Featured Commentary category, Page 41

As we contemplate the end of a glorious life on earth for former President Jimmy Carter, whose greatest achievements perhap came after his presidency, a stark contrast is obvious between past leaders of character and present leaders who are characters. It’s painfully obvious who they are, and the danger to...

The Republican presidential nomination is up for grabs. Given his enduring popularity with GOP voters, former President Donald Trump remains the front-runner. While he has yet to formally join the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been cast as his principal opponent for the Republican nomination. In past elections, the...

We all know the phrase from Pennsylvania Lottery commercials: “… benefits older Pennsylvanians.” But many people don’t realize just how important lottery proceeds are to charities and nonprofits across the commonwealth, and how many seniors rely on the services those organizations provide. Our lottery remains the only state lottery that...

In Pennsylvania’s first general election held using new legislative maps that are the most fair and inclusive in the history of the commonwealth, we saw historic gains in BIPOC communities statewide having the opportunity to elect the candidates of their choosing. Now this new crop of legislators has the opportunity...

In January 2023 two Democratic representatives, Judith Garcia and Carlos Gonzalez, proposed a bill that would offer prisoners in Massachusetts a new way to win reduction in their sentences: by donating their bone marrow or vital organs. The bill stated that the commissioner of the Department of Corrections should establish...

Regarding the editorial “Addressing blight requires planning and action” (Feb. 7, TribLIVE): The roots of blight are nuanced, varied and complex. Systemic factors like abuse of the federal tax code and individual factors, like the death of a loved one, contribute to the problem. Compounding the issue, 40,000 fewer people...

Every day, the $6.7 trillion Big Tech industry affects our lives in ways that empower and harm. Despite recent hits in earnings, current layoffs and Google getting slapped with yet another lawsuit from the Justice Department, the tech giants are still all-powerful in our society, economy and daily lives. These...

Let’s face it, when Fox News gives a Democrat a B+, you know he or she really delivered an exceptional performance. That was the grade the rabidly right-wing media network gave President Biden on his State of the Union address. As someone who usually doesn’t watch these annual speeches to...

In South Huntingdon Township — five miles west of New Stanton and overlooking the community of Yukon — MAX Environmental Technologies Inc. is applying to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the approval of a landfill expansion called Landfill No. 7. The facility accepts a variety of hazardous...

While the military is focused on foreign objects flying over American and Canadian territory, a more disturbing threat to our national security is occurring on the ground. Federal, state and local governments are behind in their response to the acquisition of American land by people and companies associated with the...

I loved basketball when I was a kid. I spent my free time shooting hoops in my parents’ driveway. I played on my elementary, junior high, freshman and junior varsity teams in school. I got cut from the varsity team in my junior year because despite my love of the...

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 60 mass shootings so far in 2023 — almost two a day. As a formerly untreated mentally ill person who angrily erupted into violence earlier in my life, I know the importance of keeping guns out of the wrong...

Although the last few years have been difficult for most Americans, there still is much to love about the country President Abraham Lincoln called “the last best hope of Earth” and President Ronald Reagan labeled “the shining city on a hill.” So, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, here...

I love America because only in America can a poor “guy off the boat” speaking with a thick Croatian accent rise to become one of the most successful businessmen and recognizable TV personalities today, “Shark Tank’s” Robert Herjavec. Only in America can an aspiring female screenwriter from communist Russia (Ayn...

Today’s word is “adjunctification.” Adjunctification is the process by which the gig economy is imposed on America’s colleges and universities and turns formerly tenured professors and instructors into contingent workers. Adjuncts are the part-time component of this, earning a fraction of what full-time faculty earn and having few of the...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, through the FOMC statement and press conference remarks this month, made clear we’ve made progress fighting inflation, but it’s far too early to quit. Financial markets are proving skeptical — forward contracts anticipate the Fed will increase interest rates a bit further, then start cutting...

As a holiday cold snap gripped Pennsylvania in December, energy officials warned of rolling blackouts and called on families to turn down their thermostats and turn off the decorations. Truly, this was a Christmas gift with batteries not included. How did the power grid become so feeble that your Christmas...

We’ve heard it all before. In fact, a recording of last year’s State of the Union could have been replayed, saving President Biden a trip to Capitol Hill. Numbers can be selectively used to hide reality and advance one’s political agenda. Both parties do this, but Democrats and their media...

A new governor offers hope that the chronic underfunding of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will finally end. This underfunding has compromised the department’s ability to regulate the oil and gas industry, monitor and reduce air and water pollution, protect the Chesapeake Bay and clean up hazardous waste sites....

Last month, the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony to celebrate Bobbi Wilson, a 9-year-old Black kid from Caldwell, N.J., who efforts to eradicate spotted lanternflies was seen as an environmentally progressive gesture. The ceremony also recognized Wilson’s donation of her personal spotted lanternfly collection to Yale’s Peabody...

The task of parenting adolescents has changed a great deal, given how fast the world is moving. For one, information is plentiful and immediately accessible. When I was 17, we checked card catalogs and descended into the library’s catacombs to research a subject. Now, with the stroke of a thumb,...

Nationally, Latinos are flexing their growing political muscle. They now make up 11% of the U.S. House, for example. In Pennsylvania, however, Latino voters essentially sat out the last election. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, turnout in the state’s most heavily Latino districts was less than half that of 2020....

KEY LARGO, Florida — Say the words “espionage” and “communism” to a younger generation and they might think you’re talking about spy novels and Cold War history. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thinks both words describe contemporary threats. During a visit to a town made famous by the 1948...

When Republican President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, he called on Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans.” He also acknowledged that Black Americans had shown “courage and perseverance” when our country had failed to live up to its...

The Biden administration announced last month that the U.S. will provide 31 Abrams M-1 tanks to Ukraine, and Germany said it will send 14 of its Leopard tanks to Kyiv. The tank deal and the first anniversary of the start of the war in February offer an opportunity to evaluate...