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Pennsylvania will again be in spotlight

Editorials

There is something clarifying about opening a fresh calendar. The pages are clean, the boxes empty, the year ahead undefined. It invites planning even as experience reminds us that no year ever unfolds exactly as written. This will be another year when Pennsylvania finds itself under a political spotlight. Presidential elections do that when perennial swing-state status can tip the balance in the Electoral College. Two years later, that focus rarely fades — it simply shifts to the midterms. In the midterms, voters will decide control of Congress, Harrisburg and the governor’s ...

Climate change remains a concern

Letters to the Editor

In his op-ed of Dec. 8, Josh Hammer seeks to dismiss legitimate concern over climate change. He tells us the tide is changing because recent polling shows “only” 60% (what I call a solid majority) of Americans believe climate change is mostly human-caused. Hammer cites Bill Gates’ Oct. 28 blog post as evidence of a fading consensus. But Gates has not, in fact, changed his mind about climate change being a very serious ongoing issue. Instead, he believes that actions already taken, along with new technologies on the horizon, will limit the damage to an acceptable level. Gates ...

America challenged to be better in 2026

Editorials

Every time the calendar changes from one year to the next, a new agenda of hope emerges — hope built upon the desire to fix things that are wrong, make improvements where adjustments will be beneficial, pursue general betterment of one’s own community, including on behalf of the other people living there, at all times trying to exercise exemplary judgment and superior intentions on whatever the roads toward successful endeavors and outcomes. A baby symbolizes the arrival of a new year and hope, but a better example of that arrival might be success achieved during the often ...

Affordability is not a hoax

Letters to the Editor

Trump constantly repeats blatantly obvious lies knowing that some people will believe anything that’s said often enough; even when it’s not true. This time is different. Everyone knows that affordability is not a “scam” or a “hoax.” Americans get reminded of rising inflation every time they pay their bills or shop for groceries. In addition to not bringing consumer prices down “on day one,” Trump’s economic policies have failed to fulfill his other fake promises. Despite reducing trade with the U.S., China continues to have a record trade surplus with the rest ...

Staffing at UPMC can be improved

Letters to the Editor

I saw on the news about the 40% shortage of nurses. I’d like to take this moment to say, hire more CNAs. Give them their own union if they haven’t got one. Train them to have the ability to switch IV meds and fluids. If they hired medical assistants on the floors, they would be able to free up the nurses. Hire them on for a year with a signed contract. You have your RNs who give meds to people, you have LPNs who do the small jobs then have lower-level CNAs. With you having CNAs and medical assistants, it would free up the RNs to be able to focus on the things they went to ...

SNAP decrease unconscionable

Letters to the Editor

SNAP Benefits decreased by from $244 to $64 because of changes in federal rules. My daughter is disabled, she has stage IV metastatic breast cancer. She couldn’t take an Uber to protest because she can only travel by ambulance. How dare the federal government do this to her? Was this what was in the Big Terrible Bill? They made the law, now they need to live on what we live on. Nancy Behrendt Altoona