Opinion, Politics
By By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press 
February 10, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers tried Monday to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, but the former girlfriend and confidant of Jeffrey Epstein invoked her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions that...
Opinion, Politics
February 10, 2026
SINCE 1957, PENNSYLVANIA has codified a responsibility to make public meetings accessible to the people. The state law also evolved, eventually becoming what is now known as the Sunshine Act. The earl...
Midterm palpitations
Opinion, Politics
February 10, 2026
Recent regional special elections have seen Democratic candidates win a number of special election races. Now energized left-wing politicos remind the nation daily that every incumbent president, exce...
Opinion
February 9, 2026
ON JULY 30, 2022, Marc Fogel’s name first appeared on this opinion page. It would not be the last. The Butler County native and Pittsburgh resident was a recurring topic in editorials for four years a...
Opinion
February 7, 2026
Tomorrow, football fans will be gathering for Super Bowl LX, and the Pittsburgh Steelers will be watching from the sidelines — again. But, that doesn’t mean us yinzers still can’t enjoy Sunday’s big g...
Why does the Trump family always get a pass?
Opinion, Politics
February 7, 2026
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche joined ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to defend or explain a lot of controversies for the Trump administration: the Epstein files release, the events in Minneapo...
Opinion
Trump’s tool box
February 7, 2026
To the Editor: I wish to express my gratitude to the person who wrote a letter to the editor that was published on Jan. 27 “Get Over It.” The writer was spot-on in addressing the endless whining and c...
Opinion
February 7, 2026
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...
The GOP’s Hispanic headache
Opinion, Politics
February 6, 2026
It was only one state senate race in Texas. Low-turnout, off-cycle elections are seldom good predictors of larger trends. And the Democrats had a better candidate: a working- class aircraft mechanic r...
Opinion
February 6, 2026
To the Editor: I am writing to express my profound gratitude regarding a recent police incident in our borough of North Belle Vernon. In a community as quiet and unassuming as ours, events like these ...
Opinion
February 6, 2026
HOMELESSNESS IS A PROBLEM people often try not to see. There are places where that takes effort. In urban areas, homelessness is more visible — in park encampments and on sidewalks, where people learn...
Opinion
February 5, 2026
SNOW DAYS MAKE YOU WANT to be out in the stinging wind, feeling the crunch of drifts under your boots, making angels on the lawn and building a fort to fight off your friends with a volley of solidly ...
Gushing over Gavin
Opinion, Politics
February 5, 2026
Conservatives have complained about media bias for decades. But there is bias and then there is bias. Lots of major media institutions — the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and many others — are ...
Opinion, Politics
February 5, 2026
By MARY CLARE JALONICK AND JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite rare negotiations between Democrats and President Donald Trump, a bipartisan agreement on new restrictions for fe...
The runaway horse that is Donald Trump
Opinion, Politics
February 4, 2026
PALM BEACH, Fla. — From his lair at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump sees the sun rising. His sunshine retreat doesn’t allow him to see the sun setting. But it is another of the human senses that may be the m...
Opinion, Politics
By By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press 
February 4, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed late Monday to testify in a House investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but th...
Opinion
February 4, 2026
THE LATEST REPORT ON CTE is both enlightening and alarming. A groundbreaking study from Boston University researchers found that those with CTE have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with dement...
Opinion
February 3, 2026
To the Editor: With the winter storms and cold weather making the news headlines this past week, there were two stories in the Mon Valley Independent that warmed my heart coming out of Charleroi. Ther...
Slouching towards Fort Sumter?
Opinion, Politics
February 3, 2026
In the months before the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter, there were lots of sharp divisions in the North about the proper reaction to the first seven Confederate states that had already left th...