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Opinion

Phones Down, Eyes Up

Editorials

Most of us understand and follow the rules when it comes to keeping our phones out of our hands and remaining focused when we drive. But those little devices can distract us at other potentially dangerous times, too. How many times have you been puttering through a parking lot, only to have to slam on your brakes when a person with their eyes buried in their cell phones walks in front of you? Or, how many times have you been asked to watch pets or children — perhaps at a park — and gotten sucked into scrolling on your phone only to be jolted back to reality just in time to ...

Cheers & Jeers

Editorials

CHEERS to Brett Kuprowicz, a Bridgeport student, for representing Belmont County at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Although he was eliminated, he made his hometown proud. JEERS to word that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus is on the rise in some parts of the world and that it has made its way to the United States. CHEERS to Heather Austin for being selected as the next superintendent of the Belmont-Harrison Vocational School District. She will succeed Richard Schoene in August. JEERS to the need for anti-corruption legislation that is being considered by ...

Improving foster care system

Editorials

U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, signed on last week to be a cosponsor of a bill that would recognize May as National Foster Care Month. That resolution later passed. He was not alone, of course, in addition to sponsors Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., there were 14 cosponsors for the bill. It’s a sign of how important most senators understand our foster care system is. “Loving foster families offer stability and guidance when kids may need it most. My parents adopted me from foster care. I’ve seen how transformational a child’s first years of life can ...

America under Trump

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, It is truly discouraging but quite obvious that current president Donald J. Trump, who also happens to be a convicted felon, when taking the U.S. presidential oath of office to begin his second term in the White House during his inauguration on January 20th 2025 swore that to the best of his ability that he would preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United states. But to date he has done the opposite and has also refused to comply with the Rule of Law which he is also required to do, as no other president has ever so done in their first 100 days in ...

Setting a better example

Editorials

Belmont County Western Division Court Judge Eric Costine made an important decision last week, determining that the prosecutor’s office made the right call when it decided not to file criminal charges in the wake of an altercation at a high school football game in October. But he also conveyed an important message to everyone as part of his ruling. Costine declined to second guess the prosecutor for opting not to charge Union Local football coach Vaughn Butler or Flushing resident Brent Gay after they exchanged words — and reportedly a bit of shoving — at a game where UL lost ...

Having some magical fun with the little ones

Columns

Well, all of that hard work I wrote about a couple of weeks ago paid off. My husband, Mike, performed his annual magic shows at Follansbee Primary School on Thursday, and he was a hit! Previously in this space, I wrote about his time-consuming preparations for those performances. He worked to identify and perfect several different effects that he knew this audience had never seen before. From the children who walked away with pieces of candy after serving as volunteers to the ones who shouted out in anticipation of what was going to happen next, I would say a great time was had by ...