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Cheers & Jeers

CHEERS to word that Bridgeport likely will receive state funding to improve safety at the U.S. 40 crosswalk near the municipal building. JEERS to the ongoing financial woes at East Ohio Regional Hospital. Employees deserve to be paid for their work, and area residents deserve to have access to a safe, effective health care facility. CHEERS to The Health Plan for returning as the title sponsor of the Tough as Nails Urban Challenge portion of the Ogden Newspapers Wellness Weekend presented by WVU Medicine. JEERS to news that people across the country are falling victim to a texting scam ...

Oil and gas not paying off

U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, can be forgiven for his enthusiasm over a recent report. After all, the good news being proclaimed by the Ohio Natural Energy Institute’s “The Essential Facts on Essential Ohio Energy” are a re-polished version of shiny proclamations we’ve been hearing for about 15 years. Rulli was first elected to the state Senate in 2018. But well before that, organizations similar to the Ohio Natural Energy Institute were touting (then the Marcellus and Utica shales) as our region’s savior. “Our region has been blessed with an extraordinary opportunity ...

Overcoming ‘dead zones’

KFF Health News, published a report called “Dead Zone: Millions in U.S. Live in Places Where Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach.” It’s an intriguing look at communities and counties where residents tend to have more health problems, fewer health professionals and insufficient access to broadband internet. Southeast Ohio has a significant number of counties where residents live in such “dead zones.” “Compared with those in other regions, patients across the rural South, Appalachia, and remote West are most often unable to make a video call to their ...

Housing shortage gains

Efforts in Columbus to address the shortage in affordable housing appear to be making a difference, though the momentum must be maintained. According to the 2025 Gap Report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, there is a deficit of 264,083 rental units that are affordable and available to the 438,108 extremely low-income households in the Buckeye State. That’s an improvement over last year, when the shortage was 267,382. “The new housing programs that Ohio created in the last budget bill are having a positive ...

Investigators commended

Family and friends of Thomas and Angela Strussion waited four long years, but with a recent arrest in their double homicide case it seems some answers about how and why the couple lost their lives may finally be revealed. The Belmont County community was stunned on Sept. 21, 2021, when the owner of two local Salsa Joe’s restaurants and his wife were found dead inside their home on Trails End Drive, Belmont. Many initially believed they were victims of a fire reported there before their bodies were found. Days later, though, then-sheriff David Lucas announced the deaths were being ...

Opportunities for all in Ohio

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke in his annual State of the State address about giving Buckeye State residents “the tools to live up to their full potential.” Though there are plenty of challenges, volatility and uncertainty that make it less clear how those goals will be attained, DeWine was right to focus on jobs and families. His proposed two-year spending plan includes a novel $1,000 child tax credit and access to vision care for young people. After all, literacy efforts are less effective when children can’t see what is on the page. DeWine proposed accountability measures for ...