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Put your name on it

Editorial

One day The 747, the youngest of our five grandsons, told my wife how much he loves the game table on which he and she enjoy working jigsaw puzzles. It is relatively new and cleverly made, with drop-leaf sides and internal storage for the four wooden folding chairs that go with it. It had belonged to my wife’s mother, initially passed to a sister, then came to us. “Put your name on it,” Honey told her grandson. “After I die, it’s yours.” That’s the way it works in our family. In yours, too, probably. You actually don’t have to take a Sharpie and write your name on the ...

Metrics: Ohio has its share of underprivileged children

Editorial

Ohioans generally think of their state as being a fantastic place for children to grow up. But perception does not always match reality, as WalletHub’s “2025’s States With the Most Underprivileged Children” suggests. Believe it or not, Ohio is ranked 18th on the lists of states with the most underprivileged children. Many of us might not have expected the state to crack the worst 25, let alone be ranked that poorly. But a look at the metrics tells the tale. Ohio is 16th for the percentage of children in households below the poverty line, 26th for the percentage of maltreated ...

For sake of citizens, not feds, voter data must be accurate

Editorial

While some states are fighting back against U.S. Justice Department requests for access to their voter registration lists and other elections information, Ohio has begun the four-year process of ensuring voter rolls here are as clean as they can be. Among the states that have received requests from the federal government so far, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin have simply said “no.” Officials there say they have questions about the legality of the requests and how the information will be used. After all, state (and, really, county) elections officials are responsible for ...

Stress to kids that, yes, bad people are out there

Editorial

Earlier this week, the Jackson Township (Ohio) Police Department conducted “Operation Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” in which it targeted predators traveling in an attempt to solicit sex from children, over a multi-day operation. According to a report by WOIO, the operation resulted in the arrests of seven men who were allegedly trying to engage in sexual activity with girls they believed to be under the ages of 13, 14 and 15. Stark County court records showed those girls were actually undercover police officers being contacted through cell phones, thank goodness. But think about that ...

Could the GOP reunite Valley in one district?

Local Columns

With Republican leaders in Ohio seeking to draw congressional districts to give the party more seats in the U.S. House, the possibility exists that Mahoning and Trumbull counties could be reunited in a single district. Republicans currently hold 10 of the state’s congressional seats with the other five in the hands of Democrats. When Republicans drew the lines in 2022, the intention was to give Democrats two safe seats and have three tossup seats that slightly favored Democrats that could be won by GOP candidates. Democrats won those three tossup seats in 2022 and 2024. U.S. Rep. ...

Helpful memory exercises

Editorial

A very dear friend of mine, lamenting the memory lapses of advancing age, asked if I do any mental exercises, take supplements and so forth to help ward off senility. It so happens that I do. I shared them with this friend (whose name escapes me at the moment), and it is entirely likely that he, or she, was very appreciative. Do you feel your mental sharpness diminishing with age? Read on. You might try my “Chrissie Hynde-Annie Lennox Mental Health Squats.” That’s the name I gave to the brain exercise I employed recently to overcome a troublesome mental block. Chrissie ...