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A failing grade for DOE

U.S. Department of Education officials missed the mark badly when they decided, purportedly in a revision that is part of the Big Beautiful Bill, to eliminate nursing, physical therapy, public health and other fields from those graduate study fields in which students are able to borrow loans up to the cost of their degree. Those programs are not, in the opinion of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., “professional.” In fact, only the following fields are now defined as professional programs, according to the Education Department: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, ...

Holiday Partnership Spans State Lines

When a community invests in the arts, it invests in its future. That truth sits at the heart of Oglebay Institute’s decision to take its annual Nutcracker performance on the road — and in doing so, extend a holiday tradition to families across the Ohio Valley. This year, Oglebay Institute’s School of Dance will perform The Nutcracker at the new Unified Bank Jr. Recreation Center in St. Clairsville. It is the first time the production will be staged there — and the move represents far more than a new venue. It is a meaningful demonstration of regional cooperation and a reminder ...

Support small business

Those who have endured the madness of Black Friday and still have plenty of holiday shopping to do should consider using this Small Business Saturday to explore retailers (and gift ideas) that will help add a personal touch to your giving. Since 2010, the annual event has celebrated small, independent businesses in our communities. American Express estimates as much as $22 billion was spent on Small Business Saturday in 2024. For the 99.9% of businesses in the U.S. that qualify as “small,” according to Forbes, that kind of spending is essential. It helps employ more than 62 ...

Happy Thanksgiving

While the origins of our modern Thanksgiving Day are more a matter of many traditions eventually running into a single idea than the straight line from familiar paintings of the Plymouth Colony’s observance more than 400 years ago to our holiday tables today, there is a common theme: gratitude. Thanksgiving is a day on which we celebrate with friends and family (for which, presumably, we are grateful) with an abundance of food, parades, football and other traditions that also help us remember how richly blessed many of us are, here. It is a day on which many can be grateful there ...

Don’t let scammers win

Nearly all of us have been on the receiving end of an attempt to scam us out of our hard-earned money — particularly in the digital age. Utility scams are fairly common, and many of us probably think we know how to sniff them out. Still, according to AEP Ohio, more than 2,000 scam attempts have been reported to that company alone so far this year. That’s 2,000 the company knows about. Who knows how many have gone unreported, or who might have fallen victim? AEP was issuing its reminder on Utility Scam Awareness Day, earlier this week. But the safety advice is important to ...

A sobering economic view

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland delivered some unsettling news as we roll toward the holiday season. Indicators suggest there is a 24% chance the U.S. economy was in recession last month. The Cleveland Fed represents Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky, where the Ohio Capital Journal noted there have been a number of worrying indicators. Credit card debt is rising faster in Ohio than in all but four other states. We had the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country in August. In fact, hiring across the country has slowed dramatically, ...