Hits & Misses
Politics
March 22, 2025
Thumbs up for Valley residents showing up. Several Mon Valley residents expressed their frustrations and strongly opposed a permit request by the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill during a Department of ...
Politics
March 21, 2025
THE U.S. HAS A LONG HISTORY of political violence, but there is a growing sense that the scope and frequency of political harassment, threats and violence are reaching new levels. That’s what’s happen...
Politics
March 21, 2025
The editorial department of the Mon Valley Independent encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be no more than 500 words, must be in good taste and must include the author’s name, town of resid...
Ronald Reagan would weep
Politics
March 21, 2025
Tom Homan, the White House “border czar,” told Fox News that the Trump administration would defy any federal judge who tries to block the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members. “We’re not s...
Sunshine Week calls attention to darkening skies over Pa. universities
Politics
March 21, 2025
University employees engaged in sexual misconduct. Administrators misappropriating public funds. Scientists paid by industry groups to obtain desirable research outcomes. Open records laws have helped...
Politics
March 20, 2025
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW political power is ebbing and flowing in Pennsylvania, take a look at counties comprising Mon Valley communities. Pennsylvania’s politics swing like the clapper of a bell. It c...
Joe Biden: The autopen years
Politics
March 20, 2025
Of all of President Trump’s zany ideas— making boring, self-righteous Canada the 51st state, we take Gaza, Perkins Coie lawyers banned from federal buildings— his claim that Joe Biden’s pardons are in...
Sunshine Week shines light on need for transparency
Politics
March 19, 2025
By JOYCE DAVIS Opinion Editor PennLive/The Patriot-News Now, more than ever, you need to know. You not only need to know about the chaos in Washington, but you need to know what’s happening in your ow...
Politics
March 19, 2025
THERE ARE FEW THINGS IN LIFE that are more important than water. We need it to drink. We need it to clean. We might need it to control a heating system or a power plant or to run a factory. None of th...
Politics
March 19, 2025
To the Editor: Last week there was a meeting at Monessen High School concerning the contaminants in our drinking water. Where were our city officials, state officials and school board members? They sh...
Is the jig up for elite higher education?
Politics
March 18, 2025
Over the last three decades, elite American universities have engaged in economic, political, social, and cultural practices that were often unethical, illegal — and suicidal. They did so with impunit...
Politics
March 18, 2025
To the Editor: I certainly wish there was some way to apologize to Mr. Zelenskyy. It was truly a shame what he had to go through in the meeting with the dictator, now posing as our president and one o...
The pain of Hamas hostage families
Politics
March 18, 2025
“Good morning. I’m Kathryn, what’s your name?” It was a natural enough question — at that awkward part of a meeting where we knew the vaguest things about one another. I knew he had a family member be...
Sunshine Week shines light on right to know
Politics
March 18, 2025
SUNSHINE WEEK IS AN ANNUAL March observation that celebrates the importance of shedding light in the darkness, and the Mon Valley Independent takes the Sunshine Act, the public’s right to know and the...
The two faces of Donald Trump
Politics
March 17, 2025
Donald Trump is a singular figure in United States political history — an elitist at war with the country’s elite, a beneficiary of the American commercial system who is resentful of the institutions ...
Politics
March 17, 2025
EARLIER THIS MONTH, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey got his hackles up about money. Was it about the financial troubles his city finds itself experiencing? Nope. It was about the funds of his Democratic ch...
Politics
Butchering government
March 15, 2025
To the Editor: Donald Trump, aided by Elon Musk, a billionaire with no federal governmental connection, in a month has managed to eliminate thousands of federal workers, entire agencies, and has creat...
The Homer Simpson gloss on Trump’s tariff philosophy
Politics
March 15, 2025
There’s a classic episode of The Simpsons in which Homer gets a gun. He thinks his awesome gun is great for everything: home defense, opening beer bottles, whatever. When Marge says she doesn’t want a...
Hits & Misses
Politics
March 15, 2025
It’s great to see curtains going up. All over the Mon Valley things are a little dramatic right now. It is the height of spring musical season, and in middle schools and high schools across the region...