Opinion category, Page 34
Letter to the editor: PJM capacity auction proves markets work
As discussions around the recent PJM capacity auction results continue, it’s vital to recognize what these outcomes truly signal: the competitive market is functioning effectively, responding to rising demand and securing grid reliability. The 2026-27 base residual auction procured over 134,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity, enough to serve 67 million...
Letter to the editor: Denying the truth
The current White House occupant just lived up to his TACO nickname. He backed down on China tariffs and lowered expectations about his meeting with Putin. This is not to mention his refusal to allow the Justice Department to release the Epstein file after using the promise to do so...
Editorial: Where is the justice in not charging for a child’s death by DUI?
It took almost a year but charges finally have been filed in the death of Roxanne Bonnoni. Well, not really. The 11-year-old Natrona girl was killed Aug. 20, 2024 when she was crossing North Canal Street near Kuntz Road in Harrison. It was 7:15 p.m. The vehicle that hit her...
Letter to the editor: Trust, respect teachers to make appropriate decision on ‘Mockingbird’ book
I reside in Richland with two children in the Pine-Richland school system. As a veteran ELA teacher in a neighboring district, I have absolute confidence in our ELA teachers — knowledgeable, dedicated and empathetic professionals who consistently contribute to near-perfect Literature Keystone scores. Some school board members believe all students...
Letter to the editor: Community violence affects us all; fund intervention efforts now
The tragic shooting in Pitcairn on June 26 — where two 16-year-olds were killed — is yet another heartbreaking reminder that gun violence is devastating families in our region. Community violence intervention (CVI) groups are working every day in neighborhoods across Allegheny County to prevent these tragedies through mentorship, mediation...
Kathryn Anne Edwards: Venus Williams exposed all that’s wrong with health insurance
Venus Williams returned to the professional tennis circuit in July with a win in the first round of the DC Open. (She lost in a late round.) In an interview on the court following the match, the 45-year-old made a somewhat surprising admission on why she decided to return to...
S.E. Cupp: Trump BLS pick is partisan, unqualified and MAGA
If you haven’t been following the saga at an unassuming government agency known as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, boy have you been missing out. To catch you up, President Trump recently fired Erika McEntarfer, who’d been appointed by former President Joe Biden to head the agency that, among other...
Mary McNamara: Disney’s settlement with ‘Mandalorian’ actor Gina Carano isn’t capitulation. Firing her was.
Actress Gina Carano, Lucasfilm and its parent company Walt Disney Co. have settled the federal lawsuit filed in which Carano claimed that, in 2021, she was wrongfully terminated from her role in “The Mandalorian” after she expressed her conservative political views on social media. The settlement details have not been...
Letter to the editor: Inhumane treatment of human beings is America at its worst
My heart breaks when I see on TV multiple masked unnamed men all in black with little identification terrorizing and kidnapping hardworking human beings. Human beings trying to support their families and trying to have a better life. Our government is at its very worst at this moment. So much...
Letter to the editor: Jesus’ advice on the Epstein scandal
Am I the only atheist who gets upset from time to time and turns to Jesus? It’s not the kind of subject one shares too quickly with strangers, like I’m doing now. It happens sometimes, and it makes me feel less than genuine in quoting Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s out...
Lori Falce: Why do ICE officers need masks?
There is a time and a place for masks. Halloween. Raccoons. A fancy fairy tale ballroom. Completely appropriate. You should definitely wear one if you’re performing surgery. Do you have a respiratory infection that could infect others? Absolutely. But in the course of arresting people, is it appropriate for law...
Laurels & lances: Convenience stores & school board wars
Laurel: To an unexpected appearance. Convenience stores are there to provide things you need quickly and easily. A tank of gas, a gallon of milk, an unexpected live rock concert. Wait, what? On Friday afternoon, alt-rock band All-American Rejects started teasing an appearance in Pittsburgh on TikTok. Sheetz jumped in...
Letter to the editor: Trump demands obedience
Even though Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives at first showed little interest in redistricting to gain five seats in the 2026 midterms, it seems all it took was one phone call from Donald Trump and, voilà, redistricting became the major focus of the...
Paul Kengor: 100 years ago, when the KKK was dominant in Western Pa.
This summer marks the centenary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. The case dealt with a ballot initiative in the state of Oregon that required all parents to send their children to public schools. The actual intended...
Druta Bhatt: Black homeownership still unequal, even when you beat the odds
The American Dream has long promised that homeownership is the gateway to stability, security and wealth. But a newly released report from the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG), “Black Homeownership and Wealth Building in Allegheny County,” shows that promise is far from reality — especially for Black residents. After eight...
Salewa Ogunmefun: 60 years after the Voting Rights Act, voting rights under attack
This month we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the single most influential pieces of legislation in American history. The policy that finally, almost 200 years after our nation’s inception, brought us to the cusp of living up to our founding truth that...
Letter to the editor: Epstein matters
We know the game. MAGA says something outrageous — racist, sexist or whatever — and has a belly laugh when normal people take offense. Owning the libs, they say. Surely, this is what the writer of the letter “Who cares about Jeffrey Epstein” (Aug. 5, TribLive) was trying to do....
Letter to the editor: Attorneys are officers of the court
As a retired attorney, I feel the article “Botched bail hearing sparks memo to judges in wake of homicide” (Aug. 4, TribLive), although well written, overlooked a key concept; specifically, the concept that every attorney is an officer of the court. Being an officer of the court means that an...
Letter to the editor: Legal questions for those hiring immigrants
Reading the letter “Serving the poor, suffering and strangers” (Aug. 9, Triblive), I conclude that only Democrat Catholics — in that order — will gain admittance to the kingdom to come. The article “More than $100K raised to help 16 snared in ICE raids at Emiliano’s” (Aug. 8, TribLive) raises...
Editorial: Money’s role in American politics could get even worse
Our nation’s campaign finance laws are a mess. Money has never been so influential in American politics, and it could get worse. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case about how much money political parties can spend on campaigns in coordination with candidates. The National Republican Senatorial Committee,...
Jonah Goldberg: Tariff ‘Mission Accomplished’ hype is just that
On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush announced, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” He was standing below a giant banner that read, “Mission Accomplished.” At the risk of inviting charges of understatement, subsequent events didn’t cooperate. But it took a while for that to be widely accepted. We’re...
Mark DeSantis: How Pittsburgh’s economic garden can grow
“Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt I have vivid memories as a 10-year-old helping my Italian-immigrant grandfather in his one-acre garden of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and I forget what else. I remember the smell of ripe vegetables, soil and how everything seemed...
Cal Thomas: Back to safer schools
As President Trump prepares to head to Alaska to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stop the killing” in Russia and Ukraine, what is being done to stop school shootings in America as millions of children begin returning to their schools this week? In my school days we had...
Letter to the editor: Employers who hire the undocumented should be fined, jailed
While all the liberals are crying about the raids on the two Emiliano’s restaurants last week, my question is, why weren’t the owners arrested and thrown in jail for harboring known criminals and for human trafficking? My guess is they knew when they hired these people that they were illegal...
Letter to the editor: Pittsburgh has other forces assisting police
The news of a steady erosion in the ranks of Pittsburgh’s police force is sobering. Your editorial “Pittsburgh needs more police” (Aug. 7, TribLive) points up the plight and rightfully serves as a call to action. However, the extent to which a reversal is needed should have been couched in...
