Columns
Written
January 26, 2026
When I moved in 1980 from Washington, PA, to a new job elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, my local newspaper became the Valley News-Dispatch, printed in Tarentum but eventually owned by the paper in the next county, the Greensburg Tribune-Review.
I also read two Pittsburgh papers, the morning Post-Gazette and the evening Press. However, those became unavailable during a 1992 newspaper strike. Until the strike was settled, Pittsburgh coverage had to be obtained from the aforementioned Tribune-Review.
Unfortunately the Trib's owner, until his death in 2014, was millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. Scaife was a major funder of conservative organizations, so the Trib maintained a conservative editorial stance too far right for my taste. When the less dogmatic Post-Gazette resumed publication, I became a subscriber.
Times change. After more labor troubles, the Post-Gazette has announced it will fold in May 2026. If so, that will leave the city with only the Tribune-Review.
I've begun to read the Trib online, and I find it's less objectionably partisan now than it was in Scaife's day. For example, here are condensations of four opinion pieces and letters, all of which appeared on the Trib's editorial page on Sunday, January 25.
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Representation Includes Place “Did you see ‘The Pitt’?” is becoming a regular refrain after the HBO Max medical series airs Thursdays. Each episode, set in a fictional Pittsburgh hospital, becomes a scavenger hunt of familiar yinzer treasures. The most recent included references to the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings and Zambelli Fireworks. Others have included Primanti Bros., the Freedom House Ambulance Service, and Mister Rogers. Is this what it feels like to be from Manhattan or Los Angeles, where so much is set and where local color becomes shorthand for America overall? There is value in seeing yourself reflected in something being shown to the world — especially when that something is earning the kind of popular and industry praise that “The Pitt” is garnering. Pittsburgh is a proud city, steeped in important accomplishments that too often can be painted over with the black-and-gold brush of team spirit. Southwestern Pennsylvania loves its sports teams, but it is also so much more, in so many ways. You can root for Pittsburgh, fall in love with it, get mad at it and empathize with it. When Pittsburgh is represented, its people feel seen. The Editors |
Regime Must Be Changed George Washington, in his farewell address, had two warnings. One was against a popular demagogue rising to the presidency and destroying liberty in his egotistical power quests. The other was this: “Overgrown military establishments are, under any form of government, inauspicious to liberty and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” Trump is the demagogue. And he has created an overgrown secondary internal military alongside his Department of War. ICE has gone beyond its alleged mission of removing violent illegal immigrants to physically assaulting and arresting American citizens, even killing them. How ironic this is occurring domestically while Trump is threatening action against Iran if it acts against its protesters. Both regimes must be replaced by democratic republics. Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution provides the means for removing Trump. Congress and sane American people must take immediate action or more Americans, and America itself, will die.
Bruce
Braden |
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A Bad Bet On Sports It wasn't that long ago when sports betting was illegal. Then suddenly it was as though profit, rather than controlling this vice, became paramount. Now we have betting platforms that go by the names DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, bet365, Fanatics Sportsbook, BetRivers and Hard Rock Bet, among others. College players are now being paid for the use of their “image.” Some are enticed to transfer to other schools that offer better financial deals. Today there seems little difference between college and professional sports. Alumni contribute cash to their alma maters, hoping to produce winning teams. Game-rigging, which used to be on the fringes of sports, has now moved close to center court. “No level of basketball is safe,” reports the Wall Street Journal. There is precedent for attempting to control other vices. Cigarette advertising has been banned since 1971. Liquor ads are required to focus on people over the legal drinking age. This is believed necessary to discourage especially younger people from smoking and drinking. Sports betting is something that can and should be controlled.
Cal
Thomas |
Trump
and the President Trump's actions so far in 2026 have been head-spinning, but we can get clarity by checking them against some of the oldest and best instructions out there: the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not covet ... anything of thy neighbor.” Trump says he attacked Venezuela to take its oil, and then he pushed its opposition leader to give him her Nobel Peace Prize. And then there's Greenland! “Thou shalt not kill.” Trump's poorly trained, poorly controlled ICE force stalks America's neighborhoods. He and his administration seemingly lied about the video evidence. Oops — there goes “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (and worse) must be a huge problem, because Trump and his friends are still holding back the Epstein files. On Jan. 8, Trump told reporters he could make war on his own, without regard for international law or the Constitution, guided only by his “own morality.” Unfortunately, Trump's so-called morality is exactly the problem. Only God's authority is absolute.
Diana
Parno |
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