Featured Commentary category, Page 43

New data from the Census Bureau reveal that residents are fleeing Pennsylvania at an alarming rate. Pennsylvania lost nearly 40,000 residents to other states from July 2021 to July 2022. Only seven states lost more residents to domestic outmigration during that period. And, with 23,000 more deaths than births, Pennsylvania’s...

In the Dark Ages of criminal justice in the United States — the 1980s and earlier — it was not uncommon for a judge to give a convicted criminal a choice: go to jail, or enlist in the armed services. Such a choice was rightfully deemed unjust. But two recent...

Is Davos over yet? Is it safe to turn on our TVs without being scolded by formerly important environmentalists like old Al Gore or creepy young climate warriors like Greta Thunberg? All the virtuous public talk about stopping climate change, saving the planet and putting the dirty fossil-fuel industry out...

Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican whose 2022 election to the House of Representatives flipped a seat previously held by a Democrat, faces pressure to resign for having reportedly lied extensively about his education, employment history and religious heritage. He also faces allegations that he may have participated in...

Amazon is laying off more than 18,000 workers. Salesforce is shedding 8,000, and Twitter has let go thousands more. While we should never minimize the difficulties of people facing an unexpected layoff, these announcements by major tech companies are not a large-scale tragedy for the American economy. What would be...

Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, almost died Jan. 2. His heart stopped after a blow to his chest during a “Monday Night Football” game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Thanks to prompt attention by team trainers and paramedics, Hamlin survived, and America enjoyed a collective sigh of relief...

Terry Kilgore has been a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 1994. During that time, there have been four years in which the GOP controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature. For two years, Democrats held complete control. In the other 23 years, Republicans...

“I’m gonna live forever, baby, remember my name” — (from “Fame”) The death at age 54 of Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, got me thinking again about the two-edged sword that is fame. Poems, books and movies have addressed fame, how some people lust after it and how it...

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is just the latest conservative lawmaker to misuse the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to judge a person on character and not race. In the protracted battle to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, Roy, a Republican, nominated...

Pennsylvania Republicans have a representation problem, as evidenced by two recent events. In the recent campaign for governor, won by Democrat Josh Shapiro, certain “Republicans” publicly endorsed the Democrat for governor. Let us consider a few examples from Shapiro’s own webpage to see if we can identify the allure to...

Wait a minute … isn’t it supposed to be Iranian American? I was born in New Castle and we moved to Pittsburgh when I was about 3 years old. My family history dates back to 1799 in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Yet this isn’t the first impression many get of me when...

After having moved to Pittsburgh, my parents wanted what all parents want — to send their children to the best school possible. When I was in first grade, I attended the Environmental Charter School (ECS) in Regent Square, which at the time had 75 students per grade, because it looked...

This month, as we celebrate Black history, millions of Americans will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King was, without question, one of the greatest historical figures of the 20th century. He dedicated his life in an effort to ensure the ideals of life, liberty and the...

On the campaign trail, Josh Shapiro championed more money for public schools. Now that Democrats control Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives for the first time in over a decade, the state’s governor-elect will likely find ample support for that goal. “Everyone knows that our schools are chronically underfunded,” said state Rep....

Don’t worry, America. Big Media will never let Joe Biden get away with illegally taking classified documents from the White House in 2016 and stashing them at his office and in his garage next to his Corvette. The ace reporters at liberal places like The New York Times, CNN and...

Through a phenomenon called “linked fate,” small or marginalized groups tend to vote more as a unit rather than as individuals, assuming that without doing so they may not have a loud enough voice in the political system. However, exhaustion from a series of broken promises is breaking up these...

As another Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday approaches, our nation has much to celebrate as we strive toward MLK’s dream of a colorblind society. Since King’s assassination in 1968, our nation has elected and reelected its first African American president. We’ve also recently sworn in our first African American...

Amid an avalanche of horrific acts of violence across Allegheny County over the past year, the Jan. 2 killing of Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire is yet another traumatic and high-profile reminder of the toll of gun violence on our communities. The chief’s family, the broader Brackenridge and law enforcement...

Through the ages, pessimists have warned that new technologies spell doom. Naysayers warn robots will wipe out jobs and want to impose taxes to slow their progress. In a more service-based economy, artificial intelligence has a lot in common with robotics and with AI, the focus is increasingly spreading to...

In the 1980s, I repeatedly watched a recorded copy of the film “Escape from New York” on my family’s Panasonic VCR — complete with tuning knobs the size of hubcaps. Little did I know that I would star in my own version of the movie (as a domesticated, tattoo-less and...

On the Friday in October when David DePape burst into the house where 82-year-old Paul Pelosi was sleeping and allegedly beat him with a hammer, fracturing his skull, most Americans were shocked, horrified and disgusted. Pelosi was brutally assaulted in what prosecutors have called a politically motivated attempt to capture,...

After months of ignoring the problem and demonstrably false claims by his Homeland Security secretary that the southern border is “secure,” President Biden is finally visiting the area this week as part of a trip to Mexico. Last week, the administration announced it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians...

One thing that’s become clear in the past few tumultuous — and for many, traumatic — years is that it’s easy to feel like there is no control in our lives. Control is a basic psychological need that helps people feel like they have agency, from how they live to...

Last session, Pennsylvania lawmakers advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to require voter identification in elections. The state House and Senate must pass this measure again to put it on the ballot as a referendum, giving voters the final say. Regardless of which political party ends up controlling the state House...

Injuries are an unfortunate part of any sport — none more so than in the NFL, where players can be felled in front of a TV audience in the tens of millions. Typically, when a player suffers an injury, the media cuts to commercial and returns with replays of the...