Opinion category, Page 667
Letter to the editor: Ideas for Westmoreland commissioners
This year, you can’t fault our new Westmoreland County commissioners for inheriting a bloated budget and almost zero reserve funds. Someone in Harrisburg should’ve admonished the former commissioners for falling below the recommended $20 million reserve fund threshold for emergencies. Will their current plan to build up the Mon Valley,...
Letter to the editor: Remembering Bessie Alberts’ encouragement
My lifelong dream was to work in politics. During the past two decades I have worked on a dozen political campaigns, been an intern for a U.S. senator, served as a staffer for a Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and spent several years as an aide to a Virginia legislator. I now...
Donald Boudreaux: There’s no app for social engineering
During Monday’s Iowa caucuses, a mobile app designed to report results malfunctioned. Unsurprisingly, Republicans gloated that the glitch is a calamity for Democrats. Yet even The New York Times worried about what this snafu might signify. As Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote, “Maybe there’s a moral here in dreaming too...
Lori Falce: Super Bowl lessons about politics
When I watch the Super Bowl, I do it with an eye toward what I love. If the Steelers are playing, my allegiances are easy. If the Patriots are playing, yeah, that’s easy too, although in a year like 2018 when New England faced off against Philadelphia? There’s just no...
Laurels & lances: Bakers, groundhog, culture and taxes
Laurel: To a nourishing idea. Chatham University is creating a new baker training program that brings together its Center for Regional Agriculture, Food and Transformation with Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. Funded by a $215,000 grant from Bank of America, the pilot program launches in May and will allow students to earn...
Editorial: Will Wolf budget become impasse?
There was an important speech made Tuesday that is worth some attention. No, not the one in Washington that has spawned a million social media posts. It’s the one Gov. Tom Wolf gave in Harrisburg, outlining his 2020-21 budget proposal. For Pennsylvanians, it was a laundry list of priorities the...
Letter to the editor: Gas industry/cancer study applauded
We should all be pleased that Gov. Tom Wolf has allocated public money, namely $3 million, to study gas industry effects and cancer, especially child cancers in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As a chemist, I can only imagine how complex it will be to study multiple possible effects of a controversial heavy...
Letter to the editor: Senate bill would undo environmental progress
Going back to the ’80s for a mile-high perm and a John Hughes film? Sign me up. Going back to undo 36 years of regulations? That’s a scheme that’s risky at best. Pennsylvania Senate Bill 790 would undo years of progress on environmental and health protections on oil and gas...
Letter to the editor: A conversation for the nation
It’s what I said, it’s what I meant, I do not like the president. Listen, listen and you may, Listen and you may, I say. Would you like him here or there? I would not like him anywhere. I don’t care what you insist, I’ll continue to resist. Is there...
Gary Smith: The faith of Troy Polamalu
Troy Polamalu, who played safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2003 to 2014, has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He will enter the hall with Bill Cowher, who coached the team for his first four seasons, and defensive back Donnie...
Pat Buchanan: Impeachment the left’s ultimate weapon
In 1868, President Andrew Johnson was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act that had been enacted by Congress over his veto in 1867. Defying the law, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, without getting Senate approval, as the act required him to do. In his 1956 Pulitzer...
Letter to the editor: Witnesses from both sides should be heard
In light of the Republican side of the Senate refusing to hear witnesses, can we expect that the symbol of the Republican Party will now be the ostrich instead of the elephant? Many people of all political persuasions were anticipating hearing depositions under oath. We are now disappointed that we...
Letter to the editor: Politics not for sissies
It has been stated that people hate the POTUS because of questionable ethics, morals and common decency. Now, being a deplorable who voted for President Trump, I don’t always agree with him, and there are times when I think he should keep his mouth shut. But he is trying to...
Letter to the editor: Alan Dershowitz & Ken Starr
Ancient Greece had its Sophists: clever, brilliant orators who could convincingly argue either side of a litigious issue. Fast forward 2,400 years, and we have Alan Dershowitz, who raises sophistry to a new level, e.g. Clinton, no proof of crime required to impeach — Trump, proof of crime required to...
Colin McNickle: The state of Pa.’s business climate
Pennsylvania businesses remained bullish in late 2019, according to the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research. But a generally healthy state business climate comes with a host of other challenges mirrored in national findings, says a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Thirty-eight percent of respondents to the...
Editorial: Iowa owes Pennsylvania better
The Iowa Democratic Party doesn’t just owe it to the people who participate in its highly-touted, first-in-the-country caucus every four years to figure out how to correct its problems. It owes it to the rest of us, too. On Tuesday, the Hawkeye State’s caucuses — a kind of Thanksgiving-table survey...
Letter to the editor: E-cigarettes are an epidemic for our kids
Our nation is facing a youth e-cigarette epidemic, setting up our kids to become the next generation hooked on tobacco, and continuing the cycle of tobacco addiction and the diseases that come with it. The federal government isn’t doing enough to protect kids. The American Lung Association’s “State of Tobacco...
Letter to the editor: Can’t understand hatred of Trump
As we start this presidential election year, I have a serious question to ask. Why do people hate President Trump? I honestly don’t understand it. I didn’t agree with everything President Obama did or stood for, but I did not hate him. He was our president; he was my president....
Letter to the editor: Trump’s actions don’t support his pro-life ploy
I have journeyed to Washington, D.C., a number of times for the March for Life in support of the pro-life movement. In the 1970s I was a bus captain, and my daughter accompanied me on one of the trips. I was shocked when I read that the pro-life community was...
Tom Purcell: The DC disorder that’s sadder than SAD
Maybe seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is bringing me down — or not. Overcast winter weather triggers SAD. Lack of exposure to sunlight can cause higher levels of melatonin and lower levels of serotonin in the brain, which can cause depression-like symptoms. But then again, maybe it’s the news — and...
Jonah Goldberg: Dershowitz’s central argument for Trump must be rejected
Dear Republican senators, I will not try to convince you how to vote in the impeachment trial of President Trump. I won’t even lecture you about the need for witnesses, in part because by the time you see this it will probably be too late. My request is far more...
Editorial: Public schools and private info
Privacy and a public job are often at odds. Take a job with a government agency, and you are answerable to everyone. More than that, everyone feels a little bit (or a lot) entitled to ask questions about your job, your paycheck, your hours and exactly why you were hired....
Letter to the editor: Fur belongs to the animals
In October, California was the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products, which bars residents from selling or making clothing, shoes or handbags with fur starting in 2023. Many designers have banned using fur because of animal cruelty, including Armani, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Karl...
Letter to the editor: Trump & hatred
I am compelled to respond to A. Atkinson’s letter “Democrats’ hate” (Jan. 11, TribLIVE), which said I am full of hate. That’s the furthest thing from the truth, and anyone who knows me knows that. However, President Trump made me hate him, and at least I admit it. Trump is...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 3
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 3....
