Sophia Greene and Dr. Claudia Fernandes: A broken pipeline — costing us our next generation of scientists
Science has always relied on young innovators to drive progress. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still PhD students, founded Google. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, Kizzmekia Corbett, then a senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, led a team of scientists...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Republicans hope the Supreme Court will help them hold the House
Perhaps it was inevitable. But it seems increasingly likely that the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, will play a major role in determining which party wins the U.S. House next year. That possibility increased when Justice Samuel Alito paused a lower court’s rejection of the effort by Texas...
Abby McCloskey: The gender wars are heating up — on the right
More than half a million women left the labor force this year. Many are mothers with young children. It’s being called the next she-cession. This may be a good thing to the extent it reflects women’s preferences, such as wanting to spend more time with their families or it represents...
Letter to the editor: Give peace a chance
To all people of the world, regardless of color or national origin or positions we might hold: We are in turmoil in the whole world. We are looking for answers to problems in the wrong places. We all have a part of the answer within us: our hearts and minds....
Letter to the editor: Deluzio, other Dems’ actions inappropriate
I think the article “Deluzio, other Dems tell troops to refuse illegal orders, Trump labels them as ‘traitors’ ”
(Nov. 20, TribLive) was a blatant political attack on the Trump administration because the Democrats could not identify any illegal orders issued to current military forces. However, the Dems may have...
Editorial: Exploratory studies are smart, but crushing college debt isn’t
What do you want to be when you grow up? The older students get, the more complicated the answer can become. By the time they graduate high school, plenty of young adults don’t have a grasp on what their next act might be. Many pick a college but not a...
Letter to the editor: Natural gas benefiting our communities
Butler County is once again reaping the benefits of the commonwealth’s natural gas impact fee. This unique Pennsylvania fee — which is essentially just another tax on the industry — provides funding every year to the state’s county and municipal governments. This year, Butler County received the seventh highest distribution...
Dr. Nina Stachenfeld: So DEI doesn’t work. OK, what would be better?
It is no secret that diversity, equity and inclusion programs are under attack in our country. They have been blamed for undermining free speech, meritocracy and America itself. The University of Virginia is the latest to settle with the government and walk away from its DEI initiatives rather than defend...
Allison Schrager: The American middle class is shrinking, and that’s OK
The good news is that Americans have never been richer. The bad news is that most of them don’t feel like it. There has been tremendous growth in income and wealth in the U.S. in the last half-century, even for poorer and middle-class households. But because of the nature of...
Jonah Goldberg: Leaked ‘wish list’ for peace in Russia-Ukraine war is hardly America First
Last week, a 28-point “peace plan” for the Russia-Ukraine war surfaced. It was apparently fleshed out in Miami over cocktails by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Witkoff’s Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev. Many critics immediately derided it as a “Russian wish-list.” That was before we...
Letter to the editor: Trump the greatest or the worst?
People actually praise and love President Trump. His circus goes on. Three more years of this sick comedy from Republicans. What are the Republican politicians afraid of? Don’t they care about our national debt and the interest to service it? No plan? Our children will suffer. No health care for...
Letter to the editor: Military taught to not follow illegal orders
This letter is directed to the writer of the letter ”Democrats’ video urging insurrection is treasonous” (Nov. 21, TribLive). You, sir, have no understanding of history or the Universal Code of Military Justice. Following World War II, Nazis accused of killing innocent civilians were brought before the Nuremberg Court. The...
Lori Falce: Yinz know the Christmas Star, right?Video
I am one of those people who doesn’t look at the holidays as a series of individual dates. From Thanksgiving to St. Nicholas Day to Christmas to New Year to Epiphany, each day is a bright light strung on a wire, illuminating the darkest days of the year. In between...
Letter to the editor: Trump, Mamdani setting a new tone for playing nice?
The 1970s was a bright few years for musical variety shows on television. How people loved the Osmond family, the Partridge Family, the Jackson Five. Retired as I am now, I lapse into deliquescent oldster memory jags and start singing. It was a generous hunk of a century going backward...
Laurels & lances: Fossils & fees
Laurel: To finding an icon. When you think about mascots, you think about the kind that wear exaggerated cartoon suits at a sports venue. We have those covered with the Pirate Parrot, Iceburgh and Steely McBeam. But Pittsburgh has other mascots — the inanimate kind that are more like landmarks....
Cal Thomas: We lose, they win
In 1988, when President Ronald Reagan was asked by a reporter during the summit in Moscow what his goal was in the Cold War, he said: “we win, they lose.” When it comes to today’s Russia and its unprovoked war with Ukraine, President Trump’s goal at least in practice and...
Letter to the editor: Littering ruining our roads
The people who drive on Route 119 from New Stanton to Scottdale should notice what a nice job PennDOT did cutting the grass. Instead all you see is all of the garbage they ran over and shredded. It looks absolutely horrible. Next time take the time to pick up the...
Letter to the editor: Democrats’ deflection
The writer of the letter “Name-calling goes both ways” (Nov. 3, TribLive) referenced, in rebuttal, my letter “Why I’ll never vote for a Democrat” (Oct. 25, TribLive). In my letter I cited the following reasons why I will never vote for a Democrat: Democrats’ embracing political violence; Democratic prosecutors and...
Editorial: What does Thanksgiving mean to you?
Thanksgiving is not just a day off and a big dinner. We tell ourselves that it is a uniquely American holiday. It may seem like that, the way it is based in our Plymouth Rock origin story. It comes to us wrapped in the trappings of turkey and stuffing, the...
Letter to the editor: We are not a Christian nation
We are not a Christian nation. Evangelicals use biblical verses to justify the cruelty and crimes against the poor and homeless in this county. For years, Republicans screamed about shifting wealth distribution to lower wage earners. Instead, since President Reagan, shifts in wealth distribution has been to the top 0.1%...
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich: Giving thanks can be an act of unity
Two stories anchor our oldest holiday. Both took place in times of division and deprivation. And both offer a hopeful note about who we can be when we try. The first, of course, unfolds in Plymouth, Mass., in 1621. After a devastating first winter that wiped out nearly half the...
Elizabeth Kosmetatou: Britain’s arrogance in exporting the disgraced former Duke of York
The British have, at long last, cast away Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — and rightly so. His shockingly parasitic existence, alleged sexual and financial misconduct, association with Jeffrey Epstein, evasions and astonishing lack of remorse have rendered him an embarrassment even by the indulgent standards of hereditary privilege. But now, having decided...
Letter to the editor: Lies about Democrats and immigrant health care
With so much misinformation out there, it’s no surprise that many people are reaching incorrect conclusions. The letter “Democrats need to put Americans first” (Nov. 10) repeats one of the biggest whoppers by claiming that Democrats supported the shutdown to maintain and increase massive health benefits and subsidies for immigrants....
Letter to the editor: Capitalism vs. socialism
The USA was founded as a democratic republic based on the Bill of Rights, personal freedoms, limited government and Judeo-Christian principles, but certainly not the hate speech, violence, lies and secularism so prevalent by today’s politicians, protesters, letter-writers and media talking heads. How well have our capitalist, small government policies...
Editorial: Why should a transit authority have to pay for the privilege of being heard?
In a representative democracy, the people pick their lawmakers. The lawmakers then decide what laws to enact. Over time, there has been an added layer. Lobbyists go to the lawmakers to advocate for their causes. Sometimes those causes are for things like cancer research or the environment. Sometimes they are...
