“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 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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

“Tariff Whiplash Spooks U.S. Consumers,” blares the Wall Street Journal. “How the US economy went from booming to a recession scare in only 20 days,” reports CNN. “Donald Trump’s economic delusions ar...

The Republican register of wills and coroner will face challengers in the May primary election. No Democratic candidates have filed to run for Westmoreland County row offices this year, further weaken...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump in recent days has dismissed fears of a recession and brushed aside the stock market sell-off, going so far as to say, “You can’t really watch the stock market...

The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue was created more than 20 years ago, in 2004, at a time when Democrats were up in arms over another Republican president, George W. Bush. “In the early 2000s...

ON MONDAY, PENN STATE’S board of trustees sold the naming rights to its most prized piece of real estate for $50 million. The gridiron of grass inside Beaver Stadium is becoming West Shore Home Field....

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has threatened it before. It has dangled the string and tried to make us jump. It has coyly set deadlines only to pull back at the last minute. It’s happening! It is! Ha, ha, no...

Fable one: Trump is appeasing Russia? Who wiped out the Wagner group in Syria? Who sold offensive weapons to Ukraine first? Who warned Germany not to become dependent on the Russian Nord Stream II dea...

“Amy Coney Barrett was a DEI appointee.” These days, political parody is next to impossible, because politics is so absurd. Case in point: The above quote is from a post from someone on the right side...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Donald Trump’s idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s, when top hats and shirtwaists were fashionable and typhoid fever often killed more so...

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. As promised, the second Trump administration has quickly rolled out a slew of policies a...

DENVER (AP) — For decades, conservatives in Congress have talked about the need to cut government deeply, but they have always pulled back from mandating specific reductions, fearful of voter backlash...

NEW YORK (AP) — As their party struggles to navigate the early days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, some Democrats are convinced that their road to recovery lies in the price of eggs. Instead of ...

I don’t say this often, but let’s give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. During Trump’s instantly infamous Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, the Ukrainian president was dete...