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Ohio lawmakers must stop dragging feet on marijuana

Ohio lawmakers cannot ignore the will of the people much longer. Gov. Mike DeWine was right this week to ask them to stop dragging their feet on implementing rules for legalized recreational marijuana, which voters approved more than three months ago. “What we don’t want to do is see a big black market expand in the state of Ohio with absolutely no control when people don’t know what they’re buying. So again, we need the Legislature to take action …” said DeWine, according to a report by WKRC-TV. Ohio House Bill 86 would allow recreational marijuana to be sold, and it would ...

It is time to raise expectations for law enforcement officers

Ohio residents have been bombarded in recent years by stories that indicate our law enforcement officers are not always fully equipped to protect and serve. Among the many calls for reform have been increasing the training requirements for becoming an officer in the first place. It would be a good start. After all, according to a report by the Dayton Daily News, less training is required to become a law enforcement officer in Ohio than to become a barber or cosmetologist. Predictably, there are those in law enforcement who believe making it harder to become an officer is a bad idea. ...

Detractors may have a point, but Biden visit was not useless

There was more than a grain of truth in some critics’ assertion that President Joe Biden’s arrival in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 16, was a campaign stop that came a year too late to do any real good for residents of that community. Nevertheless, he did visit and praised the “Herculean efforts” to rebuild at the site. “We’re not going home, no matter what, until this job is done, and it’s not done yet,” Biden said of the federal government. Good. Let us hope he and the heads of agencies involved continue to fulfill that obligation. But the visit provided an ...

Sick leave bill would help W. Va. teachers long term

As lawmakers struggle with ways to improve education in West Virginia, one gigantic piece of the puzzle is doing right by teachers. Del. Trenton Barnhart, R-Pleasants, is lead sponsor on legislation that might help. House Bill 5087 would allow Tier II teachers to bank unused accrued annual leave or sick leave toward retirement, as those teachers were able to do years ago. “We’ve got to get our employees working,” said West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty. “We have a chronic absentee rate with our employees. That is embarrassing. The Legislature is going to ...

Here’s hoping visit by Biden isn’t just for show

President Joe Biden has finally decided to visit East Palestine. He is set to visit the scene of a fiery Norfolk Southern derailment Friday — more than a year after it happened. Community and state officials have criticized Biden for not making an appearance earlier, and rightly so. They’ve also asked for a federal emergency declaration that still has not been made. And though other administration officials have made a few visits — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan, for example — Biden seems to have waited until he feels as though the sense of ...

News about Intel delay is jolting for Ohioans

Residents of rural and eastern Ohio were probably already steeling themselves for the news out of Intel earlier this month. After all, they have been prepared by the disappointment of one local-economy-saving large employer after another making grand promises and then disappearing. To be fair, Intel says it is not disappearing. In fact, they claim this pumping of the brakes is simply a change in timeline. Now, rather than finishing the $20 billion chipmaking project in New Albany by next year, the company says it plans to complete work by late 2026. More time for communities to figure ...