Much of the angst and legal wrangling over property assessments in Allegheny County and statewide could be eliminated by instituting mandatory regular reassessments that incorporate standardized norms, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.

When a new year begins, it’s a time for many people to reflect on their successes and failures in the prior year. Our government should be doing the same thing at the start of 2020, and it should start by evaluating its actions (and failures to act) to regulate the shale gas industry.

One of the hallmarks of civilization is the rule of law. When laws are codified and enforced fairly, people know how they are expected to behave. Laws hold us to standards we set for ourselves. An important aspect of a just society is that we are all equal before the law. This was the irresi…

“To become a maker is to make the world for others, not only the material world but the world of ideas that rules over the material world, the dreams we inhabit and dream together.”

When it comes to the impeachment proceedings, the Democrats have drawn a bad hand. Attempting to move the electorate toward support for removing the president during the holiday season, between Thanksgiving and the New Year, may be an impossible task. As go voter’s opinions and attention spa…

The impeachment hearings that took place over two weeks presented a complex scenario for the American public to follow. The post-cold war relationship between Russia, Ukraine and the United States that sets the background for the hearings is even more complicated and was little discussed by …

WASHINGTON – Vice President Spiro (Ted) Agnew has arrived. He has caused adrenaline to flow in tired bodies by forcefully employing man’s gift of speech on such vulnerable targets as radicalized youth, weakening parents, wishy-washy college officials, and assorted cliques, claques and bands …

It is difficult to keep abreast of the new lows that are inflicted on the country by the president on an almost daily basis, but one which stands out is his efforts to intimidate witnesses who are testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry in violation of the president’s orders to…

Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto recently made a very public statement that he opposes any further development of the region’s petrochemical industry. While we respect the mayor’s view and his right to set policy for the city of Pittsburgh, he does not speak for this region. We, as members of …

Washington County needs a diversity commission to allow all communities to thrive.

Comprehensive methane pollution regulation is important for Pennsylvania.

In my lifetime our country, and indeed much of the western world, has not been as polarized over partisan politics. Even the tumultuous 1960s and ‘70s, when Vietnam, civil rights and the Nixon impeachment divided the country, did not appear as divisive as today’s social media-fueled politica…

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” was the admonition of Sir Walter Scott in his 1808 poem “Marmion.”

In the Democratic primary debates the candidates agree on a lot of things; the most obvious being that they believe that anyone on the stage would be a better president than President Trump. The problem is debates where everyone agrees don’t make news (or good television), so the moderators …

Politico Magazine (Sept. 8) recently set off a firestorm of discussion when it highlighted an academic paper presented by the renowned political scientist, Shawn Rosenberg. Rosenberg concluded that “democracy is devouring itself – and it won’t last.” His premise is that social media has dilu…

Media coverage of possible presidential impeachment dominates the news today as few issues in recent memory. Yet, the constitutional framework which controls impeachment (scattered throughout Articles I, II, and III), is little understood by even normally informed Americans.

As a witness to the Cold War, I am rather disturbed by the amount of praise I’ve been hearing for socialism lately, and it makes me wonder what exactly are we paying history professors for? It seems that college students are being conditioned to view business success as the enemy of the peop…

Despite the Allegheny County Airport Authority’s much ballyhooed and publicly subsidized international flights at Pittsburgh International Airport, passenger numbers for those flights have fallen dramatically.

