Breaking News

Editorials

DNC right to surpass lawmakers

After dawdling and playing absurd political games for long enough, Ohio lawmakers seemed Tuesday to have finally allowed the Democratic National Committee to get out ahead of them on the issue of whether President Joe Biden will be on the November ballot. The DNC announced it plans to formally make Biden the party’s nominee with a virtual roll call ahead of the party’s convention in August. That June 4 vote will give plenty of time to fall in line with Ohio’s rules about the timing of nominations and placement on the ballot. But even as the DNC was making its announcements, ...

Cheers & Jeers

CHEERS to the Bridgeport Police Department for being recognized for excellence in law enforcement policy management by Lexipol. JEERS to the fact that dangerous waste from oil and gas drilling and fracking operations remains piled up beyond permitted limits at the Austin Master Services waste processing facility in Martins Ferry. CHEERS to Richard “Chad” Balwanz of Glencoe, a U.S. Army veteran who will serve as the featured speaker at a Memorial Day service set for 11 a.m. Monday at Bellaire’s Union Square, aka the city park. JEERS to word that the village of Mingo Junction ...

Improving education

It takes partners from all sectors to provide our children with educations that go beyond the reading, writing and arithmetic we expect. The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and the Longaberger Family Foundation are providing more than $35,000 in funding awards for counties across Eastern Ohio to do just that. “We have long shared FAO’s commitment to the children of Appalachia and to ensuring the well-being of our communities,” said Matt Kaido, Longaberger Family Foundation representative. “With this funding, we are not only equipping the youth of Appalachian Ohio with ...

Purge rolls, but do it properly

Politicians know what they are doing, in an era when not everyone reads past a headline. They make announcements about, for example, efforts to verify citizenship status on Ohio’s voter rolls — during which “The data found 137 voter registrations assigned to Ohio residents who have twice confirmed their non-citizenship status to the BMV,” because they know that kind of thing might gain them some political points from voters who aren’t looking for context. To be clear, Frank LaRose is simply doing his job by verifying that all those who vote in Ohio are citizens who do so ...

Another great state park

Buckeye State residents are proud of our rich history and natural beauty. Many of our state parks provide visitors with both of those things. Great Council State Park, is set to open June 7, appears to be no exception. In fact, its location in what was the Shawnee town of Old Chillicothe in the 1770s is an important reminder that the history of humans on this land goes back much further than 1788. In fact, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources worked with three federally recognized Shawnee tribes to develop the new park, which “will feature a cultural interpretive center focused ...

Understanding addiction

First, the good news: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of fatal overdoses in the U.S. decreased last year — down 3% from 2022. Now, the not so great news: That’s still 107,500 people who died at the hands of a decades-long substance abuse epidemic; and those same CDC researchers say the last time there was such a decrease, the number of fatal overdoses increased dramatically in the following year. Further, Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends, offered some less-than-comforting reasons for the ...