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Investing in teachers is investing in the Valley

Local Columns

"It was the greatest professional experience of my career." That's how Josh MacMillan, a Hubbard art teacher with 23 years of experience, described his visit this summer to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. Take that in for a moment — after more than two decades in the classroom, an educator came away from a training program calling it the greatest professional experience of his career. MacMillan, who also created the Mahoning Valley Educator of the Year Honors Dinner, returned home with new ideas for his classroom and plans to put them into practice. Huntington Bank helped ...

A tadpole kingdom

Local Columns

“I need tadpoles. Can you get some for me?” asked our daughter Shark. She teaches second grade and wanted them for a classroom aquarium. “Tadpoles? No, silly. It’s the wrong season for tadpoles,” I replied. She trusts that I know everything about nature and could fulfill such a ...

Trails and Tales of Columbiana County

Local Columns

Before this land we know as Columbiana County, Ohio, was so named by European Americans, Native Americans had been hunting, trading and navigating it for centuries. Members of the Shawnee, Delaware, Senecas, Mingo and Iroquois traveled through it on a network of trails in order to connect with ...

National Diabetes Awareness Month shows just how much Appalachia has at stake

Editorial

National Diabetes Awareness Month takes on a different significance in Appalachia, and WalletHub’s “2026’s Most Overweight and Obese States in America,” gives some idea why. Obesity is one of the bigger risk factors and primary cause of type 2 diabetes, and West Virginia is the most obese state in the country. Ohio is 15th. Digging into the data gets more and more disturbing. The Mountain State is first for the percentage of obese adults and the percentage of adults with type 2 diabetes. It is seventh for the percentage of overweight children, second for the percentage of ...

Support and healing after suicide loss

Local Columns

When someone you love dies by suicide, it can feel like the ground falls out from right beneath your feet. For the family, friends, and community members left behind – often referred to as suicide loss survivors – the grief is unlike any other. It arrives accompanied by complex shock, profound confusion, and an overwhelming wave of questions that rarely have simple answers. In suicide prevention, a great deal of focus is placed on recognizing warning signs and crisis intervention, which is essential work. But there is another critical side to this effort known as postvention: the ...

Ohio’s Congressional delegation needs to protect juveniles, reject another extension of the intoxicating hemp loophole

Letters To The Editor

Dear editor: As a former Wellsville councilman and school board member, I have spent years focused on Ohio families and children. For years, a gray market for intoxicating hemp products has threatened our communities. With a critical federal deadline approaching Dec. 11, I urge Ohio’s Congressional delegation to resist industry pressure and let the loophole expire. The problem traces back to the 2018 Farm Bill, which inadvertently allowed manufacturers to sell potent intoxicating hemp-derived products. While the law distinguishes hemp-derived THC from marijuana-derived THC, the ...