The Washington County Chamber of Commerce was recently joined by Washington County Commissioners Larry Maggi, Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober as well as State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, state Rep. Jason Ortitay and several of Washington County’s municipal leaders at an event to highlight t…

When it comes to the impeachment proceedings, the Democrats have drawn a bad hand. Attempting to move the electorate toward support for removing the president during the holiday season, between Thanksgiving and the New Year, may be an impossible task. As go voter’s opinions and attention spa…

The impeachment hearings that took place over two weeks presented a complex scenario for the American public to follow. The post-cold war relationship between Russia, Ukraine and the United States that sets the background for the hearings is even more complicated and was little discussed by …

WASHINGTON – Vice President Spiro (Ted) Agnew has arrived. He has caused adrenaline to flow in tired bodies by forcefully employing man’s gift of speech on such vulnerable targets as radicalized youth, weakening parents, wishy-washy college officials, and assorted cliques, claques and bands …

It is difficult to keep abreast of the new lows that are inflicted on the country by the president on an almost daily basis, but one which stands out is his efforts to intimidate witnesses who are testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry in violation of the president’s orders to…

Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto recently made a very public statement that he opposes any further development of the region’s petrochemical industry. While we respect the mayor’s view and his right to set policy for the city of Pittsburgh, he does not speak for this region. We, as members of …

Washington County needs a diversity commission to allow all communities to thrive.

Comprehensive methane pollution regulation is important for Pennsylvania.

In my lifetime our country, and indeed much of the western world, has not been as polarized over partisan politics. Even the tumultuous 1960s and ‘70s, when Vietnam, civil rights and the Nixon impeachment divided the country, did not appear as divisive as today’s social media-fueled politica…

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” was the admonition of Sir Walter Scott in his 1808 poem “Marmion.”

In the Democratic primary debates the candidates agree on a lot of things; the most obvious being that they believe that anyone on the stage would be a better president than President Trump. The problem is debates where everyone agrees don’t make news (or good television), so the moderators …

Politico Magazine (Sept. 8) recently set off a firestorm of discussion when it highlighted an academic paper presented by the renowned political scientist, Shawn Rosenberg. Rosenberg concluded that “democracy is devouring itself – and it won’t last.” His premise is that social media has dilu…

Media coverage of possible presidential impeachment dominates the news today as few issues in recent memory. Yet, the constitutional framework which controls impeachment (scattered throughout Articles I, II, and III), is little understood by even normally informed Americans.

As a witness to the Cold War, I am rather disturbed by the amount of praise I’ve been hearing for socialism lately, and it makes me wonder what exactly are we paying history professors for? It seems that college students are being conditioned to view business success as the enemy of the peop…

Despite the Allegheny County Airport Authority’s much ballyhooed and publicly subsidized international flights at Pittsburgh International Airport, passenger numbers for those flights have fallen dramatically.

The Washington County Chamber of Commerce was recently joined by Washington County Commissioners Larry Maggi, Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober as well as State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, state Rep. Jason Ortitay and several of Washington County’s municipal leaders at an event to highlight t…

We recently attended a wedding in Pittsburgh, organized by and populated with millennials. Nothing about the ceremony or reception was traditional. The few baby boomers in attendance could not help scratching their heads at the audacity of young people changing the rules of getting married. …

Lawmaking has often been compared to sausage making. One may relish eating it but not want to know how it is produced. Never has this been truer than watching the Pennsylvania General Assembly tackle modern election reform.

Gary Stout opined in a Sept. 8 op-ed that now is not the time for a change in the county commissioner makeup. To the contrary, if there was ever a time for a change, it is now. Such a change is critical to the well-being of the county now and for the future.

In late July, President Trump launched a frontal assault on the nation’s cornerstone food assistance program: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Pennsylvania’s development of shale gas is a homegrown industry with national and global benefits – from improving air quality to reshaping geopolitics – making America and our allies stronger and more secure.

Many prospective voters are focused on the national elections in 2020 and giving little attention to this November’s contests. For voters in Washington County, this would be a mistake. This year’s race for county commissioner will determine whether Washington County remains on the path of re…

Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts on the author’s trip to the Baltics. Today: the importance of the Baltics within the context of recent foreign affairs.

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts on a Baltic Sea cruise taken earlier this summer.

Paradigms, sometimes called “world views,” are the ways we experience, think about and often measure particular ideas, subjects and institutions.

