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Inflation’s impact on family businesses

MURRYSVILLE -- Seventy years after the Ferri family moved its grocery store from Turtle Creek to this Westmoreland County town, the family is calling it quits. The pressures of inflation and the unexpected closing of the Mainline Pharmacy, the independent pharmaceutical located inside their iconic structure, were the final two straws. The beloved family grocery posted a note on Facebook announcing the end-of-May closing “with a heavy heart” after serving as “a corner stone of our community and ... fostering connections that have spanned generations.” In February, Mainline ...

Petty politics, bad regulations hinder telemedicine

Dr. Marlene Wüst-Smith practiced telemedicine before it became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, government restrictions sometimes hinder her ability to practice this innovative health care model. “I’ve always been an early adopter of new technologies and practices,” says Wüst-Smith, a Pennsylvania-based pediatrician and founder of Physician Outlook, a digital publication dedicated to “restoring the beauty and artistry of the doctor-patient relationship.” Wüst-Smith asserts telemedicine helps physicians build meaningful and productive relationships ...

On Jan. 20, 2025, will the oath be a blasphemy?

I never thought I would ever see the day when there would be enough American voters to elect someone running for the presidency on a promise he will be a mortal enemy of the Constitution. But that’s precisely what could happen in our next presidential election. On Inauguration Day on January 20, 2025, the Republic of the United States could well become the Republican Party of MAGA, and the Constitution of the United States, Trump’s governing game-plan, “The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025: The Mandate for Leadership, A Conservative Promise.” On Monday, January 20, 2025, ...

President uses federal agency to boost campaign

In the 118th Congress, I serve on the Small Business Committee, chairing the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access. Recently, we discovered a troubling development within the Small Business Administration (SBA). On March 19, 2024, the SBA announced an aggressive voter registration initiative with the Michigan Department of State. The Small Business Committee believes this agreement is likely unethical and potentially illegal. The arrangement utilizes SBA staff and resources to register voters, seemingly targeting Democrat-heavy areas like Dearborn and ...

College cesspools and the deep distress of American idealism

One of the basic tenets that I learned as a trial lawyer was the importance of going out and getting the facts. A former partner of mine once said to me, “You can’t argue with the facts of your own case law.” That thought never departed from my view of litigation or my understanding of how the world operates. With this thought in mind, going out and getting the facts, I did the same thing that Peggy Noonan recently did. I was not aware of her foray to Columbia, but for several weekends I have been in the Philadelphia area, visiting colleges, trying to talk to pro-Hamas students, ...

Making it easier to make things

With more tariffs on electric vehicles and an election featuring two pro-tariff presidential candidates on the way, the debate about how best to support and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing sector is back. Some argue, mistakenly, that the key to protecting American industries and manufacturing jobs is a set of tariffs on industrial imports. This approach is ultimately counterproductive. There are better ways to help American manufacturing, not the least of which is to remove regulatory barriers and reform the tax code. U.S. tariffs -- taxes on Americans’ purchases of imports -- are ...