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Why change a law to take away a freedom?

U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, is proposing a change in U.S. law that would eliminate a freedom that has been cemented since 1967. His proposed Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 would eliminate dual citizenship and “establish that citizens of the United States shall owe sole and exclusive allegiance to the United States.” Moreno was born in Colombia. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 5 years old. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen at 18, and at that time, renounced his Colombian citizenship. “One of the greatest honors of my life was when I became an American ...

Be vigilant against utility scammers

Nearly all of us have been on the receiving end of an attempt to scam us out of our hard-earned money — particularly in the digital age. Utility scams are fairly common, and many of us probably think we know how to sniff them out. Particularly our seniors — who can remember fondly those days when we left doors unlocked, trusted those on the other end of our rotary telephones and believed honesty was inherent in most people — the sheer goodness of others. According to AEP Ohio, more than 2,000 scam attempts have been reported to that company alone so far this year. That’s 2,000 ...

Giving Tuesday should reflect the generous nature of us all

You’ve made it through Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Artists Sunday and Cyber Monday. It’s a long series of days on which businesses big and small and even some individuals are hoping you’ll be spending some (or all) of your holiday shopping budget with them. Now we have reached Giving Tuesday, a day organizers say “unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world.” Sure, there’s a financial component to this, too. Those who have the resources should, indeed, take advantage of today to give what they are able to nonprofits that support the most vulnerable ...

Small businesses essential to all of our communities

Today is Small Business Saturday. Not to be confused certainly with everything that went on yesterday with Black Friday. Today is special because it reminds us that our small, locally-owned businesses are the heart of our communities. We all shop at the big stores. Certainly there are local folks working for the big guys. But the reality is that when you spend your money with a locally-owned small business, you make an immediate impact — perhaps for an individual, a family, and your community as a whole. The big guys certainly provided benefits with an array of offerings under a ...

Dept. of Education making it even harder for some students

U.S. Department of Education officials missed the mark badly when they decided, purportedly in a revision that is part of the Big Beautiful Bill, to eliminate nursing, physical therapy, public health and other fields from those graduate study fields in which students are able to borrow loans up to the cost of their degree. Those programs are not, in the opinion of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., “professional.” In fact, only the following fields are now defined as professional programs, according to the Education Department: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, ...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration

There is some debate over exactly when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated on our soil. Many trace it to a 1621 celebration in Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. That feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. It was, according to historians, actually celebrated between the Pilgrims and Indians. It’s been going on ever since. The message is timeless: giving thanks for an array of reasons. Even those we all take for granted day in, day out. Year in, year out. Pause and take a deep breath. Then let it release slowly. Be thankful for a simple breath of air. And it ...