Featured Commentary category, Page 27

A recent decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit puts in jeopardy one of the few tools that exist to deal with false speech on the internet. The court ruled that the White House, the FBI, the surgeon general’s office and the...

Hunter Biden, the surviving son of President Joe Biden, was indicted Sept. 14 on gun-related charges — facing a possible criminal trial while his father is campaigning for reelection. The charges relate to Hunter’s alleged lying about his drug use when he purchased a gun in 2018. And a conviction...

There was a time in bygone America when calling someone a “hypocrite” or claiming they were guilty of hypocrisy was equivalent to branding them with a scarlet letter or the mark of Cain. Today, in an era of opinion polls, trendsetting and ever-shifting political winds, hypocrisy means little to nothing....

The city of Phoenix set heat records in summer 2023, with high temperatures that topped 110 degrees for 31 consecutive days and at least 54 days in total. In such conditions, providing basic services — including cool spaces — for people experiencing homelessness is lifesaving. In 2022, 420 people —...

Homeless villages under highway overpasses and tent camps in other public spaces create the appearance of a new epidemic, but historically, homelessness has been endemic to urban America. In the late 19th century, skid rows appeared in New York and other cities, where flop houses sheltered up to 75,000 people...

In Pittsburgh, 2023 is on track to be the deadliest in recent memory for people walking in our city. In 2022, according to the City’s own data, 25 people died in car crashes within city boundaries. The transportation sector, including the cars and trucks we drive, is now the largest...

Picture this: A family of four earns $50,000 a year but spends $69,000 a year. This seems unsustainable, right? That’s because it is. Yet, the federal government does that every day — in the trillions of dollars — all with your money. This year, President Biden presented Congress with a...

It appears some Republican donors are really concerned that presidential candidate Tim Scott, South Carolina’s junior senator, is a 57-year-old bachelor — and whatever implications that may entail. Top party donors are raising concerns about the fact the conservative Black senator has never been married. and want some of their...

For years, we have lamented the spike in college costs and accompanying student debt bloat while we teach high schoolers to covet admittance to a tiny sliver of prestigious universities — ones that refuse to enlarge incoming class sizes despite endowments the size of some small countries’ gross domestic product....

A movement to weaken American child labor protections at the state level began in 2022. By June 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New Hampshire had enacted this kind of legislation, and lawmakers in at least another eight states had introduced similar measures. The laws generally make it easier for...

Across the country, communities are struggling to respond to the opioid crisis, some with broader access to medical strategies and more treatment programs. Yet the national overdose death rate continues to rise, with opioid deaths in 2022 remaining at an all-time high. There are, of course, many causes of addiction,...

Seriously folks. Maybe we Republicans better stop banging on President Biden for the serious cognitive issues he obviously has. Unless we hold the players on our own team responsible for their cognitive issues, we have to stop harping on the obvious mental declines of Biden, Sen. John Fetterman and Diane...

A sea of overjoyed fans draped in black and gold as far as the eye could see was on its feet, pushing PNC Park to capacity on a crisp October afternoon. This was the atmosphere I faked a doctor’s appointment to enjoy during my sophomore year of high school in...

If one is mixing chemicals, getting the formula wrong can produce disastrous results. It is the same with international diplomacy. For decades the left was wrong about the Soviet Union and China, believing that what the U.S. did or did not do would have a positive influence on communist dictators...

Are democratic societies ready for a future in which AI algorithmically assigns limited supplies of respirators or hospital beds during pandemics? Or one in which AI fuels an arms race between disinformation creation and detection? Or sways court decisions with amicus briefs written to mimic the rhetorical and argumentative styles...

As state treasurer, one of my top priorities is returning unclaimed property to its rightful owners. Right now, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department is working to return more than $4.5 billion to hardworking people across the commonwealth. In fact, about one in 10 Pennsylvanians has money waiting. I encourage everyone to...

When it comes to climate change, sometimes it feels like we can’t see the forest for the trees — the smoldering, wildfire-ravaged trees. Public attention has been consumed this summer by shocking climate impacts. Acrid wildfire smoke has blighted skylines and polluted the air in nearly every region of the...

The Oxford Dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” Throughout history, the world has been slow to recognize or respond to genocide, and in some cases unwilling to...

Don’t be overly fooled by recent seemingly rosy jobs data. Yes, the U.S. economy added 187,000 jobs in August 2023 — faster than the revised 157,000 increase for July and above most analysts’ expectations for the month. And yes, gains were seen across most industries, with health care and social...

Among people, mostly Republicans, who remain the most suspicious of the 2020 presidential election results, there’s something of a movement to return to the days when election ballots in the United States were counted by hand. One 67,000-person county in Georgia recently required a hand count of all ballots, for...

U.S. senators and representatives returning from their summer vacations will need to shake off their suntans in quick time and get down to business. Congress has just 11 days when it’s in session before the next federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 And in that time, it will need...

As segments of the nation remembered the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, we simultaneously witnessed another horrendous, senseless act of racially sadistic violence occur in Jacksonville, Fla. Armed with an AR-15 and a handgun decorated with a swastika, 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmiter carried out a racist mass...

On Aug. 15, researchers with the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced they had found strong links between lymphoma and fracking, as well as asthma and fracking. Lymphoma was found to be 5-7 times as common in people who lived near fracking well pads as those...

America is home to a strong and storied labor movement that has fought many battles to empower workers and protect the rights of hard-working families. That includes in the proud union town of Pittsburgh, where I’m marching today in one of the oldest and largest Labor Day parades in the...

Sometimes, spurring the cavalry to saddle up is a matter of poking the right rumps. In response to Lackawanna County Department of Health and Human Services Director Bill Browning’s desperate plea for help staffing his desolate Office of Youth and Family Services, state officials said consultants — free agents who...