Having recently read a book about the Hatfields and McCoys, in my new capacity as an expert on this most famous of American family feuds I was invited to speak to a weekly breakfast meeting of the Weirton Rotary Club. The Rotarians were stunned (well, mildly curious) when I happened to ...
Lawmakers who never bothered to complete the phase-in of Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan, or update data that could have helped more equitably fund the state’s public schools, are now also operating with the knowledge that their beloved EdChoice voucher program has been deemed unconstitutional by an appellate court. (Interim state Attorney General Andy Wilson has already said he plans to appeal that ruling to the 6-1 Republican majority Ohio Supreme Court.) If their consciences weren’t already being prodded by the knowledge that they abandoned fair school funding, and that an ...
School book ban trends come and go, but there are always groups of people who want to keep their children from having access to reading material that might expose them to new ideas or, worse, ask questions. The problem is particularly bad in Ohio, which ranks third among the states in PEN America’s study of school book bans for the 2025-26 school year. The free-expression advocacy group counted 117 instances of school book bans in the Buckeye State during that period. Only Texas and Florida were worse. Across the country, 11,982 books — 7,370 unique titles — were banned in public ...
NEWELL, W.Va. - Loyal Glenn Jordan was a poor hoopie from Ritchie County, W.Va. Born in 1901, he came to the East Liverpool area in 1936 to find work. Later he moved a number of families up the river valley in his truck, a Chevy flatbed with wood sides and a tarp. The story of one hoopie ...
Thursday’s ruling by the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals that the state’s EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional will no doubt ruffle some feathers in Columbus. Good. Judge David Leland, who wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel, says the program violates the state constitution because it funds a separate school system, according to a report by The Blade, in Toledo. That violates the mandate for a SINGULAR public education system. It was the panel’s opinion that the voucher program also lacks meaningful state oversight, is unavailable to many rural Ohioans ...
Dear editor, I just saw where the GOP is pulling financial support from some races in other parts of the country so they can dump millions more into Ohio’s races for Senate and Governor. Billionaires have spent millions on this race. Why?? And What is all the money spent on? I suppose much of it’s spent on the hundreds of TV ads that bombard our prime-time watching. These ads are not fact-checked. They are full of nasty fear-mongering, intended to fire up the “culture wars”. There is little about policy. What will these candidates really do for Ohioans should they get elected? ...
