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Be careful with bats

Most Ohio residents are used to thinking about seasonal changes in the rules such as burn bans or parking in such a way that the snow plow can get through. Perhaps less familiar is Ohio’s fall bat exclusion restriction period — from Oct. 15 through March 31. No, it has nothing to do with baseball’s off-season. This is a requirement that residents obtain permits before removing or relocating bats from homes or buildings. When white-nose syndrome (a cave fungus) showed up several years ago, Ohio started protecting bats, especially during their overwintering period. Despite that ...

Steady Leadership For Belmont County Health

Belmont County’s public health system is in good hands with the appointment of Robert Sproul as the county’s new health commissioner. A longtime resident of Belmont County, Sproul brings both experience and commitment to a role that touches the lives of every resident. After serving for years as the county’s deputy health commissioner, Sproul now steps into the top position with full authority to oversee administrative operations, environmental health initiatives, public health programs and regulatory compliance. This transition reflects both his professional growth and the ...

Keeping Ohioans safe

A few years back, there was a trend among legislators to change laws regarding public records in a way they claimed was meant to better protect victims, especially children and particularly vulnerable older victims. The interpretation of those laws, however, has turned out to protect not the victims, but those who may have committed crimes (or at the very least been negligent) against those victims. Disability Rights Ohio is the federally designated Protection and Advocacy System in the state, and has been granted the authority to investigate cases in which there is suspected ...

Keeping tabs on credit use

For some Ohioans, use of credit cards is a carefully planned luxury — perhaps used to ensure the accumulation of lots of airline or hotel points — for purchases that can be paid off within a month or two. But for Buckeye State residents between the ages of 18 and 34, a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data shows the use of credit cards feels like a necessity — and one that is causing them to rack up higher-than-average levels of debt. Along with those high levels of debt come high levels of delinquency, according to a report on the data by the Ohio Capital Journal. Ohio ...

Driving safe at any age

Every once in a while, politicians will float the question of whether drivers should have to retake their tests as a requirement for license renewal after a certain age. With age comes the possibility of reduced vision, perhaps hearing loss, reduced reflexes and other changes we all laugh about as a fact of life until someone mentions them in the context of affecting a person’s ability to drive safely. Then pride kicks in. Well, pride and a little stubbornness as most of us bristle at the idea of the government telling us it’s possible we are less able to do something we’ve done ...

Religion and education

First, state lawmakers wanted to make sure teachers understood what they were NOT allowed to teach; now they are introducing the bits they do want teachers to include, despite repeated insistence they are not serving their own personal agendas by doing so. Ohio educators at all levels have responded with such fear to what is being called the “anti-DEI law,” that institutions such as Ohio State University are reportedly even banning some statements that acknowledge lands historically occupied by Native Americans. The university is asking its educators not to present FACTS to its ...