Cal Thomas: Debunking the lone wolf ‘myth’
Since the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, government officials have said their greatest fear is self-radicalized individuals they call “lone wolves.” The March 12 terrorist attack on Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., prompted a Department of Justice news conference Monday which offered new information about the attack and...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Rogue judges or a rogue president?
In “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” historian Timothy Snyder warns us that unless we defend our institutions “from the beginning,” they will fall one after the other. And the courts are among the institutions that he singles out as being in jeopardy. “It is our institutions that...
Christopher Fiorentino: Closing Pa.’s talent gap starts with affordable higher education
Pennsylvania has 61,000 jobs that require education beyond high school and not enough qualified workers to fill them. By 2032, the gap will grow to 218,000 jobs that lack workers with postsecondary-level credentials, according to a Pennsylvania Department of Education study. The gap has real-world consequences for our economy and...
Jess Reia: Cameras’ integration with AI is sounding alarms
For decades, cars dictated urban planning in the United States. Few could have predicted that they one day also would double as nodes for surveillance. In thousands of towns and cities across the U.S., automatic license plate readers have been installed at major intersections, bridges and highway off-ramps. These camera-based...
John Poister: Credit Myron Cope for draft coverage spectacle
It is fitting that the NFL will hold its annual draft spectacle in Pittsburgh with ESPN originating three separate draft shows and WTAE-TV providing wall-to-wall coverage leading into the draft. That’s in addition to massive media attention from other TV stations, sports networks, podcasters and a phalanx of print reporters....
Letter to the editor: Is Trump too old?
Should Republicans or the general public continue to back Donald Trump? Democrats faced a similar situation with President Biden, despite an apparent cognitive decline. Some believe a similar pattern is emerging with Trump. Recent events suggest he is focused on cementing a legacy by putting his name on unnecessary projects,...
Letter to the editor: Health care and the right to ‘life’
The Bill of Rights states we are endowed with the inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In today’s society, there has been a lot of debate about the “right” to government-subsidized health care. Health care provided by the employer became a widespread benefit in the U.S....
Editorial: Mental health support protects and serves
The issue of health and safety of police officers gets attention. These are the men and women whom communities depend upon in emergencies. They face physical risks, from something as accidental as a car crash to something as intentional as a gunshot. But the risks aren’t only physical. Police officers...
Letter to the editor: Let Ligonier Beach drown already
Nostalgia is powerful — but living in the past can be costly. Trying to relive the “good old days” of Ligonier Beach risks becoming a financial burden for both current and future taxpayers. A proposal to redevelop the former Ligonier Beach site should be reconsidered, especially in light
of the...
S.E. Cupp: Moonshot hope amid despair of Trump’s Iran war
On Wednesday evening, two historic things happened, almost simultaneously. First, four courageous astronauts successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center aboard Artemis II, which will attempt the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years. It was a stunning sight, and one that turned out more...
Alex Hinton: Trump supporters split on his actions
There is a pall over the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement. Donald Trump overpromised. His public support has fallen. Some “America First” die-hards now openly criticize him. Amid war, economic challenges, democratic backsliding, the Epstein files and Americans shot dead in the street by government agents, Trump’s support...
Danny Tyree: Have we forgotten the lessons of Passover?
Even people who don’t celebrate Passover have been exposed to lessons from Exodus (if only through Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”), but some of us retain water better than we retain the significance of the parting of the Red Sea. For example, the very ground on which Moses stood...
Letter to the editor: We continue to crucify Jesus
Today, Christians from around the world will commemorate the death of Jesus Christ who was innocently executed for preaching a message of unconditional love and peace; 2000-plus years later the political anti-Christs of our world continue to crucify millions of innocents in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela and Ukraine. Rather than...
Letter to the editor: Trump not Making America Great Again
During his 2024 campaign, President Trump claimed he was going to decrease inflation dramatically on Day One if he was elected. He was also going to solve immigration, save manufacturing and coal jobs, and not start any wars, as if he had a bag of fairy dust to sprinkle around...
Lori Falce: Born in the U.S.A.
When a baby is born, we do not know who this precious life will become. We cannot nuzzle that soft hair and divine a doctor or a ditch digger. Those impossibly tiny fingers curled into the tightest clench might belong to an artist or an assassin. The hospital can test...
Laurels & lances: Rules & repercussions
Laurel: To writing rules. Westmoreland County Housing Authority is taking a closer look at visitor policies across its communities. When problems arise — especially those tied to safety — it makes sense to put expectations in writing instead of relying on what officials call “common sense” — especially when the...
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson: America at 250 — patriotic lament from her darker sons
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the nation confronts a moment that should stir both celebration and sober reflection. A quarter millennium is no small achievement in the long arc of human governance. Republics have faltered far sooner. Yet anniversaries, especially ones of this magnitude, are not merely...
Robert Cropf: The economic squeeze on young Americans — why it matters for democracy
As a parent of millennials, I can see firsthand the reality described in a recent Barron’s commentary by Randall W. Forsyth: The financial anxiety many younger Americans feel is not misplaced pessimism. It is a rational response to an economy that increasingly feels stacked against them. The traditional markers of...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump never actually had a plan
When President Trump spoke at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative on Friday, he offered a pristine example of what he calls “the weave.” What detractors take for incontinent verbal rambling is, in his own telling, genius-level embroidery of a rhetorical mosaic. While spinning his tapestry of soundbites, the wartime president...
Letter to the editor: Trump, Destroyer in Chief
President George W. Bush took the title of “Decider in Chief.” In my opinion, President Trump has earned the title of “Destroyer in Chief” for the following reasons: • Destroying the First, Fourth and 14th amendments as he attempts to limit free speech, shut down legal protests and permit illegal...
Editorial: Pittsburgh’s place in the new space race
We don’t know who invented the first wheel. We do know everything that came after it — SUVs and bicycles, gas stations and turnpike exits clustered with fast-food drive-thrus. We know a lot about space travel. We know how it evolved from flight and rockets and an insatiable curiosity about...
Morgan Marietta: Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship will depend on its interpretation of 1 key phrase
The Supreme Court on April 1 began hearing oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, the case that challenges the Trump administration’s efforts to bar the children of immigrants without legal status from birthright citizenship by reinterpreting the terms of the 14th Amendment. In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an...
Letter to the editor: Should he stay or should he go?
The news regarding the mayor of Aspinwall’s crime and “brain fart” fascinates me. My thoughts surrounding this predicament were that the act of secretly recording a private meeting, which included borough officials, was a failed attempt at gotcha politics. Mayor Scott Zimmermann failed to find negative information about some participants’...
Letter to the editor: Jesus, Trump and mob mentality
Jesus declared “I came to bear witness to the truth.” Pilate asked “What is truth?” and chose to wash his hands to let the mob determine Jesus’ fate. But what motivated the people to crucify the truth? The chief priests and Sanhedrin knew of Jesus’ innocence, but nevertheless chose to...
Lisa Jarvis: Health-care costs are forcing terrible trade-offs
Earlier this month, as I waited to pick up a prescription at my local CVS, I watched a man leave without his elderly father’s medication. The pharmacist had tried several tricks to lower the cost. It wasn’t enough. When the man heard the bottom line, he stuffed his hands in...
