Featured Commentary category, Page 35

It’s not easy becoming a teacher in Pennsylvania. I should know. I’ve been working on becoming one for three years. I’ve seen fellow education majors come and go, some lured to other job prospects with more earning potential, others deterred by cynical political efforts to turn parents and communities against...

Should a health-care program for low-income seniors, the disabled, kids and pregnant mothers be co-opted by hundreds of thousands of healthy adults? Adults not even eligible for assistance? Since March 2020, that’s been the reality for the Medicaid program. But this spring, states regained their ability — for the first...

On April 12, Pittsburgh City Council held a post agenda and public hearing on the Spin e-scooter pilot, which launched in 2021, to hear how the program is affecting city residents. The contrast in testimony was notable. People who use the scooters love them as a fun and convenient way...

The human brain is hard-wired for spoken language, but we are not born with the natural ability to read. The skills that lead students to become competent, lifelong readers must be explicitly and systematically taught at a young age with ample opportunity for practice and improvement. Nearly half of Pennsylvania’s...

The Jezebel of the Republican Party is at it again. Just when you thought that she could not get any more disingenuous and despicable, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene engaged in some wild intellectual dishonesty by accusing New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of calling her the equivalent of the N-word....

It’s been a while since we’ve heard the kind of optimism contained in Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s announcement of a presidential run. Usually, it is gloom and doom, racism, white supremacy, claims that Republicans want to eliminate Social Security and the rest of the left’s depressing litany. Scott...

Policymakers across the country this year have been laser focused on reining in social media companies, especially as it relates to their impact on children. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told CNN that he believes 13 is “too early” for kids to join social media websites and apps, and U.S....

For decades, many American politicians saw a path to electoral victory through a combination of racist fear-mongering and harsh, punitive criminal law policies. From the infamous Willie Horton ad to “super-predators” to three strikes laws and the prison-industrial complex, this political strategy by both Democrats and Republicans fueled a multi-generational...

It’s official. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is running for president. The first thing you should know is that Scott is one of the nicest guys in Washington. Capitol Hill Republicans and just about anybody who knows him likes him. Sincerely patriotic and devoutly Christian, Scott is most comfortable preaching,...

Pennsylvania has long been the economic engine that has powered our nation’s prosperity. However, we still see some of the effects of bygone practices from a lack of environmental and health regulations in communities across our commonwealth today. The commonwealth leads the nation in abandoned mine lands (AML). These are...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and Pennsylvania’s children need support now more than ever. Taking care of their physical health is one of the very first things we teach children. We all remember our parents telling us, or telling our own children, to look both ways before crossing...

Last summer, my grandmother passed away after years of living with Alzheimer’s disease. If you’ve lost a loved one to this disease or know someone who has, then you’re familiar with the long and cruel journey both the patient and their families have walked. I want to say thank you...

Everyone in Pennsylvania, from here in Pittsburgh to Erie, Scranton, Philly and everywhere in between deserves to earn a fair wage. But right now, thousands of Pennsylvanians are struggling to stay afloat, trying to navigate the cost of living crisis on a minimum wage of $7.25/hour — unchanged for nearly...

The expected announcement today from Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that he is running for president will come as no surprise. While DeSantis won his reelection by 19 points and his accomplishments with the help of a Republican super majority in the state legislature have been impressive, appealing to voters...

Pennsylvania’s primary election proved to be a good day for liberal financier George Soros and his political operation, as well as for the Democratic establishment in Philadelphia. The bigger story, however, is that Western Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County supplanted Philly as the top progressive mecca in the state. The most high-profile...

It was recently announced that one of the few remaining coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, Indiana County’s Homer City Coal Generation Station, will be shutting down. This will be a blow to the workers at the plant and the surrounding community. State and local leaders must commit to helping Homer...

On May 16, Pennsylvanians voted in statewide and local primary elections as well as a much-watched special House election. Beyond revealing the winners, the vote tallies show that former President Donald Trump lost (again), Democrats have an identity crisis and Republicans have a messaging crisis. While the former president wasn’t...

Pennsylvanians are getting their summer plans ready as Memorial Day nears. They’re thinking about the lakes, the amusement parks, the shore and extended travel throughout the commonwealth and the country. Here at home, many Pennsylvanians will visit the state parks system. Pennsylvania is home to one of the nation’s best...

In January 2024, after 12 years as Allegheny County chief executive, 64-year-old Rich “Fitz” Fitzgerald will be replaced. If voting patterns hold, his successor, in a county with a Democratic voter registration edge of 2-1 over Republicans, will be Tuesday’s newly minted Democratic nominee for the seat, 37-year-old Sara Innamorato,...

Kerissa and Charlie Payne are beginning farmers living their dream of raising two daughters on a farm in Central Ohio. By conventional measures, their livestock farm, Covey Rise, is a success. Yet below the surface, the challenge of finding quality affordable child care has kept their business from growing and...

Technology has transformed the way we live, the way we communicate with one another and the way we relate to the world around us. It also has deepened the political and cultural divisions so prevalent in society today, but Americans are united on at least one point: Most people agree...

Convening war rooms, planning speedy bailouts and raising house-on-fire alarm bells: Those are a few of the ways the biggest banks and financial regulators are preparing for a potential default on U.S. debt. “You hope it doesn’t happen, but hope is not a strategy — so you prepare for it,”...

This month, Pennsylvania House lawmakers approved legislation, House Bill 950, that purports to add a new fundamental right to the state’s Constitution: the right to organize. In practice, however, the measure would try to rob the commonwealth’s public-sector employees of rights they already possess under the First Amendment. Though the...

Last month marked 4½ years since our congregation, Dor Hadash, along with New Light and Tree of Life congregations, was attacked by a man spewing antisemitic and anti-immigrant hate, and wielding weapons of war. It also marked the start of jury selection in his trial. Eleven congregants in our three...

The United States needs detente with China to deescalate the danger of an armed conflict over Taiwan, losing control of maritime routes through the South China Sea and other potential Pacific region hotspots. This requires looking past China’s rhetoric about achieving broad technological dominance and recent provocations to focus on...