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ORCHID: To the dozen schools in Mahoning and Trumbull counties that recently earned the coveted Purple Star awards from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Those schools are Canfield High School and Canfield Village Middle School, both of which had their star renewed, plus new honorees Lakeview High School, Mineral Ridge High School, Niles Primary, Niles Intermediate, Niles Middle and Niles McKinley High schools, B.L. Miller Elementary in Sebring, Southington Elementary School, South Range Elementary School and West Branch Middle School. The award highlights a school’s ...

Ohio tax abolition campaign stumbles; opposition grows

From a variety of perspectives, the Ax OH Tax movement to abolish all local property taxes in Ohio is going over like the proverbial lead balloon. Consider: ● Its nearly yearlong drive to collect its goal of 620,000 ballot-access petition signatures as of last week has fallen woefully short, lacking 315,000 needed signers. And time is running short for their submission to state officials to qualify for this fall’s ballot. ● A mushrooming coalition of more than 65 organizations and local governments across the state have united under the banner of Ohioans to Protect Public ...

Who’s to blame this time?

It would be amusing if it wasn’t so serious. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and several other Democrats were on weekend programs calling for a toning down of the political conversation following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington. Jeffries went so far as to say we are all Americans. This after regularly denouncing the president in harsh tones. Another of the bad rhetorical offenders has been Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. He has called the president an authoritarian who threatens the Constitution, rule of law and democracy. There are ...

Shooter’s real problem was mental, not political

“Shots Fired at Correspondents’ Dinner” dominated TV headlines following the gun attack at the Washington Hilton. Correction: Shots were not fired at the dinner but in the corridor outside. That’s where security had pinned the accused gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, on his stomach and handcuffed. Some journalists like to overdramatize everything, especially concerning themselves. Sure, the alleged attacker released a manifesto saying he wanted to take down Trump and members of his administration. But even if the suspect had made it inside, he probably wouldn’t have gotten past the ...

A secret act of judicial tyranny

In a famous Supreme Court one-liner, reminding the legal community of the finality of the court's rulings, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is reputed to have said that the Constitution means whatever any five of us say it means. This reflects the basic math that five is a majority of nine. It also reflects the theory of realism in constitutional jurisprudence. Realism, in this context, is the view that the Constitution is stagnant and unenforceable of its own existence. Realism teaches that the Constitution is only enforceable when the government voluntarily complies with it or ...

A secret act of judicial tyranny

In a famous Supreme Court one-liner, reminding the legal community of the finality of the court's rulings, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is reputed to have said that the Constitution means whatever any five of us say it means. This reflects the basic math that five is a majority of nine. It also reflects the theory of realism in constitutional jurisprudence. Realism, in this context, is the view that the Constitution is stagnant and unenforceable of its own existence. Realism teaches that the Constitution is only enforceable when the government voluntarily complies with it or ...