Featured Commentary category, Page 38

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! It’s 5:30 a.m., and all around the North Allegheny School District, alarms jolt teens from their dreams. They wake up, contemplate life choices, then groggily crawl out of bed, sometimes eat breakfast, and try to catch the school bus in time. Sleep deprivation, whether due to late-night...

There has been an unprecedented increase in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses since the covid-19 pandemic. Prescriptions for Adderall, used to treat ADHD, for adults rose 15.1% during 2020 (over double the 2019 rise of 7.4%). This increased consumer demand for ADHD medications has resulted in a shortage of Adderall. The...

The last few years have been a challenging time for the United Methodist Church (UMC). Since 2019, some individual churches have started the process to disaffiliate, many doing so over disagreements about the church’s welcoming stance on members of the LGBT+ community. Dealing with the struggles of disaffiliation is hard...

In our hyper-polarized political environment, examples of bipartisan lawmaking are hard to find, and it’s understandable why many Americans believe policymakers accomplish little for their constituents. However, this year we have an opportunity to pass genuinely bipartisan legislation: the United States Farm Bill. Not only does this legislation represent an...

The next Allegheny County executive will face unprecedented challenges that will affect the future of our region. Allegheny County voters should conduct rigorous and productive job interviews with anybody who applies for the job. To help accomplish that, the business-organized labor alliance Pittsburgh Works Together is launching an initiative intended...

“How come the suburbs used to be so Republican, and now they’re Democrat?” I’ve lived in Chester County in suburban Philadelphia since 1995. I was raised in South Philly and started out in politics campaigning for President Ronald Reagan. If I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked...

This month, Medicaid is finally returning to normal — but “normal” was never that great. Currently, an estimated 600,000 ineligible Pennsylvanians — many of whom are able-bodied, working-age adults — receive taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits. Temporary pandemic provisions that prohibited states from regularly reviewing Medicaid eligibility expired this month, giving Pennsylvania...

There have been discussions about AI writing programs like ChatGPT in the academy. The past few months have seen a flurry of activity with college administrators calling emergency meetings, professors changing their assignments and educators writing essays (some perhaps written by AI?) that range in reaction from the nonchalant to...

Drug overdose deaths and other harms related to the overdose crisis continue to ravage Pennsylvania families and communities. Pennsylvania has the fourth highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the nation. We have the ninth highest number of new HIV infections in the country. Our most vulnerable communities are seeing...

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene drew raised eyebrows when she suggested on Presidents Day that the United States pursue a “national divorce.” Even in an era of seemingly ever-growing political polarization — and despite Taylor Greene’s record of making controversial statements — the proposal shocked members of both political parties....

Here’s an important thing to remember: This is probably just the beginning. The end is unforeseeable. That’s because the unprecedented indictment of Donald Trump by a New York County grand jury on charges of paying “hush money” to a former porn star is almost certainly the first of several criminal...

U.S. wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, and this could become a big issue in the 2024 presidential election. Until the covid pandemic in 2020, President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and deregulation had boosted GDP growth well-above the rates accomplished by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Americans’ real...

In case you hadn’t noticed, America is a bit of a mess right now. The country is as polarized as it has been for a long, long time. In most scientific studies of worldwide increases in polarization, the United States ranks at or near the top. Americans have taken note:...

Last month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a retrogressive bill that would allow the state’s death-row prisoners to be executed by firing squad. The bill’s proponents believe that a firing squad is a humane method to end a person’s life. Dr. Guillotine once said his procedure should be but a...

Leaving aside all the sometimes legitimate and sometimes illegitimate responses from defenders of former President Donald Trump following his indictment by a New York grand jury, there is something that would have made all the difference for the 45th president had he focused on it as his top priority, rather...

Donald Trump again made history Thursday evening, this time by becoming the first former president of the United States to be indicted, stemming from charges related to illegal hush money payments made to a porn star in 2016. And yet even while in legal jeopardy, blindsided by an indictment he...

It’s hard to write an opinion piece about artificial intelligence without sounding a little kooky. The line between reasonable thinking and paranoia is a little blurred, I fear. A few days ago, many schools in Pennsylvania and other states were hit by a robocall misinforming the listener that an active...

This past year I was fortunate to be chosen as an Albert Schweitzer fellow and was tasked with continuing an established project dedicated to improving the health literacy of underserved women at our city’s prominent free clinic. This project is aimed at not only educating women on the basic aspects...

JetBlue is seeking permission to merge with Spirit Airlines. The U.S. Department of Justice is working to block the purchase. Does this make sense for air travelers? JetBlue sells itself as an upscale low-cost airline, with 34 inches of seat pitch and no-cost amenities for which other airlines charge a...

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter sale. Narcan is the 4-milligram nasal spray version of naloxone, a medication that can quickly counteract an opioid overdose. This means that Narcan will be available for purchase without a prescription at more than 60,000 pharmacies nationwide. For...

Any family will tell you that balancing work and parenting is challenging in the best of times. With the parents of most young children in Pennsylvania working, child care is critical to supporting the commonwealth’s labor force and employers. When parents don’t get the child care they need, it diminishes...

Whenever a school shooting takes place, such as the one that claimed the lives of three adults and three children at a Christian school in Nashville March 27, school officials often arrange for grief counseling services to be made available for whoever needs them. But what exactly do those services...

The Final Four is set, with San Diego State (No. 5 seed out of the Mountain West), Florida Atlantic (No. 9 seed out of Conference USA), Connecticut (No. 4 seed out of the Big East) and Miami (No. 5 seed out of the Atlantic Coast Conference) ready to battle for...

The last six months have been brutal for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District in Texas. Nearly a dozen students have overdosed on fentanyl between September and March. Three of them died. If you’re thinking, Texas has a problem, the truth is far more sobering. America has a problem, and...

“One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.” As I view the educational landscape in Pennsylvania, this paradox, first articulated by Voltaire, is ever-present in my mind. Lawmakers, teachers, administrators, parents and communities are concerned about whether our education system is...