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Wright the right pick to lead Trump’s Department of Energy

I am pretty sure that no group of leftists are more despondent with Donald Trump’s election and staffing picks than the climate alarmist crowd – and they should be – because based on Trump’s picks, it seems that climate realism is coming to the White House. Most notably, Trump’s pick of Chris Wright as his energy secretary is an absolutely inspired choice if you are concerned with energy security and costs, which all of us should be. Detractors have already begun to complain that Wright is a “climate denier,” but that is false. Wright does not deny that the planet has ...

The future depends on a thriving free press

The press is the only profession specifically named and protected in the United States Constitution. And that’s because our founders knew it was inextricably linked to the success of our states, our country, and our young republic. Yet, most people’s experience with the news lately has been terrible. Extreme financial pressure has led to fewer trusted local reporters and diminished local reporting, while national media — especially cable news — has gotten louder and more divisive. Many people are tuning out, turning away, or worse, vilifying journalism as the enemy. Yet ...

Educate yourself about vaccines and help prevent a great tragedy

For most people alive today, polio, smallpox, tetanus, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and birth defects due to rubella (German measles) are distant rumors. But in the early 1800’s half of all children born in the United States died before their fifth birthday. A hundred years ago one child out of every six in our country died before the age of 5. Most of these children died of those same infectious diseases I’ve listed. Up until the late 1960’s, thousands of American children were stricken with polio every year. Most recovered, but many died, and many were left with ...

Don’t throw in towel on ‘DOGE’

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy want to cut $2 trillion and make the government more efficient. It’s a high priority since the United States is barreling toward a fiscal crisis. Yet despite the mounting evidence of unsustainable spending and deficits, lots of people seem to believe that the goals of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, are dead on arrival. Why? Because these doubters believe that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are completely off-limits for cuts. This is nonsense. Spending on these three programs represents roughly half of 2025’s $7 trillion ...

Americans need Trump’s White House to unleash natural gas

What should President-elect Donald Trump do on Day One? The answer is clear for Pennsylvania, where the president-elect campaigned the most and delivered a historic victory. Trump won Pennsylvania in large part by promising to end the Biden administration’s war on natural gas, the energy source that powers the state’s and the country’s economic future. His most important job is to deliver on the promise. In Pennsylvania, the urgency is palpable. We’re the country’s second-largest producer of natural gas and the No. 1 state for exporting electricity. The natural gas we drill ...

Whiskey’s resurgence in rebellion’s heart

LATROBE -- The making of whiskey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, has often been fraught with a fair amount of drama. Whether it was those trying to make it or those trying to drink it, the government has sought to tax and sometimes even ban both activities. Two hundred thirty years ago, William Findley, a Revolutionary War hero, farmer and statesman, drew the wrath of Alexander Hamilton over the severe measures the Treasury Department placed on Pennsylvania farmers who opposed the newly enacted federal whiskey excise tax. Findley, who lived in Latrobe, petitioned the new government to ...