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Editorial

Roll up your sleeve and donate to the Red Cross

Friday is World Blood Donor Day, a reminder that the American Red Cross is just one part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent network — “the largest humanitarian network in the world with a presence and activities in almost every country,” it says. Throughout that network, donors are the reason blood and blood products are available for those whose lives depend on it. Lately, it seems those donors are even harder to come by. And on this day celebrating blood donors, there is a drastic shortfall in donations that reaches back over the past several weeks. Summer travel ...

State is enhancing marked zones safety

If you’ve done much driving around our region lately, you know the orange barrels and cones are out in abundance. That means the men and women who work in those marked zones are out doing their jobs, too. Better weather means better conditions for work at the same time that it means more people on the roads. That makes this period the “100 deadliest days of summer,” according to Ohio officials who want us all to be a little more careful in work zones. Last Wednesday Gov. Mike DeWine said he had instructed the Ohio State Highway Patrol to intensify its patrols in work zones. ...

Lawmaker should leave libraries alone

While Ohio libraries face a potential funding crisis due to an expected shortfall in property tax revenue, some members of the state House of Representatives want to twist the knife. State Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, has introduced House Bill 622, “to require each board of public library trustees to adopt a policy that prohibits its libraries from displaying matter harmful to juveniles and to redistribute the public library funds of libraries that fail to do so.” Horrifying, isn’t it? “What this accomplishes is protecting our youth, protecting our children and allowing them ...

Honey’s kitten dilemma

Should my wife follow her head or her heart? Should she keep the last kitten, the one nobody wanted? “I don’t know what to do. What do YOU think?” she asked me. It’s a rare thing for Honey to pronounce herself unable to make a decision, rarer still to ask me to help make it. “Well, I don’t know.” I had to think about it. Turn it over, down in my thinking area. Honey can be an instantaneous decision-maker. Her logical mind and well-ordered moral/ethical code work at computer-chip speed, sorting through conflicting issues and spitting out a keypunch card with the ...

Our government must protect solar industry

Ask anyone who used to work in the steel or aluminum industry in our region what happens when the federal government does not defend strongly enough against unfair trade practices — too often at the hands of China. Their story is one of failure to transition policy at a pace that keeps up with the bad behavior of global players. Now, there is a threat on a new front — the solar industry. Ohioans who welcomed First Solar and had hoped for more growth (and jobs) in the industry know they have allies in Washington, D.C., as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, ...

Don’t overlook voting in Tuesday’s special election

It’s an easy one to miss, given all the attention to the upcoming November general election, but for east Ohio residents, there is an important election for which early/absentee voting has already begun. Tuesday is the vote to fill the Sixth Congressional District vacancy left by Bill Johnson’s resignation. For residents of Washington, Noble, Monroe, Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Stark and Columbiana counties, this is the general election between the two candidates chosen in the March 19 primary — State Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, and Michael Kripchak, a ...