Breaking News

Local Columns

Are there any benefits to Biden’s planned visit?

President Joe Biden certainly took his time to finally announce a visit to East Palestine, the site of a massive train derailment a year ago that garnered international attention. Biden, a Democrat, said a month after the derailment that he eventually would visit the Columbiana County community. He and his press secretary repeated the contention he eventually would show up. Finally, the White House announced Wednesday that Biden will come to East Palestine sometime in February. No date was given. If a date couldn’t be finalized it probably would have been better to wait until ...

Call from NYC hit like a ton of bricks

The calls to the Lisbon office of the three Columbiana County daily newspapers came from all of the country once the East Palestine train derailment took center stage on the national news. In one moment, you’d pick up the receiver and hear the concerned voice from a railman out in Nebraska wanting to explain precision scheduled railroading to whomever would listen. In an another instance, you’d be on the phone with Nashville NPR entertaining a request to get someone who lives in East Palestine to go on at 5 a.m. for a morning show interview. One call in particular, though, really ...

Arthritis doesn’t only affect older adults

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published Nov. 28, 2020. Thanks to breakthroughs in medicine and nutrition in recent years, we are living longer than ever before. But this increase in life expectancy also brings an increase in the number of diseases, injuries and impairments that affect older adults. With this in mind, we at the local Visiting Angels office in Salem have created this series of articles to keep our older population and their families informed and to offer some practical advice for meeting the challenges faced by seniors and those who care for ...

Will continue fighting for the future of East Palestine

On February 3rd, 2023, 38 rail cars — from a train spanning one-and-a-half miles — derailed and overturned right outside the center of East Palestine, Ohio. Flames flared and thick black plumes of smoke billowed into the sky. Toxic chemicals started spewing into the air, water, and ground. The people of East Palestine lived it — packing up and evacuating your homes in the middle of the night. You didn’t know if the air you were breathing and the water coming from your faucets was safe. Your lives were turned upside down. My job is to always fight for Ohio. When disaster struck, ...

Politics of Trump in the U.S. Senate race

Despite facing four criminal indictments, former President Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president this year. Trump remains very popular in Ohio — which he handily won in 2016 and 2020, taking away its longtime swing-state status in presidential politics. So, it was a huge victory for Cleveland-area businessman Bernie Moreno to get Trump’s endorsement in the three-man Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Trump’s endorsement played the most significant factor in J.D. Vance’s 2022 emergence from a crowded Republican field for the state’s other U.S. Senate ...

America needs more electricity right now

An extraordinary but little noticed economic phenomenon is occurring across the United States today. Electricity demand—which has been relatively stable for more than a decade—is suddenly surging. The U.S. economy is embarking on a literal power trip, and the pace is likely to increase. Consider that California’s major utility, PG&E, expects the state’s electricity demand to jump 70 percent in the next two decades. New York’s electricity demand is on track to double by 2050. And Virginia’s power demand is projected to jump 85 percent in just the next 15 years. Why such ...