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Voters need genuine election reform

Imagine that you are at the liquor store but forgot your ID. Don’t worry, your friend can sign an affidavit saying you’re over 21. Sounds ridiculous? That’s because it is. Yet, that’s the essence of the latest voter ID proposal in Pennsylvania. Vouching for a friend wouldn’t fly at the state liquor store — nor should it at the ballot box. Numerous efforts to improve Pennsylvania’s problematic voting laws have centered on meaningful voter ID. This election integrity reform is a simple way to make voting easy and cheating hard. It balances access with security. Let’s be ...

Deal of a lifetime for US Steel

WEST MIFFLIN — Local steelworkers, community leaders and economic experts said President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that a deal was struck between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel will go down in American history as the most enduring economic “big, beautiful deal” the 47th president has made. It is a deal robustly supported by the rank-and-file steelworkers from the three plants that make up the Mon Valley Works. The deal is believed to reverse the decline of steel that began under former President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. “I am proud to announce that, after much ...

Hard to summarize Trump’s first 100 days

The first one hundred days of the second Trump administration are over. While his cabinet sycophanticly praises him, here’s where we really are: Thousands of government employees have been fired from their jobs leaving many agencies and departments severely understaffed. Trump’s reach has even extended into places where he constitutionally has no authority, like the Library of Congress. Services to the neediest Americans (veterans, poor people, children, the elderly) have been eliminated. Agencies affected include Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and the ...

Issue of school choice returns to state lawmakers’ agendas

School choice is, once again, the talk of the town in Harrisburg. Hundreds of students, parents, educators, lawmakers, and activists crowded the Capitol steps, rallying support for meaningful education reform. Meanwhile, inside the building, lawmakers advanced one such reform. The Senate Education Committee voted 8–3 to advance the Lifeline Scholarships Program, also known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS). This program would provide scholarships to low-income students attending Pennsylvania’s lowest-performing schools, so they can use the money to find a ...

A renaissance for military technology

The world is entering a new era of great power competition – and under President Trump’s second term, America is rising to meet the challenge with a bold renaissance in military technology. As Vice President J.D. Vance declared in Paris this April, “The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep that. The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety. It will be won by building.” Nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the Trump administration’s embrace of a new generation of defense technology firms. Companies ...

Who was the sucker in the Middle-East?

We are all familiar with the famous saying that, “there is one born every minute.” The aphorism is referring to suckers; people who will believe what they are told regardless of how absurd or outrageous the representation may be. In the Middle East, there is a word, a well-known colloquial, when someone is called a “friar.” Plainly stated, it refers to someone who could be easily suckered. Is Donald Trump playing the role of the sucker in the Middle East trip? The President believes that peace comes through economics. After all, why fight with somebody from whom you are making ...