OP-ED: Democrats’ latest debate exposed a depressing dynamic in the 2020 field

If 2016 was a lesson for America in what can finally happen after decades of letting bad deeds go unpunished, 2020 is reminding us, a year ahead of time, that learning that lesson doesn’t answer the question of how to avoid repeating it.

by Harry Seigel  | 6 days ago

OP-ED: PA Forward gives students opportunity for better future

As another school year begins, I am always encouraged to see so many students from around the nation pouring into our city. Higher education is an important industry for our region.

OP-ED: President Trump decides not to do something stupid on taxes

You’d think that as a baseline, we would expect the president of the United States not to do clearly stupid things.

OP-ED: Going native: The scent of racism

In late August, the chic French luxury brand Christian Dior debuted an ad campaign for its fragrance referencing Native Americans. A number of American Indians immediately decried the advertisement as racist.

OP-ED: Trump’s labor pick kept workers in pain

President Donald Trump has had poor luck with labor secretaries. His first nominee, fast-food mogul Andrew Puzder, came under fire for his own labor practices, including hiring an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper, and was forced to withdraw his nomination when it became clear the Senate woul

OP-ED: With Bolton booted, so much for Trump’s ‘team of rivals’

It wasn’t news that President Trump and his national security adviser John R. Bolton often disagreed. The difference of opinion now extends to whether Trump accepted Bolton’s offer to resign (Bolton’s story) or Trump “asked John for his resignation” (as Trump tweeted).

OP-ED: Bipartisan tax incentive opens door to opportunity in York

The passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Action created 8,700 “Opportunity Zones” across the country and ever since then no economic development tool has received more attention than these federal tax incentives aimed at driving private capital to struggling communities.

OP-ED: Continuing to help those with the disease of addiction

We know there isn’t a city, town or borough in the commonwealth, or in the nation, left untouched by the opioid epidemic. We know that this epidemic is an equal opportunity disease — there is no gender, race, ethnicity, income bracket or education level left untouched by this disease. In the process

OP-ED: Ebola is raging again — and the U.S. is not ready

Five years ago, the Ebola virus broke through inadequate public health systems in West Africa and spread throughout the world. America was lucky. Only a few cases traveled here, but the U.S. government also did not respond as we had reason to expect.

OP-ED: The ongoing tragedy of Sept. 11

Sept. 11, 2001, will always be recognized as a day of tribulation in the United States. Some 3,000 people lost their lives in multiple terrorist attacks, the largest one being the fall of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City. Thousands of first responders and civilians risked their

OP-ED: Slave labor in the modern era

The prospect is appealing: work your own hours, be your own boss, choose your assignments. Who wouldn’t want that? But reports from Uber and Lyft drivers suggest that the glittering prospect is deceptive and that many drivers make roughly what fast-food workers make.

OP-ED: When talking to your doctor about care, cost should be part of conversation

For three decades I’ve worked with people who are aging or chronically ill, helping them figure out how the heck they are going to pay for old age or serious illness. One of the issues that’s gotten markedly worse during this time is financial toxicity.

OP-ED: What would you have done?

As a former history major, I often reference our past to explain the importance of our founding principles.  At times, I’ve been criticized for this by those who use 21st Century values to judge — and sometimes condemn — the 18th Century morality of our Founding Fathers.

OP-ED: U.S.-China trade war damage could last decades

When it comes to international trade, China hasn’t always played by the rules. So the question begs: How do you change that behavior? Engaging in a trade war by imposing tariffs isn’t ideal. To save face, Chinese President Xi Jinping must appear strong and that means responding to U.S. tariff increa

OP-ED: Treat the fentanyl crisis like a poisoning outbreak

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released drug overdose statistics for 2018, and they are shocking. Of the estimated 47,000 deaths from opioids last year, roughly two-thirds involved potent synthetic opioids, most of them fentanyl.

OP-ED: What we keep getting wrong about mass shootings

There is a special kind of stupidity that approaches terrible and repeating problems with an obstinate assurance of what the answer will or won’t be.

OP-ED: Enact Phillip’s Law to save lives

In a Pennsylvania where our children have the mental health resources they need, Phillip Spruill Jr. would be entering sixth grade this school year.

OP-ED: Hurricanes: Times have changed

As I write, Dorian, a formidable Category 5 hurricane, is slowly approaching Florida’s east coast; by the time you read this, you will probably know whether Dorian hit Florida or whether it skewed north for a l

OP-ED: Trump’s empty chair at G-7 climate meeting illustrates end of American global leadership

One photograph said it all. At the meeting in France of the world’s seven richest democracies on climate change and the catastrophic fires in the Amazon, there was an empty chair. Donald Trump did not even show up.

