Featured Commentary category, Page 29

Voracious popular culture connoisseur that I am, I have been avidly following the drama surrounding pop icon Lizzo. As an academic who teaches race, gender and sexuality studies, for me, the story has all the intersectional elements that make for a riveting story. Over the past couple of weeks, the...

The Biden administration is transferring $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea to an account in Qatar, which Iran will be able to access, in what appears to be an attempt to get Iran to release five imprisoned Americans. National Security Communications Coordinator John Kirby offered this twisted...

In my role at PENN Entertainment, I am charged with ensuring our company meets the appropriately high standards required to earn and retain a gaming license in every jurisdiction in which we operate. At our four properties across the commonwealth, we aren’t simply running casinos — we are providing an...

Trust is always harder to build than to destroy, and that’s true for financial markets, too. The U.S. has borrowed tens of trillions of dollars and promised to pay it back, but investors have become increasingly skeptical. On Aug. 1, U.S. debt received a downgrade, meaning the Treasury appears less...

I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees this — that we keep making the same mistakes, over and over again. Ours is a country in which many amazing and good things have taken place and which continue to happen. A pandemic strikes and a vaccine is developed in...

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the new chairman of the National Governors Association, is promoting the idea of “healthy conflict.” Cox has become concerned about the growing problem of toxic arguments in society. As The Washington Post reports, Cox wants people to learn how to “disagree better.” We should all try...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ambitious tailpipe emissions standards may be partly canceled out by emissions earlier in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, said panelists at a RealClearEnergy webinar last Wednesday. On April 12, the EPA unveiled new vehicle emissions standards under the Clean Air Act that would mandate...

The human capacity for processing information is limited. People running for office who recognize this and adapt their campaign messages accordingly usually do better than those who don’t. It’s not that the voters are dumb; far from it. In the years since the end of World War II, the federal...

One of the advantages to a change in majority in one or both houses of Congress is that the public gets to see what the other party won’t address or has been covering up. Such was the case last week when Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., held a forum in Escondido,...

The Pittsburgh Penguins orchestrated the highest profile trade of the off-season by snatching Erik Karlsson, the 2023 Norris Trophy winner, from the San Jose Sharks. The hope is that with their group of talented but aging stars, Pittsburgh has one last opportunity to compete for a Stanley Cup before their...

Conservatives are often hesitant to criticize other conservatives. Florida issued its guidelines for teaching history last month, including a set of standards that covered the issue of slavery in grades 6-8. It’s likely that what happened next would have been a big yawn for most folks, until Vice President Kamala...

Editor’s note: The following op-ed, which first appeared in The American Spectator, is excerpted from a speech delivered by the author at Grove City College’s Institute for Faith & Freedom on June 6. Of the nearly 80 people since Alexander Hamilton to hold the office of secretary of the Treasury...

TORKIV, Ukraine — At the entrance to the village cemetery, where they buried Vasyl Pushkar, stands a tall, gray stone marker. The stone is engraved with an Orthodox cross and the words ” Holodomor, 1932-33,” a memorial to the 4 million or more Ukrainian peasants who were starved to death...

The threat posed by climate change has never been more apparent. Across the country, record-breaking heat waves have battered the southwest, while ocean water temperatures in Florida have soared past 100 degrees. The smoky haze of wildfire smoke exposed Pittsburghers to unsafe levels of soot pollution. Our region measured its...

The issue of men and mental health often remains a silent crisis in our society. The reasons for this vary, though many experts attribute it to the growing number of pressures placed on men in contemporary life. Rapid transformations ranging from work, family and personal life have taken their toll...

Hollywood actors and writers are striking an industry in crisis. The dilemmas all face are a dress rehearsal for how Americans will cope with the growing gig economy and artificial intelligence. Covid-19 disrupted industries in similar ways as wars and financial crises by accelerating adjustments to new technologies and consumer...

July 31 was an important day for the Irish Center development project in Squirrel Hill, where a developer is trying to build 162 new condos on the former Irish Center site on Forward Avenue. As a member of the board of the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition (SHUC), I was one...

Among the many stories that have filled the news in recent weeks, many seem little more than echoes of pointless political bickering and posturing, requiring little substantive thought or reflection. But the case of Robert Bowers is very different. It demands our attention. As the jury has now reached its...

The website writingexplained.org reminds that it was English theologian Thomas Fuller who coined the phrase “It’s always darkest before the dawn” in 1650. “The idea behind this is related to the literal of dawn,” the website notes. “Dawn (emphasis in the original) begins when the first light begins to show...

We don’t need to imagine a future where climate change is devastating our communities — we’re living it right now. Deadly storms in Western Pennsylvania. Hotter and hotter summers. One-in-100-years floods arriving with regularity in Allegheny County. We all deserve to live in a safe climate where our children can...

The spotlight on the fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has dimmed over the past six months, but the fight for accountability and safety continues. Massive railroad corporations’ reckless pursuit of power and profit is nothing new. And without badly needed safety reform, it will be just a waiting...

In watching cable news, reading articles on the internet or listening to certain pundits, you might get the impression that Americans are greedy and selfish people. In fact it’s become good sport for the media periodically to highlight a particular “ugly American” who has shown exceptional greed and been uncaring...

We joined Congregation Dor Hadash as young parents over 30 years ago. We appreciated that the congregation was formed by a group of independent thinkers who were largely raised in the orthodox and conservative Jewish traditions. The congregational founders embraced their Judaism while striving to find new ways of applying...

Like many material icons, Barbie has had a complex history. When Mattel introduced Barbie to the public in 1959, America was beginning to enter deep into the throes of the Cold War. The modern civil rights movement was beginning to gain steam, and the nation was largely embracing the status...

It’s time to sound the alarm on early literacy in Pennsylvania. Almost half of fourth-graders across our state are reading below grade level, a challenge that exists in every corner of Pennsylvania — from urban cities to our rural communities. Research consistently has shown early literacy is critical to academic...