From 2005 to 2017, Pennsylvania tripled its daily production of natural gas with the help of the Marcellus and Utica shale reserves. The abundance of natural gas has opened a door of economic opportunity for Pennsylvanians, but to fully take advantage of these energy resources, we must also …

Public employee pension reform now is in full bloom in Pennsylvania. But if the limited data available from the first of two groups is any indication, there hasn’t been any rush by employees – new or old – to embrace defined-contribution plans, suggests an analysis by a researcher at the All…

It is time for the Democrats in the House to initiate the impeachment process. The Democratic leadership fears that impeachment, while justified, is a losing proposition politically because as long as the Republicans control the Senate, they will stop the process, which will allow Trump to c…

Pennsylvania collected the highest total impact fees ever in 2018, fueled in part by a court ruling but paced largely by increased demand for shale gas, concludes a review of state data by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.

Remember all the excitement among Democrats when Conor Lamb won the special election for Congress in a Republican district? This euphoria was repeated when the Democratic Party took back the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections. Now it is happening again, as Trump levels racist…

It is difficult enough to keep track of family schedules, local news and domestic politics. Attempting to keep informed on the status of other countries is beyond the capabilities of most of us. Unless one is blessed with entirely too much free time and an insatiable appetite for reading the…

It was good news to see four sold-out concerts of the Pittsburgh Symphony performing Beethoven’s 9th symphony (Ode to Joy) at Heinz Hall. It was disheartening to see many of the patrons using walkers and hearing aids with few twenty-somethings in attendance. One would expect that the symphon…

Fundamentalism has long been part of religious and political thought. For centuries, faith was an all or nothing proposition. Strict adherence to religious texts and dogma were maintained. There could be no compromise as the great monotheistic religions sought to rule the world. Within faith…

Thanks to President Trump’s economic policies, Pennsylvania’s unemployment recently hit an all-time low of 3.9 percent, while the state’s job count hit a record 6.2 million. In his first two years in office, Trump fostered job and wage growth by enacting the largest tax reform in 31 years an…

Much has been made of the Trump presidency and of illiberal democracies around the world resurrecting the menace of far right political views. Under this theory, voters in this country and abroad have been converted to the ideology of the far right, including the rebirth of political institu…

“There’s nothing nice about the prospect of going back to war again. Anybody who has been in war and wants to go back is a plain damn fool in my book.”

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 16, 1944 – I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France.

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 12, 1944 – Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-Day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore.

For those of us who travel everywhere by personal vehicle, it is easy to miss the public transportation system humming along each day in Washington County. The truth is that without mass transit serving our elderly and many others who lack the ability to drive, thousands of our residents wou…

Student debt can destroy credit, delay marriage and children, make buying a home impossible, and turn hopes of career success and financial stability into a nightmare of struggling for decades just to catch up.

In his essay in the April 28 issue of the Observer-Reporter, Gary Stout described the decline of history in education. There’s easy proof of that in the actions of our elected representatives, particularly our Pennsylvania legislators.

Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts on immigration reform.

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts.

In March, Gov. Tom Wolf visited Greene County to discuss the bipartisan Restore Pennsylvania proposal to address Pennsylvania’s most critical infrastructure needs like broadband access, blight and flood protection. By providing the funding needed to tackle these problems, Restore Pennsylvani…

Editor’s note: This is the first-place winner of the Law Day Essay contest, sponsored by the Washington County Bar Association and the Observer-Reporter. This year’s theme explores how the freedom of speech and the press are among the most important foundations for a free society. All winner…

Dave Ball’s recent commentary in your paper, “Climate change hoax comes to Pa.” (April 20), subjected readers to falsehoods about the science of climate change and untruthful assertions about me specifically.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Garvey

Love and marriage, as the old ditty has it, may not always go together, but incivility and polarization sure go hand-in-hand in contemporary American politics. It’s virtually impossible to separate them. More importantly it has led to chronic dysfunctionality in government.

The canard of the government-union educratic establishment long has been that more state dollars spent on public education yield better academic results.