Letter to the editor: What Springdale data center portends
All Alle-Kiski Valley residents get their electricity from the same power grid. Therefore, everyone’s rates will rise if the data center in Springdale is approved. Data centers consume as much energy as a small city, necessitating additional grid infrastructure. If this project is approved, we will all be forced to...
Colin McNickle: Revitalizing the Pittsburgh Land Bank
Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Public Schools signed an intergovernmental cooperation agreement (ICA) on Nov. 19 designed to breathe new life into the long moribund Pittsburgh Land Bank (PLB). And while the agreement grants the land bank broad new powers, including access to sheriff’s sales, a researcher...
Katy Butler: Why do so many people cut Ghislaine Maxwell so much slack?
I heard about the special prison favors granted Ghislaine Maxwell while I was reading “Nobody’s Girl” by Virginia Giuffre, one of her reported victims. The most poignant moment is not the first time Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein allegedly sexually violated her. It’s the morning before, when Giuffre sits at the...
Letter to the editor: Money blown on new park could fund Hempfield firefighters
Regarding the article “3-mill tax hike to fund Hempfield fire departments under consideration” (Nov 20, TribLive): This is going to be short and sweet. You all should have used money you are blowing on the park between Cedar Street and Mt. Pleasant Road. With Twin Lakes, St. Clair Park and...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s tariffs
Regarding the letter “A businessman in the White House” (Nov. 4, TribLive): The first time around, I too, thought that maybe a president with a non-
political background could be good for the country. Someone not beholden to others or tainted by the political processes. Boy, was I wrong, but that’s...
Editorial: For too many American kids, math isn’t adding up
Math scores in the U.S. have been so bad for so long that teachers could be forgiven for trying anything to improve them. Unfortunately, many of the strategies they’re using could be making things worse. It’s a crisis decades in the making. In the early 20th century, education reformers including...
Letter to the editor: Republicans may need the filibuster
I usually agree with President Trump, but Republicans should not do away with the filibuster. The Republicans would be very short-sighted to do this. Now the Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency, but the Democrats shut down the government. It was a bad thing they did, but...
Letter to the editor: Where’s the outrage over deaths of transgender people?
I recently attended a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) meeting where I took part in a ceremony for the Transgender Day
of Remembrance, observed Nov. 20. I cannot begin to express the depth of emotion I felt as we moved around the room, each of us reading...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Nov. 24
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Nov. 24....
Editorial cartoons for the week of Nov. 24
Editorial cartoons for the week of Nov. 24....
Letter to the editor: We’re not living up to ideals of Thanksgiving
America’s early pilgrims set aside certain days to offer thanks, prayer and fasting to our heavenly father for the blessings and opportunities afforded them. In 1789, at the request of Congress, President George Washington declared Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by...
Editorial: Big money, big batteries and big questions
A manufacturing company wants to expand. It makes announcements. And when the big news comes, there is another disclosure. The federal government is along for the ride. That might sounds like the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel deal that included a “golden share” specifically controlled by President Donald Trump. It also describes...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Thanksgiving lessons from the American Revolution
It is good that “The American Revolution,” a series by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, premiered on PBS the week before Thanksgiving. It is good to be reminded of the sacrifices that were made to form this nation. Among the many lessons from the series, two are especially...
Rep. Chris Deluzio: All patriots must condemn political violence
This week, President Donald Trump threatened my life because he did not like the constitutional truths I spoke. Threats of political violence are not how we solve disagreements in the United States of America. Those threats incite violence, and it only snowballs from there. But know this: I will not...
Point: Thankful for keeping politics to yourself
There is a familiar saying that you can choose your friends but not your family. For most of the year, that fact can feel like a blessing and a curse. During the holidays, when we squeeze around crowded tables, eat more than we should, and bring many personalities into one...
Counterpoint: The holiday meal is a great place for political discussion
My family will be shocked when they read this piece. One of them might even call and suggest I am a victim of identity theft, and I should proceed with caution. For almost three decades, I have explicitly ruled out political talk at our holiday meals. Our gathering is huge...
Lauren Beitelspacher: Beware retailers’ new return policies
’Tis the season for giving — and that means ’tis the season for shopping. Maybe you’ll splurge on a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal, thinking, “I’ll just return it if they don’t like it.” But before you click “buy,” it’s worth knowing that many retailers have quietly tightened their...
Letter to the editor: Trump continues to show lack of grace, dignity
One could never have imagined the president of the United States calling a female news reporter “Piggy” in his non-answer to her legitimate question about the Epstein files. But that is what Donald Trump did recently. Every president faces sharp questions from the press. Every other president in my long...
Letter to the editor: Without courage to take ownership of words, they’re meaningless
As usual I have a lot to rebut from the pro-MAGA Trumpers who write here. I don’t have the space to do it this month, so I will just do a general all-encompassing disagreement. I find the folks who write here in support of President Trump and his actions to...
Editorial: Pennsylvania’s CROWN Act protects identities and restores hope
Imagine one of the most defining aspects of who you are. Maybe it’s your eye color or your height. Maybe it’s your name or your blood type or your language. Whatever it is, it’s part of what makes you distinctly you. And the law says it is OK for you...
Letter to the editor: Community solar with guaranteed savings
Want an option for energy but can’t afford the upfront cost of individually owned solar? Community solar might be the answer. Community solar would provide solar energy with guaranteed savings for all who subscribe to it. It builds on Pennsylvania’s history of being an energy leader. It creates dual-use opportunities...
Letter to the editor: Our legislators have forgotten how to compromise
Although the Pennsylvania budget is finally a done deal (after 143 days) and the federal government is operating (after 43 days), we the voters need to remember the perfectly pitiful job that our legislators performed during this time. Both state and federal representatives were being paid while not doing their...
S.E. Cupp: Can MAGA go any lower defending Donald Trump?
I remember it well. It was Oct. 7, 2016, a Friday. That afternoon The Washington Post dropped a bombshell, the perfect October surprise, just a month before the presidential election. Earlier in the week, Hillary Clinton had been hammering Donald Trump on the news that he may not have paid...
Letter to the editor: We need community pharmacies
For 100-plus years, independent retail, or community, pharmacies have been the backbone of small, rural communities. Unlike chain pharmacies, independent community pharmacies are small, personal and family-oriented. When you walk into an independent community pharmacy, the staff know you by name and they know your family; they know the inner...
Dr. Robert R. Redfield: We need an urgent and unified response to the coming Alzheimer’s crisis
In the early 1980s, men and women in the prime of their lives began arriving at Walter Reed Medical Center, wrecked by a disease for which we had no name, no cause and no hope. As an infectious disease doctor there, I saw patient after patient bedridden and dying by...
