Letter to the editor: Book banning harms society
The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied an appeal to hear a case involving a Texas public library banning a collection of books from distribution to the public. According to USA Today, the titles involved controversial topics like slavery and LGBTQ+ issues. It was argued that “if a disappointed patron can’t...
Editorial: Oversight starts with receipts but shouldn’t stop there
When public money is spent, the people deserve to know the ins and outs. It’s encouraging to see Harrisburg lawmakers on this particular bandwagon. The state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee opted Tuesday to issue subpoenas to detail the full extent of taxpayer money used to cover certain work at Gov....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Will Pittsburgh welcome the changes it faces?
When the driverless taxi company Waymo recently announced it would be coming to Pittsburgh, the news was met with cautious skepticism by some of my old-timer friends. Pittsburghers are generally slow to embrace change, remaining loyal to the reliable past, and it may take a minute for us to accept...
Counterpoint: We need to cool our political tempers — and we can
Most Americans would be overjoyed if politicians and political activists would cool their rhetoric. Despite the claims of activists on both the left and right, all policy questions aren’t “life or death,” and those on the “other side” aren’t necessarily ignorant and evil. Although political conflict is inevitable, we each...
Point: The increase in polarization mirrors the growth of government
Politicians and policy experts like to talk about the “root causes” of crime, homelessness, poverty, rising prices and other problems. If they want to understand the root cause of political polarization, they might want to consider the whole picture and look in the mirror. In a book published 40 years...
Jesse Fairbanks, Kaelin Rapport and Isha Weerasinghe: Encampments criminalize the unhoused
In early September, officials in Utah announced a plan to build an encampment just outside Salt Lake City where up to 1,300 people experiencing homelessness would be forced to receive treatment for mental health challenges. Unhoused people who refuse to stay in this state-run facility could instead end up in...
Letter to the editor: Is the NFL rigged?
After watching the latest Steelers vs. Ravens game, one cannot resist the question, “Is the NFL rigged?” I tune in to watch NFL football to crown a legitimate champion at season’s end, not a scripted soap opera being controlled from league replay officials in New York going way out of...
Editorial: Rough water ahead for Pittsburgh’s 2026 budget
Is Pittsburgh’s spending plan for 2026 in good shape — or is it steering into the rocks? “I’m not denying a thin margin for error,” said Jake Pawlak, deputy mayor under Mayor Ed Gainey and head of the Office of Management and Budget. A “thin margin for error” is not...
Letter to the editor: Penn State football will rise again
Due to the dismissal of James Franklin as Penn State’s head football coach, almost all of the 2026 recruits have deserted Penn State and gone to other schools. Most notably, many of them will join Franklin, the new head coach at Virginia Tech. I think they are making a big...
S.E. Cupp: Donald Trump is becoming Joe Biden version 2.0
In the year since Democrats lost the 2024 election, with Donald Trump beating then-Vice President Kamala Harris in all seven swing states, they’ve struggled to admit exactly what went wrong. It wasn’t one thing. For starters, President Biden got precipitously older in the last two years of his presidency, often...
Cal Thomas: The plan to save Congress for the GOP
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says she has a plan for keeping Congress in Republican hands in next year’s midterm elections. In an interview with the online show “The Mom View,” Wiles said she hasn’t informed the president about her plan but said it involves putting him on...
Letter to the editor: Marijuana as medicine
A good journalist explores all material relating to his story. I believe Kevin A. Sabet did not. In his counterpoint op-ed “Cannabis is not medicine and never has been” (Nov. 15, TribLive), he stated that cannabis is not medicine and never has been. Wrong! In a 2015 article in Forbes,...
Letter to the editor: A national celebration for Trump’s birthday?
The article “National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth, adds Trump’s birthday” (TribLive, Dec. 6) on President Trump replacing MLK Day and Juneteenth free admissions at national parks with his own birthday says soothingly, “Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued...
Lori Falce: America needs a bar of soap — and not just for Ralphie
One of the best moments in one of the best holiday movies of all time is when Ralphie is helping his dad change a tire in “A Christmas Story.” When the hubcap he is holding is jostled, sending the nuts flying, the 9-year-old’s world slows down as he says a...
Laurels & lances: Selling & settling
Laurel: To opening doors. The announcements about Pittsburgh hosting the 2026 NFL Draft were filled with predictions about the opportunities for area businesses. Those predictions started to pay off this week as Pittsburgh vendors had the chance to get in on the conversation. The NFL’s Source Program brought local entrepreneurs...
Letter to the editor: Rooneys, make us proud again
I’ll bet the Chief is turning over in his grave. How can anyone be happy with a constant mediocre team? Penn State saw their football team was never going to win it all; every year, losing to Ohio State and Michigan. They were brave enough to do what was needed....
Bryan L. Kline: Religious freedom behind bars — the unfinished story of Kort Noel Eckman
The recent developments at the Westmoreland County Prison granting inmate Kort Noel Eckman limited access to kosher meals and allowing him to wear a yarmulke in court, while a welcome step forward, are but a partial remedy to a deeper, systemic failure. Eckman’s ordeal lays bare a troubling contradiction in...
Jonah Goldberg: Things are about to get worse for Mike Johnson
Here’s a conundrum for Republican politicians going into 2026, and even 2028. What do you do when you’ve turned the GOP into a Trump-branded, populist, anti-establishment party but your party controls the government and it’s not going very well? One time-tested answer: ritual human sacrifice. Which is why the next...
Letter to the editor: Mary and Joseph traveled for census, not taxation
Regarding the letter “The real Christmas story” (Dec. 3, TribLive): First, Mary and Joseph didn’t travel to Bethlehem to be taxed; it was a “census” that the Roman government conducted every five years. This information is taken from the Office for National Statistics and also from Ask Historians. They traveled...
Letter to the editor: Thoughts on two recent letters
Regarding the letter “The real Christmas story” (Dec. 3, TribLive): I commend the author for his diligence in researching history and successfully distorting every event he cites. He can pat himself on the back for joining a select club who have “de-bunked” Catholicism, and Christianity in general. I wonder how...
Letter to the editor: Will what goes around, come around, for Trump?
Have you heard the expression “what goes around, comes around”? It was one of my grandmother’s favorite pieces of wisdom. Donald Trump and his henchmen would do well to heed this. I believe Trump has trampled our Constitution and forced his personal preferences on the American people. He’s declared President...
Editorial: Penn State choices made union push inevitable
Penn State faculty are not unionized. That could change soon. If the university’s leadership doesn’t like that, it’s their own fault. The Penn State Faculty Alliance turned in thousands of union authorization cards to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. While imprecise, that’s still a considerable chunk of the university’s 7,498...
Silvia Rodriguez Vega: Barney, Big Bird and immigrant children need you
Barney the purple dinosaur was my first English teacher. Through songs, make-believe and games, I learned how to greet people, ask kids if they wanted to play and talk about the weather, which turned out to be useful for conversation in the United States. I also learned about sharing, respecting...
Peter Morici: Fed should tap the brakes, not hit the gas
After cutting interest rates in September and October, the Federal Reserve should pause at its December meeting — the jobs market isn’t in crisis but inflation remains menacingly high. By the summer of 2023, the economy was at full employment but continued to grow robustly. From September 2023 to December...
Letter to the editor: Will the Steelers ever be respectable again?
For many years now, the Pittsburgh Steelers have become a .500 team under the coaching of Mike Tomlin. Tomlin inherited a Super Bowl team from Bill Cowher — period! Tomlin has turned the team into a .500 team. That’s good enough for him, but not for us, the fans. Since...