OP-ED: Brazil fires, and U.S., threaten entire planet

A crucial carbon sink, the Amazon rainforest absorbs atmospheric carbon that would otherwise heat the planet and accelerate the global climate crisis. Often called “the lungs of the planet,” the Amazon region is a crucial source of oxygen for all people.

OP-ED: Trump’s anti-journalism hit squad

A president who has branded journalists “enemies of the people” and news media “an evil propaganda machine” now has working on his behalf an anti-journalism hit squad. These people are nothing less than termites in the woodwork of freedom.

OP-ED: Is there any matter of state Trump won’t try to make a buck from?

One of the odder elements of the recently concluded G-7 meetings in France came when the assembled world leaders took up plans for next year’s gathering, to be held in the United States.

OP-ED: Trump lowers the bar for a deal with Iran

When President Donald Trump finally followed through on his threats and withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it looked like he was after something far more ambitious.

OP-ED: When soaring deficits come home to roost

Last Wednesday, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office updated its estimates for the federal budget deficit. CBO now estimates deficits in excess of $1 trillion for next year, and every year thereafter for the next decade. Twenty-one cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowe

OP-ED: Trump missing an opportunity to burnish his legacy with gun law

There’s a perception that the National Rifle Association has an impenetrable lock on base Republican voters and thus is holding GOP members of Congress captive. But Trump is the one person who has the capital with the GOP base to oppose the NRA and get something done on guns.

OP-ED: Broadband expansion: Can’t afford to wait

For the past three years, I have been pushing for all Pennsylvanians — rural, urban and suburban — to have access to reliable, affordable broadband access, regardless of the county in which they reside. In particular, the more rural and densely populated areas of our state have been most affected by

OP-ED: Carmakers smart to ignore Trump’s auto emissions rollback

It looks like more carmakers are going to side with California in the President Trump versus the Golden State standoff over clean car standards. That’s good news for anyone who cares about breathing and not baking the planet.

OP-ED: The issues facing property tax reform

For years, if not decades, people have urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to come up with a viable solution for relief from school property taxes that are forcing senior citizens out of their homes.

OP-ED: Shell Oil allegedly coerced its workers to attend a Trump rally. Blame the Supreme Court

Workers at a Royal Dutch Shell petrochemical plant outside Pittsburgh were coerced into attending a political event featuring President Trump on Aug. 13 on pain of losing overtime pay for the week.

OP-ED: Jill Biden to voters: ‘Swallow’ your principles and back my husband

Pick your political cliché. Jill Biden was either saying the quiet part out loud or committing a Michael Kinsley gaffe (that is, speaking the truth) when she suggested that her husband needs the support of voters who prefer other Democratic candidates.

OP-ED: It’s time for journalists to tell more complex truths

Journalism is not for the faint of heart, especially in an era where the most powerful politician in the land has labeled its practitioners “enemies of the people” who produce “fake news.”

OP-ED: Look, Americans like free trade again

After a long succession of presidents who believed in the benefits of lowering trade barriers and entering multilateral trade agreements, the United States got one who decidedly does not. So what happens to public opinion? It moves more strongly in favor of free trade.

OP-ED: ‘It’s like drowning’: Minute by minute, a physician tells a courtroom how you die from an ove

On the stand Monday in the federal courthouse, Jeanmarie Perrone told a hushed crowd, minute by minute, what happens to the body during an opioid overdose.

OP-ED: Trump vs. the Statue of Liberty

The Trump administration has literally declared war on the Statue of Liberty and everything it stands for.

OP-ED: It’s time for the public sector to fully embrace artificial intelligence

The National Institute for Standards and Technology just delivered a final plan to the White House for developing artificial intelligence standards for the private sector, in order to “maintain and strengthen America’s leadership in AI.”

OP-ED: Trump saves Black Friday — from himself

The move averts some of the damage President Trump had threatened to cause when he summarily announced the imposition of the tariffs, which targeted the roughly $300 billion worth of Chinese imports not already subject to tariffs of up to 25%.

OP-ED: The #TrumpRecession label is going to stick

Actions have consequences, and the undeniable consequences of this president’s actions are rates that are higher today than they would otherwise have been and worldwide trade disruption.

OP-ED: History seems to be repeating in Russia, China

It’s beginning to feel like 1980s news tape showing America’s despotic enemies running amok.

OP-ED: Make gun owners buy insurance

America has just surpassed a grim milestone, with more than 250 mass shootings blasting the nation in only 216 days, at a rate of more than one act of gun carnage per day in 2019.

PITTS: Jeffrey Epstein didn’t commit suicide

Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide while in federal custody Saturday has spawned no shortage of conspiracy theories about what “really” happened to the wealthy financier who stood accused of sex-trafficking children on an industrial scale.