Opinion category, Page 708
Walter Williams: Fraud in higher education
This year’s education scandal saw parents shelling out megabucks to gain college admittance for their children. Federal prosecutors have charged more than 50 people with participating in a scheme to get their children into colleges by cheating on entrance exams or bribing coaches and administrators. As disgusting as this grossly...
Editorial: High stakes bidding at the lottery
Hiring someone for a job is not as simple as putting a “help wanted” sign in the front window. Especially not when the job is about handling the billions running in and out of the Pennsylvania lottery system. But does it really have to be as complicated as it has...
Letter to the editor: Dismayed by ‘Apologies’ letter
I was somewhat dismayed after reading Steven Crichley’s letter “Apologies for being old, white, straight, conservative, Christian male” (Nov. 12, TribLIVE). It is nothing more than a thinly veiled assault on anyone who may not share the values of the writer, especially if he or she happens to be a...
Letter to the editor: Government is broken
Let’s face it: The government of the United States is hopelessly broken. There maybe no recovering from the damage to its structure. The impeachment hearings are a Democratic ruse to capture the House and Senate in the next election, along with the presidency. Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t vote...
Letter to the editor: Explanation needed for human condition
No one has been able to understand or explain the human condition. We see, but the light and dark of each day cloud our vision. Is there an explanation for the human condition? Is an answer on the horizon? The human condition is a riddle, whose weight no human scale...
Donald Boudreaux: What does decline in labor-force participation mean?
Imagine that overnight every American’s wealth doubles. From Jeff Bezos to the poorest indigent, imagine that each American today can afford to consume twice as many goods and services as that person could afford to consume yesterday. Making accurate specific predictions about what changes in people’s behavior we’d observe is...
Dr. Arvind Venkat: Patient-centric approach to ending surprise medical billing
Congress now has several options on the table when it comes to ending surprise medical billing, an issue that has for too long hit vulnerable patients and their families with high, unexpected costs. However, not all of these solutions are made equally. In fact, some could make things substantially worse,...
Lori Falce: Blaming moms for screen time
Screen time can be the measure of a good parent. At least, that is what you might think if you spend much time on parenting websites. Screen time — the amount of time your child spends with evil modern devices like cellphones and tablets and video games and sometimes even...
Laurels & lances: Tradition, cruelty, trespassing and questions
Laurel: To a new spin on an old tradition. If you don’t see “It’s a Wonderful Life,” can you even say that Christmas has happened? Let’s not find out. Luckily, the Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media’s recent closing of Regent Square Theater, where the Frank Capra classic was annually...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland County Democratic leadership lacking
Just weeks after the elections that saw a GOP majority retake the Westmoreland County leadership, county row offices and most of the open judge seats where Democratic candidates were not listed on both tickets, the county Democratic Party is posting about the impeachment trial and Donald Trump Jr.’s book tour...
Letter to the editor: Dem candidates, impeachment
Who will represent the Democrats/socialists in 2020? It appears that as soon as a candidate drops out, three others jump in. Even Hillary said several friends want her to run again. Other than her daughter and husband, I wonder who those people are? Hillary just can’t accept the fact that...
Letter to the editor: Our Chinese investment
Last month marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Does anyone know what exactly led to that occasion? In a recent speech at Hillsdale College, Roger W. Robinson Jr. reminded those in attendance how in 1982, during the Cold War, “the Soviets had an empire stretching from...
Editorial: Money can’t buy involvement
There is often a sad lament for the way things used to be in our communities. We look for ways to recapture the days when downtown bustled and the kids were active, when there was less graffiti and more social grace. We wonder how we can have that back. We...
Letter to the editor: Excellent columnists
I want to commend both Lori Falce and George Guido for their excellent columns. Guido does a terrific job with his Look Back columns and all of his sports and Valley news. Falce is an intelligent and thoughtful writer. I really enjoy both of these columnists. All in all, the...
Letter to the editor: Tired of Democrats’ letters
The letter from Ed Svitek (“Trump deserved World Series boos,” Nov. 13, TribLIVE) was enough for me. I, and many other readers, are sick and tired of the repeated letters from frustrated Democrats who just can’t accept the 2016 elections. Give us a break, please! Svitek’s letter mentioned all the...
Colin McNickle: New day ahead for Westmoreland transit
The new year will bring a major change in how the Westmoreland County Transit Authority (WCTA) operates. Instead of contracting out the operation of buses it owns, as it has for the past four decades, the authority will operate the mass transit agency itself, a la the Port Authority of...
Pat Buchanan: Let the people decide Trump’s fate
Was there linkage between the withholding of U.S. military aid and the U.S. demand for a Ukrainian state investigation of the Bidens? “Was there a quid pro quo?” This question has bedeviled Washington for months now. “The answer is yes,” said U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland in sworn...
Mark DeSantis: The importance of getting political appointments right
Upon taking office, President George Washington promised to hire people “as shall be the best qualified.” We are struggling to meet that standard and with serious consequences. Today, the federal government is the world’s most powerful and complex bureaucracy within the world’s largest economy and includes, among other things, armed...
Lauren Mishoe: Federal plans would deprive patients of top-tier drugs
Diabetes is an epidemic in Pennsylvania. About one in 10 local adults lives with the disease. And the burden is growing: Roughly 3.5 million state residents are “pre-diabetic,” meaning their blood glucose levels put them at severe risk of developing diabetes later in life. The majority of these folks —...
Editorial: Sextortion shows criminal evolution
Crime doesn’t like to sit still. It doesn’t achieve a goal, take a break and retire, content that it has run its race. No, crime is a lot like modern business. It wants to see growth. It wants to expand its reach. It wants to find new product lines and...
Letter to the editor: On impeachment, no courage in the Senate
The authority of the U.S. Constitution fades as sections dealing with impeachment are ignored by President Trump and his Republican allies. Trump gets away with abusing power by ordering witnesses with firsthand knowledge of his impeachable acts — Bolton, Pompeo, Mulvaney, McGahn, Giuliani — to ignore subpoenas by smearing those...
Letter to the editor: Impeachment hearings are a coup attempt
These impeachment hearings are basically the Democrats trying to damage a Republican presidential candidate who they say tried to get information on a Democratic presidential candidate for his vice presidential threat to cut off aid if Ukraine didn’t fire a prosecutor . Also, Joe Biden’s son got a board position...
Tom Purcell: OK boomer — there’s hope for the future
I don’t blame millennials and Gen Z for mocking baby boomers with the trending “OK boomer” meme. I’ve had my issues with baby boomers, too. “OK boomer,” dictionary.com reports, “is a viral internet slang phrase used, often in a humorous or ironic manner, to call out or dismiss out-of-touch or...
Jonah Goldberg: ‘Deep state’ contagion has spread beyond impeachment
The deep state is the right’s new bogeyman. I’d wager that until fairly recently, few people had ever heard the phrase. I’d also bet that roughly 99% of those who fling the term around have no idea that it’s borrowed from Turkish politics. The idea of a deep state, or...
Editorial: Pay attention to all domestic violence
A couple has a fight. A couple has an ugly fight. Someone ends up in the emergency room. Police are called. Charges are filed. It isn’t a new story or a particularly surprising one. It happens every day — often several times a day. And this time, people are paying...
