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The cost of waiting to protect children

Pennsylvania has spent years trying to atone for child welfare failures. There were generations of abuse in churches. The Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal put the state under a national lens. There have been persistent questions about ChildLine hotline reports that went unanswered. There was also the moment nearly 20 years ago when a grand jury delivered a clear recommendation: The state needed an independent watchdog for children in its care. And yet, it still does not have one. The obvious question when looking at that lag is what the cost has been. The cost has a name: ...

Pittsburgh’s place in the new space race

We don’t know who invented the first wheel. We do know everything that came after it — SUVs and bicycles, gas stations and turnpike exits clustered with fast-food drive-thrus. We know a lot about space travel. We know how it evolved from flight and rockets and an insatiable curiosity about what lies beyond our reach. A challenge issued in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy was realized in 1969 when Neil Armstrong left his boot prints on the moon. Since then, our interest in space has ebbed and flowed, although our instinct to utilize it hasn’t. Rockets gave way to shuttles and ...

Nostalgia for a bad habit

I miss smoking. There. I've said it. Now, I don't miss it enough to go out and buy a $17 pack of cigarettes -- which is apparently the lunatic price these days -- and sit down and smoke them, but I certainly miss it enough to hope that if I'm ever on a plane that's about to go down in a fiery ball the Bermuda Triangle, some kind soul on board will have, and agree to bum me, a square. God help me if the only combustible on offer is a vape, which won't precisely do the trick. I don't blame anyone who's trying to preserve their health, however dubious the method, but I always ...

Work built our communities then and will do it again

We always enjoy the opportunities to share the rich history of our region with the public. We continue to believe that a better understanding of “then” can help our leaders and voters alike in deciding what our “now” should look like. One consistent thread we find as we look back over the decades — building our communities and neighborhoods required a lot of work. Work met the needs of families throughout our history — for housing and shelter, for food, for clothing. Work offered those families opportunities to support themselves, to most fully realize our nation’s ...

Politicians don’t own you or me

Politicians tax what we earn, regulate what we build and often decide what we can do with our bodies and our money. I like to think I own myself. But politicians increasingly act as if they do. "People should not have power over other people's lives," says Timothy Sandefur, author of the book "You Don't Own Me." In my latest video, Sandefur challenges the attitude that "freedom belongs to the government and it can parcel it out to us." He starts with building permits. "A building permit really says, you're not allowed to build on your own property until the government ...

Holidays’ messages include value of resilience

We are in the midst of what is, for many Americans, one of the holiest times of the year. Our Jewish neighbors are observing Passover, which commemorates the resilience of their community in the face of Egyptian oppression thousands of years ago. Meanwhile, Christians in our communities will celebrate Easter Sunday — the occasion of Christ’s resurrection, three days after Good Friday, when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the authorities. While the details of these commemorations are, of course, different, both speak to a shared virtue — a virtue we believe people of all faiths ...