Gov. Whitmer’s party should learn from what she did in the Oval Office
Politics
April 19, 2025
Kudos to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She managed to generate the most negatively iconic photo of a Democrat since Michael Dukakis wore a helmet atop a tank. Whitmer, long considered a promising pr...
Hits & Misses
Politics
April 19, 2025
Happy Easter to all of our readers and neighbors throughout the Mon Valley. We hope this annual season of rebirth and growth leads to wonderful things for all of you. Let’s celebrate the holiday and t...
Politics
‘Thank you,’
April 18, 2025
To the Editor: Will you, Monessen resident, go to the polls this coming November and give Mr. Mozer another four years as mayor of Monessen? Are you satisfied with what he has done or not done for the...
The disappearing middle
Politics
April 18, 2025
After two terms in the United States Senate, Gary Peters is calling it quits. “I will say, over these last few years, it gets harder every single year,” the Michigan Democrat told CNN. “The middle is ...
Trump says he’ll join tariff talks with Japan
Politics
April 17, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday inserted himself directly into trade talks with Japa- nese officials, a sign of the high stakes for the Unit ed States after its tariffs rattled t...
Politics
April 17, 2025
A PENNSYLVANIA COURT has decided the people don’t need to know about communications between state lawmakers and lobbyists who court them for influence. Nonprofit newsroom Spotlight PA asked for commun...
The ‘government excellence’ files
Politics
April 17, 2025
It’s understandable that Democrats are fuming about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse, inasmuch as the people committing the waste, fraud and abuse a...
Politics
April 16, 2025
DURING PASSOVER, the Jewish people remember the liberation of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. It is a time of reflection and rejoicing. It is marked by solemnity and celebration. On Saturday, G...
Politics
Deranged
April 16, 2025
To the Editor: In “No pain, no gain” ( MVI, 4-9-25) the letter writer makes a valiant effort to put lipstick on Trump’s tariff war with China. He turns history upside down to imply China betrayed our ...
Europe fear: China will do to us what it did to the U.S.
Politics
April 16, 2025
Much of the public’s attention to the Trump tariff situation focuses on 1) each person’s individual loss, or possible loss, in the stock market and 2) whether tariffs will result in inflation going fo...
Politics
April 15, 2025
To the Editor: Why doesn’t the left deal with facts, instead of spewing out DNC talking points? While reading some of these “Letters to the Editor,” I wonder why they want this country and Trump to fa...
10 tariff questions never asked
Politics
April 15, 2025
1. President Donald Trump’s so-called “trade war.” Many call the American effort to obtain either tariff parity or a reduction in the roughly $1 trillion trade deficit and 50 years of consecutive trad...
The hope of the pope
Politics
April 15, 2025
Pope Francis making snow angels. That image adorned the cover of an issue of The New Yorker in December 2013. I have a coffee mug I picked up in Rome early on in his pontificate depicting him as a sup...
Politics
April 15, 2025
ACCORDING TO PENNSYLVANIA LAW, your land is not your possession and affords no expectation of privacy. That was the argument Deputy Attorney General Anthony Kovalchick made to the Pennsylvania Supreme...
Politics
April 14, 2025
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT is representative. We pull from our neighbors to find the people who should lead us. But we don’t put those people in place forever. Or at least, we don’t plan on it. Frequently, h...
History lends context to contemporary conflicts
Politics
April 14, 2025
It’s the middle of April in twenty-five, and hardly a man or woman is now alive who knows by heart the opening of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem that once was memorized by generations of American...
Hits & Misses
Politics
April 12, 2025
At sundown, the first night of Passover begins. This major Jewish holiday celebrates the most momentous event in Jewish history — the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. But, for th...
Markets to GOP: We won’t save you from Trump’s folly
Politics
April 12, 2025
John Maynard Keynes famously said, “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” The point being that, even if you’re right about where the stock market is bound to go eventually...
Politics
April 12, 2025
To the Editor: Politics has always been “the art of compromise.” And compromise requires differing parties to debate and discuss openly their positions and be willing to listen to each other in order ...
End of an era: Glassworkers bid farewell as production ceases at plant after
Politics
April 11, 2025
TODAY MARKS THE END of an era and the close of a major chapter in Charleroi’s history as the Corelle Brands Inc. factory will stop producing glassware after 132 years. After the last employees leave t...