Opinion category, Page 344
Editorial: Address suicide by respecting mental health
It is always hard to lose a loved one. Whether it happens because of disease or accident or criminal act, death is a gut punch. It hits hard and deep. It is aching and empty. When the loss is self-inflicted, it leaves something else behind. Families and friends can struggle...
Letter to the editor: Two-party system failing
Our two-party democracy is not working! The U.S. economy for middle-income Americans is hanging by a thread with the rate of inflation of food, housing, utilities and fuels at 42-year highs. Stock market retirement savings are down about 25%, and federal spending and debt are at massive high levels. The...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 2
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 2....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 1
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 2....
Ray Lombardi, Angela Antipova and Dorian J. Burnette: Record low water levels on the Mississippi River in 2022 show how climate change is altering large rivers
Rivers are critical corridors that connect cities and ecosystems alike. When drought develops, water levels fall, making river navigation harder and more expensive. In 2022, water levels in some of the world’s largest rivers, including the Rhine in Europe and the Yangtze in China, fell to historically low levels. The...
Michael Reagan: Ukraine is America’s latest stalemate war
We don’t fight our wars to win anymore. We fight them to get to a stalemate. We’ve risked untold lives and wasted trillions of dollars to poorly fight wars for decades in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam. Then we negotiate and leave. And then the countries where we...
Rachel Kyte: How Putin’s war and small islands are accelerating the global shift to clean energy, and what to watch for in 2023
The year 2022 was a tough one for the growing number of people living in food insecurity and energy poverty around the world, and the beginning of 2023 is looking bleak. Russia’s war on Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain and fertilizer feedstock suppliers, tightened global food and energy...
Letter to the editor: Don’t judge Robert E. Lee by 2022 standards
West Point just removed artwork of Robert E. Lee, who as a cadet received no demerits. Later, Lee was the commandant of West Point. Lee was offered to be the leader in command of the entire U.S. Army in the field at the beginning of the Civil War, but Lee...
Sounding off: Franco, new year, cold weather, pay raises topics of interest this week
Thank you, Franco If you spent any significant amount of time in Pittsburgh over the past several decades, you were bound to occasionally run into Franco Harris. About 10 years ago, a small group of us were excited because there was a rare day that the Pirates and Steelers (albeit...
Letter to the editor: Wishes for the new year
As the holiday season starts to wind down, I have had a moment or two to reflect on many things. The Mrs. and I again this year were blessed to be able to stand in for the man in the red suit. The pure joy for us to share this...
Letter to the editor: Thank you, Franco
If you spent any significant amount of time in Pittsburgh over the past several decades, you were bound to occasionally run into Franco Harris. About 10 years ago, a small group of us were excited because there was a rare day that the Pirates and Steelers (albeit only a preseason...
Editorial: The to-do list for 2023
As the clock runs out on 2022, we say goodbye to a year that has been jam-packed with significant events from the start. The pandemic was still going on. There were booster shots and new variants to address. The midterm elections made Pennsylvania a focal point for politics. The U.S....
Greg Fulton: 50 years later, remembering the greatest Pirate of them all
On Sept. 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente in his last at bat as a Pittsburgh Pirate stroked his 3,000th hit, an accomplishment achieved by only 33 players in baseball history. Sadly, three months later, Roberto Clemente, the greatest Pirate of them all, would be dead at age 38. On New Year’s...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The good and the bad from 2022
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves,” according to the late William E. Vaughan, author and longtime columnist for the Kansas City Star. It is never that simple. There are always some bad things...
Danny Tyree: Thoughts on the ‘bomb cyclone’
I won’t hazard a guess as to whether it achieves immortality like “grassy knoll” or “hanging chads,” but surely the phrase “bomb cyclone storm” will remain in the public consciousness of those who endured its cruelties. We’ll laugh about this someday, but right now an awful lot of Americans have...
S.E. Cupp: The year ahead and what people resolve to do
While covid-19 thankfully waned in the U.S. and many of us felt a slow return to normalcy, 2022 was still an eventful year. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to the death of Queen Elizabeth, the overturning of Roe v. Wade to midterm elections, the rise in inflation to the collapse...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Some not-so-serious 2023 predictions
Last year’s column successfully predicted Democratic Senate gains and a smaller-than-expected Republican House takeover. Here is our not-totally-serious forecast for 2023: JANUARY: Rep. Kevin McCarthy falls six votes short of 218 in House speaker election as 10 Freedom Caucus members vote for challenger Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs. As deadlock persists,...
Bloomberg editors: Thanks to FTX, regulating crypto should be easy
As the demise of the FTX crypto empire unfolds — on Twitter, in bankruptcy proceedings, in congressional hearings and potentially in criminal court — lawmakers and regulators are grappling with a question: What, if anything, should they do to civilise a market so rife with abuse? A few simple fixes...
Letter to the editor: PennDOT should take better care of Routes 88, 837
To PennDOT: I have lived in Washington County for almost six years. There has not been one winter that I can say that you have kept Routes 88 and 837 clear or even passably safe through Monongahela to Bethel Park or to West Elizabeth, and surrounding Valley routes. Don’t use...
Letter to the editor: Happy New Year, Team America!
We the people, for the people and by the people, team Democrat or team Republican, we should all be on team AMERICA! God bless, Happy New Year, peace out. Marianne Glesk Harrison...
Letter to the editor: Here’s what Democrats have done for us
Regarding Gary Pallone’s letter ”Republicans don’t improve lives” (Dec. 19, TribLIVE): First of all, let’s understand one thing — voting strictly along party lines throws your vote away; it doesn’t help anyone. Pallone states that voting for a Republican is only thinking of yourself and that he doesn’t believe the...
Lori Falce: What do you want in 2023?
Many of our New Year traditions are not, despite our well wishes, about happiness. Well, not on its own. We want to be happy, of course. But, when we are cracking open a new calendar, we are shrugging off a different truism. On Jan. 1, we embrace the idea that...
Laurels & lances: Results, delays and education
Laurel: To finishing up. The 2022 election is officially complete, as far as the state of Pennsylvania is concerned. The Department of State announced this week that the acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman has completed certification of results. That process was delayed because of recounts and challenges in 27...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland’s high-paid commissioners
I doubt most Westmoreland County residents received a 13% raise in their paychecks over the past two years, like our current county commissioners (“Westmoreland elected officials to receive record raises,” Dec. 18, TribLIVE). The commissioners’ nearly-six-figure salaries are now 60% more than the county’s median per capita income. The 20-year-old...
Cal Thomas: An old debt carries over to a new year
”Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” — Herbert Hoover “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” — Benjamin Franklin Eighteen Republican senators voted for the monstrosity known as the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, thus forever relinquishing their claim to belong...
