Politics
November 18, 2024
THE 2024 ELECTION SEASON was expensive. AdImpact, a Virginia-based advertising analytics firm, reported the total cost of political advertising leading to this year’s general election at a staggering ...
Coretta Scott King: a woman of dignity and quiet strength
Politics
November 18, 2024
For Black women of my mother’s generation, Coretta Scott King was like Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Following the assassination of her husband, during days of very public mourning, Mrs. King was a port...
Politics
By By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent 
November 16, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a resounding election victory, delivering what President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans said is a mandate to govern, an uneasy political question is emerging: Will there be...
Victorious Republicans are once again falling for the mandate trap
Politics
November 16, 2024
In September, I wrote, “No matter who wins, the next president will declare that they have a ‘mandate’ to do something. And they will be wrong.” I was wrong in one sense. Now, I still think the idea o...
Politics
November 15, 2024
WHAT IS BULLYING? What is harassment? The definitions in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary are simple. Bullying is abuse and mistreatment of someone vulnerable by someone stronger or more powerful. Harassm...
The moron-elect
Politics
November 15, 2024
The late H.L. Mencken has always been among my favorite misanthropes. Like all satirists, he took a dim view of human nature. One of my favorite Mencken epigrams seems particularly apt in the wake of ...
Small signs of hope
Politics
November 15, 2024
The election was a devastating defeat for Democrats. But does it foreshadow an enduring realignment of American politics? Probably not. There’s plenty of evidence that voters chose between two distinc...
Trump picks Gaetz for AG, Rubio for secretary of state
Politics
November 14, 2024
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President- elect Donald Trump chose Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general on Wednesday, bypassing more experienced options in favor of a loyalist who...
Politics
November 14, 2024
NEARLY HALF OF THE 67 counties in Pennsylvania are now under a drought watch, according to a recent press release issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The Pennsylvania Dro...
Donald Trump’s magnificent beginning
Politics
November 14, 2024
As my assiduous readers know, I’ve been down on Donald Trump for abandoning the central promises of his 2016 campaign — a campaign so spectacular that I wrote an homage to it, “In Trump We Trust.” In ...
A pair of Trump officials have defended family separation and ramped-up deportations
Politics
By By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press 
November 13, 2024
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Donald Trump’s first picks for immigration policy jobs spent the last four years angling for this moment. Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan had critical roles in the first Trump adminis...
Politics
November 12, 2024
LAW ENFORCEMENT officers have been in the spotlight often in recent years for being on the wrong side of the handcuffs. Sheriffs, deputies, police chiefs, officers, state troopers and more have been a...
That’s the power of love
Politics
November 12, 2024
As we faced a presidential election, Pope Francis asked us to have a heart. Writing about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he used it as a reminder to all of us: We are loved. So many of us don’t believe it...
Harrris was always doomed
Politics
November 12, 2024
The presidential race was not unpredictable, as the now once again discredited polls swore to us. The Republicans had made massive gains in voter registrations since 2020, when Donald Trump had lost t...
Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico
Politics
November 12, 2024
By MARK STEVENSON AND MARÍA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is facing a second Donald Trump presidency, and few countries can match its experience as a target of Trump’s rhetoric: The...
Politics
November 11, 2024
IF THERE WAS ONE LESSON from the presidential election, it might be about counting chickens. The old adage suggests not counting them before they are hatched. Farm wisdom will tell you just because yo...
Racism, misogyny herald downfall of democracy
Politics
November 11, 2024
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. — “The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats My daughter was born in December 2008. Just a few weeks earlier, the United States had elected its first Black pr...
Politics
November 11, 2024
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...