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Companies sponsoring Olympics enable the atrocities within China

As China prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing recently made a stunning announcement. Any athlete speaking out “against Chinese laws and regulations” will be subject to “punishment.” Beijing claims it’s an “innocent party,” but the threat to athletes is just the latest act by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—and proves it has much to hide. Unfortunately, some of America’s largest and most well-known companies seem content to help fund Beijing’s repressive, authoritarian regime. Since 2017, the CCP has “disappeared” more than a million Uyghurs and ...

New redistricting maps still not fair

The second effort to pass state legislative maps went about as well as the first. Republicans, who make up five of the seven members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, voted for maps that seem to disproportionately favor that political party over the objections of Democrats, and the matter is again before the Ohio Supreme Court to decide its constitutionality. On the surface the maps look like an improvement from those rejected 4-3 by the court Jan. 12. The initial maps gave Republicans the advantage in 65 of 99 House districts and in 23 of 33 Senate districts. The court rejected ...

Inflation, rising energy costs could squeeze U.S. families

Americans have their hands full right now. The COVID pandemic has made a major resurgence. And at the same time, inflation just hit 7 percent—the highest rate in 40 years. Some of the toughest increases are happening in energy costs. In December, gasoline prices were up roughly 50 percent from a year ago. And the price of natural gas nearly doubled in 2021, driving up heating costs and power bills.  As bad as things are, they could be worse. Energy prices in Europe have exploded, and European households are now paying 54 percent more for their electricity than two years ago—even ...

New map making draws skepticism

Now that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Republican-drawn state legislative maps are unconstitutional, the question is: How will the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which approved the gerrymandered maps, react? Based on the questionable methods it used to draw the rejected maps, Ohioans should maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. In the court’s 4-3 decision Wednesday, it gave the commission 10 days to create fair legislative districts that reflect the state’s voting trends over the past decade in partisan elections as well as not carve up counties and communities to make that ...

Johnson clearly a big favorite to remain the 6th District Rep

It was going to be very difficult for a Democrat to beat U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson in the 6th Congressional District race. But now that Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti of Poland has chosen not to challenge him, it’s going to be nearly impossible for a Democrat to unseat the six-term incumbent Republican. The only hope Democrats had of beating Johnson, R-Marietta, was finding a moderate to conservative Democrat with name recognition and the ability to raise money who has a power base in Mahoning or Trumbull, the two most-populous counties in the new district. There are ...

Fentanyl a new danger for vapers

CATHY BROWNFIELD Family Recovery Center There are unscrupulous people out there who are interested in only one thing: Money. Yours. They don’t care how long your life span is. They don’t care anything about you. They are raking in the dough. And people are dying. The University of Washington conducted some research and found that in 2019, fentanyl was the #1 cause of overdose deaths among the under-30 population in that state. That is one in four fatalities per 100,000 people. One year later, the rate had doubled, eight per 100,000 people, reports Treatment Magazine. However, ...