Macar: George Santos is a bad role model for the LGBTQ+ community
The 118th Congress, who have finally been sworn in after a nightmarish House speaker election, is composed of more LGBTQ+ lawmakers than at any time in history — 13 — including two senators and 11 representatives. Unfortunately, in the midst of what is set to be a record-breaking and glass-ceiling-shattering...
Peter Morici: WTO no longer serves U.S. foreign-policy interests
The World Trade Organization no longer serves U.S. foreign policy interests. The U.S. and its allies established the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to limit tariffs and quantitative restrictions and to promote trade in goods. Rechristened the WTO in 1995, agreements were added to cover trade in services and...
Letter to the editor: Should we believe Clinton, Bush on documents?
According to news reports, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush say they have no classified documents. Really? Does anyone believe them, given their history of veracity? I.e., Monica Lewinsky and Iraq WMDs. Gerald Schiller Penn Hills...
Letter to the editor: Republicans not nihilists
Columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick claimed there are now nihilists in the House Republican Party (“Kevin McCarthy and the GOP nihilists” Jan. 14, TribLIVE). He was referring to the 20 House members who “wrecked McCarthy’s plans to smoothly assume” speaker of the House. Nihilists, as most know, are people with no...
Editorial: Does Pennsylvania have a real-life ‘Groundhog Day’ problem?
In “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 Bill Murray movie, the holiday centered around a prognosticating Punxsutawney Phil is not the point. They are just the kick-off for the story about a weatherman trapped in the same 24 hours with the same events happening over and over again. There was never an...
Letter to the editor: Hoping The River stays in New Kensington
On the corner of Freeport Road and Elizabeth Street in New Kensington stands an architectural beauty, commonly known as the Old Nurse’s Residence. Circa 1923 red bricks are punctuated by a row of stately arches I’ve admired since I was a kid. For years, the vacant property was maintained, never...
Jonah Goldberg: Ukraine’s fight benefits U.S. national security. House GOP is on wrong side
We are entering the 12th month of a “special military operation” that was supposed to be over in well under 12 days. The Kremlin even told Russian officers to pack dress uniforms and medals for the intended military parades in Kyiv a few days after the shooting started. Things turned...
Colin McNickle: The real & sobering story at PIT
The Allegheny County Airport Authority continues to paint a rosy picture of rebounding passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport. “PIT travel roars back,” part of a headline blared recently on the authority’s website. But an analysis of the latest publicly available numbers — for November 2022 — shows the Findlay...
Guy Ciarrocchi: Pa. Republicans must solve the suburban puzzle
Political pundits rate Pennsylvania among the swing states. Reviewing the Keystone map, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are overwhelmingly Democratic strongholds. Rural Pennsylvania — what political pundits call the “T” — has always been Republican and now has gone super-red. So, the critical battle concerns Philadelphia’s suburbs, with about 22% of the...
Letter to the editor: Battle of the wokies
The new Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s guidelines that have resulted in the cancellation of reenacted battles at Bushy Run Battlefield is a classic example of unelected “woke” appointees mandating their insecurities upon us without any public input (“Bushy Run Battlefield reenactment canceled amid new state guidelines,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE)....
Letter to the editor: Gloom and doom
We are at the mercy of our politicians. All of our problems started with giving the rich and companies tax breaks. They gave tax incentives for our companies to go overseas. We had the fear of Donald J. Trump. Now we have the fear of the new Congress. They want...
Editorial: Is asking front line workers to train for crisis a good idea?
It would be great if everyone was trained to be a helping hand. But wishing doesn’t make it so. Neither does the vote of a city’s leaders. Last week, Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, put forward legislation that would create a training program to help people with crises...
Letter to the editor: Help close pollution loopholes
I feel overwhelmed when I get an alert from my weather app warning me about dangerous air quality conditions within my community. Are local residents expected to stay in the house and drop all responsibilities during this time to protect our health? Action is needed now to ensure that residents...
Elwood Watson: Tyre Nichols’ death shows how racism even impacts Black officers
The death of Black people at the hands of law enforcement has become so commonplace that it’s easy to feel both outraged and psychologically numb. Over the past few decades from Rodney King to George Floyd, we have become front-row spectators to grainy and, in some cases, graphic footage of...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Can Chat GPT3 make Pa. a red state?
In the past three weeks, policymakers had their worlds rocked by generative artificial intelligence. The problem is that they don’t know it — yet. First, a team of researchers demonstrated that Open AI’s Chat GPT3 can pass the stringent United States Medical Licensing Exam. Days later, Chat GPT 3 passed...
Colleen Hronich: Pa. celebrates Catholic Schools Week
I still remember celebrating Catholic Schools Week in my elementary school. We had a grandparents’ breakfast, special dress-up days, an open house where we showed off special projects for our families and a school night at the roller-skating rink. It was a special time and helped us appreciate how lucky...
Letter to the editor: Is government for us or against us?
Considering two local stories over the weekend, the state-mandated end of historical reenactments at Bushy Run, which seems to have started with one out-of-state person’s complaint (“Bushy Run Battlefield reenactment canceled amid new state guidelines,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE)) and the plan to spend $3.6 million for a homeless shelter in...
Letter to the editor: High earners get tax breaks
The letter “What’s ‘fair share’ when it comes to taxes?” (Jan. 24, TribLIVE) repeated the tired old saw that “Roughly 50% of wage earners pay no federal income tax at all.” This is simply not true. 6.2% of each employee’s wages is deducted as a dedicated tax, matched by an...
Editorial: Museum commission needs to bring ideas for Bushy Run Battlefield
Teachers will tell you that finding a way to make a lesson come to life is the best way to make the material stick. It’s the difference between telling someone how to drive and putting them behind the wheel. There’s a reason that you take a book test to get...
Letter to the editor: We must end our government excesses
In January, many of us look at our bills after Christmas and ask, “How am I going to pay for everything I bought?” I have not heard this asked of our elected officials. Everyone seems to want to ignore this elephant in the room and push it onto the next...
Tom Purcell: Celebrating National Freedom Day
It’s one of the best days of the year, and we owe our gratitude to the remarkable man who made it possible. Feb. 1 is National Freedom Day, and its origin is as wonderful as is freedom itself. The creation of this day dates back to 1863, during the thick...
