Featured Commentary category, Page 14

One of the leading causes of death in the United States is preventable medical error. Despite the remarkable advancements in medical technology and the tireless efforts of health care professionals, preventable medical errors persist at an alarming rate. According to a study published in the BMJ (formerly known as the...

Like cities across the country, Pittsburgh faces lost revenue with American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars running out this year and a plunge in office building occupancy rates and commercial property values resulting from the post-covid spike in teleworking. As the city considers its response to this one-two punch, leaders must...

Learning from your mistakes isn’t just something that applies to your personal life — it’s a core lesson of political science. Ten years before the Framers of our Constitution gathered in Philadelphia to draft a new governing document, they adopted the Articles of Confederation. Our Founding Fathers were so assured...

The Chinese Communist Party in Beijing is nervous — and it ought to be. The U.S. Congress has targeted a significant tool that the CCP uses to spread disinformation among Americans, and the rulers in Beijing are not happy about it. The House has voted to require TikTok to be...

The recent move by the House of Representatives to advance legislation forcing ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok represents a potentially alarming infringement on our fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Despite national security concerns, coercing the divestment of TikTok sets a dangerous precedent that undermines the principles...

I knew it was only a matter of time before segments of the right-wing media, both here in America and in Britain, would reignite their propaganda/outrage machine toward Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan has been urged to defend her sister-in-law, Princess Kate, after she found herself at the...

In early March, two of the three Westmoreland County commissioners announced that they would not consider installing a ballot drop box anywhere in the county in 2024, despite doing so in each election year since 2020. The commissioners claim that drop boxes in recent elections weren’t getting enough use. But...

I was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel. On the evening of Nov. 4, 1995, I attended a rally there to support Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s peace initiative. At the end of the rally, an ultranationalist assassinated Rabin. The next morning, an IDF soldier I was speaking with insisted that...

With apologies to Allen Ginsberg: I am seeing the best minds of our middle- school generation destroyed by Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and iPhones, Teenagers on the cusp of young adulthood dragging themselves out of bed each day to mainline TikTok and Snapchat. Measuring themselves by the yardstick of uber-filtered Kardashian perfection...

Who do you want to be when you grow old? Increasingly, senior citizens decide to keep working, including the two front-runners for the 2024 presidential election. Because many Americans consider the candidates too old for the job, age has become part of the national conversation. Both Joe Biden, 81, and...

Tensions between the leaders of Israel and the U.S. have boiled over, with President Joe Biden accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of doing more to harm than help his own country. These are harsh words to hear from your most important ally, and Biden went further still. He described the...

As the United States continues to confront the opioid crisis, a comprehensive strategy that includes robust support for addiction treatment and recovery services is critical. The opioid epidemic has devastated communities across the nation, leaving a trail of destruction that demands an effective, multifaceted response. Central to this approach is...

As a Donald Trump/Joe Biden rematch comes into focus, we find ourselves at an important crossroads. The decisions Biden makes between now and the election will impact not only his electoral viability, but also America’s energy independence. Biden has focused on our commonwealth early and often, already visiting Pennsylvania three...

Ordinarily, the days leading up to Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims give up food and drink from dawn to dusk, are exuberant. My younger children and I would prepare “iftar jars” and food baskets with Ramadan staples, such as dates, nuts and apricot paste, to hand out to neighbors....

Recently released government data hammered home what we have known for at least a year: A national housing shortage, not broad-based price increases, is driving inflation. Inflation over the past year was 3.1% — far less than in 2021 but still high enough for the Federal Reserve to keep interest...

Let’s make a few things crystal clear right up front. First and foremost, green beer has always been a bad choice and is without any saving grace. I also doubt that even St. Patrick in his prime could drive all the political snakes out of today’s Washington. The history of...

Inflation has come down, but not enough for voters to stop complaining about high prices. Since President Joe Biden took office, the economy has recovered from the covid-19 pandemic shutdowns and is now advancing, just as economists expected in 2019 before the pandemic was on the horizon. The rub is...

The Kate Middleton photo debacle is an unforced error from a person usually seen as picture, and princess, perfect. Yes, Catherine, Princess of Wales, apologized on social media Monday for “any confusion” over the image manipulation that led five major news agencies to recall the family photo the royals had...

Deepfakes of celebrities and misinformation about public figures might not be new in 2024, but they are more common and many people seem to grow ever more resigned that they are inevitable. The problems posed by false online content extend far beyond public figures, impacting everyone, including youth. New York...

A recent editorial and article about the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse overlook some key aspects of sovereign immunity and why damages caps are a necessary taxpayer protection. The bridge collapse was indeed a tragedy, but to suggest that the city would have repaired the bridge if caps on lawsuits against...

We need to fix our broken border and immigration system. Period. Like so many of my Democratic colleagues, I have been ready to work with our Republican counterparts to restore order, help local communities and bring some sanity to our immigration system. But guess what? Do-nothing Washington Republicans have killed...

When some people appear beyond help because of addiction or other circumstances they can’t control, family members have been known to stage an intervention. Congress and President Biden need an intervention as their addiction to spending exceeds anything seen in history. In his State of the Union address last week,...

A pending case before the Supreme Court, United States v. Rahimi, addresses the broad question of Second Amendment interpretation and how closely the nation’s laws should be compared to the way firearms were regulated in 1791. For example, making it illegal for the mentally ill and felons to own guns...

Historically viewed as a fringe belief system, Christian nationalism has become a considerable force in American politics, particularly as it relates to the current Republican Party. A new survey from Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution revealed more than 50% of Republicans believe the country should aspire to...

“That’s the wrong question.” In the most recent season of “True Detective,” Jodie Foster plays a detective in Alaska. Her character has a knack for pushing other officers to ask better questions about the complex case in their hands. Unsurprisingly, it annoys the heck out of her colleagues. Also unsurprisingly,...