Featured Commentary category, Page 65

To many Americans, the regions surrounding Pittsburgh have become a collection of “ghost towns” to avoid or a lost culture to elegize. Western Pennsylvania is now a socially acceptable target for stereotypes conjuring images of blighted vacant lots, shuttered mills and welfare recipients addicted to painkillers. Even the familiar term...

If you care about election integrity, there are a couple of Republican senators running for governor who you may want to scratch off your list. Both Sen. Jake Corman and Sen. Doug Mastriano are scurrying around the commonwealth claiming to want to get to the bottom of what happened in...

An article published Dec. 9 in The Guardian has been circulating among Churchill residents. The title of the story rings true: “Warehouses in their backyards: When Amazon expands, these communities pay the price.” Churchill is a 2.5-square-mile suburban community of 3,000 people 10 miles east of Pittsburgh. Residents remain steadfast...

Recently, some of my patients have been saying some version of this: “I can’t believe they’re teaching critical race theory to my 8-year-old. She came home crying. She felt bad about herself because her skin is white. I’ve got to protect her.” These people are trying to promote their children’s...

It’s almost Christmas, and on the wish list for many Pirates fans in western Pennsylvania and elsewhere is that the team makes it to the World Series in 2022. It’s the same thing they have asked of Santa for many years. Being a Pirates fan can be painful. Most of...

From armed battles on the other side of the globe to terror attacks on our own soil, America is no stranger to turbulent times. For over two centuries, we have counted on brave individuals that rise to the occasion to protect our country and our communities, whether overseas or at...

When I assumed the role of president and director of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Jan. 1, 2012, my goal was to become a champion for the ever-changing and increasingly important responsibility that public libraries have in our society. Now, as I prepare to leave this organization I’ve come to call...

A few months ago, I wrote about President Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies. Among other steps designed to restrict domestic production of oil and natural gas, the president canceled completion of the Keystone XL pipeline, banned drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and greatly curtailed the issuance of leases...

When I traveled to Harrisburg recently to testify at a public hearing on labor reform bills that are important to me as a teacher, I was nervous about some of the questions I might get from lawmakers who disagreed with me. What I didn’t expect was that they wouldn’t even...

When Joe Biden kicked off his presidential campaign in April 2019 at the Teamsters Local 249 union hall in Pittsburgh, he declared himself a “union man,” sounding a theme that he repeated during his more than 25 campaign visits to the state. When Election Day came, however, Biden lost the...

Gov. Tom Wolf visited the Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha in Pittsburgh on Dec. 6. Joined by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and state Sen. Jay Costa, he announced an investment of $6.6 million in state funding to transform the devastated synagogue into a place of hope, remembrance and education. For...

A poster with the word WEIRD written in purple ink hangs in my classroom, documenting one of the most important teachable moments of my career. At the beginning of the year, my third graders took part in a self-portrait project about the visible and invisible characteristics of ourselves. I showed...

President Joe Biden recently made his first return to his hometown of Scranton since being elected president one year ago. This time, he came to tout legislative priorities that are focused on bolstering the nation’s infrastructure and continuing to create jobs as our nation emerges from the depths of the...

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden will make transformational investments in our nation’s outdated and failing infrastructure, benefiting Americans all over the country. We celebrate this bipartisan victory that will provide funding for clean energy research, grid modernization and electric vehicle infrastructure, but...

Recently, the CDC published overwhelmingly positive news: Youth vaping is down by 60% or more since the high watermark (in 2019) of kids using e-cigarettes. But you’d have to use your own calculator to figure that out if you only read the CDC’s report on the data. And the FDA...

As has been the case with so many other school shootings over several years, last week’s murder spree at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit might have been avoided if actions had been taken in the face of several obvious warning signs. Ethan Crumbley, 15, is charged with murdering four...

For decades, many of us in northeastern Pennsylvania have talked about knocking the rust off our regional economy and creating not only new jobs but also new industries. Diversifying our economic portfolio means creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurs that helps small businesses prosper in our downtowns through partnerships with the...

Every once in a while, we get a bracing reminder that free speech has its limits. Alex Jones, the barking far-right conspiracy theorist, suffered a sweeping legal loss recently when judges in two states ruled against him in defamation lawsuits brought by the families of victims of a mass shooting...

The idea of “abolishing” or “defunding” the police has always struck me as risky, to say the least, and not very well thought through. It has the potential to cause at least as many problems as it solves. So when some school districts actually decided give it a try, I...

Search “toxic parents” on Instagram, and you’ll find more than 38,000 posts, largely urging young adults to cut ties with their families. The idea is to protect one’s mental health from abusive parents. However, as a psychoanalyst, I’ve seen that trend in recent years become a way to manage conflicts...

Should fairness to political parties be the standard for evaluating legislative redistricting? Across the nation, state lawmakers are jockeying to advantage their party — be it Republican or Democratic — while drawing boundaries for legislative and congressional districts. If the Freedom to Vote Act currently before Congress passes, many state...

Pennsylvania needs to have new congressional redistricting maps in place by Jan. 24. To make the deadline, legislative leaders need to release preliminary maps now. It is the only way to meet the deadline and give the public an opportunity to provide input on the maps. We’re running out of...

The subtext of two prominent trials in recent weeks is vigilantism, the questionable notion that the institutions that we depend on — the police, especially — have declined into such impotence that ordinary citizens are called upon to maintain peace and order on their own. In both trials, justice prevailed,...

For the first five years, the single most expensive item in the House version of the Democrats’ “Build Back Better,” or “human” infrastructure, bill is a gigantic tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. This provision would lift the cap from $10,000 to $80,000 on income tax deductions for state and...

As Congress returns from Thanksgiving fresh from carving turkeys, eating pumpkin pie and serving up polemics about the manifest blessings of America, it will be wrangling about raising the federal debt ceiling — again. The federal government collects too little in taxes to pay its bills, and most months it...