Featured Commentary category, Page 5
Ashley Nunes: Outrage over Trump’s electric vehicle policies is misplaced
Electric car subsidies are heading for the chopping block. A tax bill recently passed by House Republicans is set to stop billions in taxpayer cash from being spent on electric vehicle purchases. If embraced by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the bill would gut long-standing...
Counterpoint: Trump is upholding the Constitution by calling out its weaknesses
When asked in May whether he needed to uphold the Constitution of the United States, President Donald Trump responded, “I don’t know.” That answer seemed to shock many, but perhaps it shouldn’t have. Rather than signaling disregard, Trump’s response reflected a rare, if blunt, honesty about the serious constitutional flaws...
Point: Trump’s unconstitutional actions threaten democracy
President Donald Trump is pursuing a path that is actively destabilizing the guardrails of our Constitution. Unless he changes course, our nation — the world’s oldest continuing democracy — risks a crisis where the president is no longer beholden to the rule of law. Americans will suffer the consequences. America’s...
Michael Stelzig: Almost there for Nippon Steel-US Steel deal
As a Pittsburgh native, I was relieved to hear that President Trump decided to reconsider the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal he once opposed. No longer subject to election-year politics, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States recently submitted its national security review to the president. On May 30, during...
Daniel J. Stone: Biden’s cancer diagnosis should be a teaching moment
Former President Joe Biden’s metastatic cancer diagnosis brings together two controversial issues: PSA testing for prostate cancer and presidential politics. To understand what is at stake Americans need basic information about PSA testing, and a frank discussion of the reasoning behind the prostate cancer screening decisions in the former president’s...
Guy Ciarrocchi: More questions than answers in recent Pa. primary
Even in an off-year primary, Pennsylvania continues to garner the attention of politicians and analysts hoping to understand the state’s political puzzle. Indeed, the recent primary offered insights into trends while also highlighting battles between woke and old-guard factions of the Democratic Party in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Is Pennsylvania now...
F.D. Flam: ‘Organs-on-a-chip’ is one of many alternatives to animal testing
There’s one area of surprising agreement in the often adversarial relationship between conservatives and the scientific community: the need to phase out animal testing in biomedical research. The new leaders of both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have said they plan to reduce their...
Karishma Vaswani: America’s cold shoulder to foreign students is worrying Asia
An Ivy League degree has long been central to the Asian dream — a ticket to success and status. But President Donald Trump’s message to international students is clear: Far fewer of you are welcome. The blunt statement and growing chaos across the university sector has left families wondering if...
Cal Thomas: Watch your language — a chronicle of today’s improper English
The beginning of summer offers a columnist the opportunity to address subjects he might avoid the rest of the year because of his focus on domestic and foreign issues. Inattention to proper English seems to be a subject that few are bothering to address. I have been making a list...
Jason W. Park: President Trump vs. President Garber — a game of cat and mouse
Recently, the Trump administration froze over $2.2 billion in grants and contracts from Harvard University, to quash antisemitic and pro-Hamas sympathies, dismantle DEI initiatives, and revoke international student rights. Harvard chose to litigate, and recently, a judge blocked President Trump’s ban on international students, as the legal case heats up....
Letter to the editor: Economy woes will only get worse
Mark Twain, a respected journalist and author, said: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Let’s test that. Instead of ALL CAPS social media posts telling you what to think, here are some actual facts for you to decide for yourself how the...
Samantha ‘Sunshine’ Rave: A daughter’s call to reform a deadly system
My name is Sunshine, and my father, Gary William Miller, died in February 2011 inside Allegheny County Jail. To this day, I still don’t know exactly how or why. No clear explanation. No compassion. No closure. Just silence. Just death. Just another addict written off by a system that punishes...
Solomon D. Stevens: Are Americans fed up with democracy?
Democracy can be exhausting and frustrating, especially representative democracy, which takes the immediate responsibility of ruling out of the hands of ordinary citizens and puts it in the hands of representatives, who govern from far away. Nothing seems to get done. All you hear about is arguing and squabbling. Your...
Clive Crook: US is about to discover if deficits don’t matter
It’s hard to think intelligently about public debt and deficits. The economics of fiscal policy is complicated and defies straightforward prescriptions. What’s most striking about budget-making in Washington today, though, is not that legislators are confused about what good debt-management requires. It’s that they’ve just stopped thinking about it. If...
Mark Z. Barabak: A celebration — and wake — for a political time gone by
They came to the baking desert to honor one of their own, a political professional, a legend and a throwback to a time when gatherings like this one — a companionable assembly of Republicans, Democrats and the odd newspaper columnist — weren’t such a rare and noteworthy thing. They came...
Oliver Bateman: Does Shapiro have a secrecy problem?
I want Josh Shapiro to succeed. As a centrist Pennsylvanian who voted for him over woefully out-of-his-depth Doug Mastriano back in 2022, I see a governor who could help lead the disorganized Democrats out of the wilderness. His pragmatic style, ability to work across the aisle and Obama-lite rhetorical style...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Pa.’s potential data center mirage — and your electric bill
When Pennsylvanians open their electric bills this summer, few realize that the price they will pay may be inflated not by the energy they use — but by energy that may never be used at all. Earlier this month, in a little-noticed hearing in the Pennsylvania state Legislature, a stunning...
Diana Polson: Pa.’s clean energy renaissance — a model for economic growth
In Turtle Creek, a quiet industrial revolution is brewing. Inside a sprawling manufacturing facility, workers are building batteries that will power 130,000 homes — part of a broader economic renaissance reshaping the commonwealth’s industrial landscape. Through strategic federal investments in clean energy and manufacturing, Pennsylvania is witnessing the creation of...
Howard M. Rieger: Are Allegheny County elected officials abandoning us?
Ten months ago, the Allegheny County Board of Health proposed a fee increase for processing Title 5 operating permits for polluters, the most significant of which is U.S. Steel. Because of staffing vacancies, the Board of Health has an extensive backlog in processing such permits. Over the years, the Environmental...
Princeton Lock: What comes after left and right? Students want systems, not sides.
You can walk into almost any American high school right now and feel it. Students aren’t just frustrated. They’re disillusioned. The message we’re hearing isn’t “get involved,” it’s “good luck.” We’re told to pick a side, vote blue or red, join a cause or take a stand. But when you’re...
James Stavridis: How can Europe deter Putin? Revive the ‘Reforger.’
When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO’s ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out...
Katharine Kelleman: Transit system Pittsburgh deserves is within reach — if we choose to invest
Public transit isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. It’s a platform for opportunity, connection and growth — and can be the foundation for the kind of future Pittsburgh says it wants. For decades, our region has worked to reverse population decline and position itself for long-term,...
James-Christian B. Blockwood: Trump’s first 100 days changed the game — the next 1,300 could change the nation
The country has now witnessed and felt the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term. These days were filled with unrelenting, fast-paced executive action. He signed a record-breaking number of executive orders, though many have been challenged and may be reversed. Working with Congress to pass legislation, though...
Adam R. Forgie: Murders outside Jewish museum a reminder that antisemitism is not just an Israeli problem
Last week, just steps from the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., two staff members of the Israeli Embassy — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — were shot and killed. They were attending a gathering hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an event meant to promote understanding and stand against...
Counterpoint: Yes, we can still count on the young to defend America
As we approach Memorial Day and honor the hundreds of thousands of young, brave Americans who have lost their lives in defense of the United States, one can’t help but wonder if today’s youth would answer the call to duty as eagerly as their parents and grandparents did during times...
