Today, I’m the mother of two adult children. Yep, it’s the day my youngest son turns 18. We will celebrate with dinner, and he will be showered with love, plus the usual gifts, cards and cash. At some point very soon, my husband and I will have the same talk with him that we had with his older brother at this crossroads. We’ll remind him that, as a legal adult, he now is solely responsible for all ...
Today I offer some assorted ramblings from my world. Are you ready for some football? If things continue along the same path, high school football — and many other sports and extracurricular activities — will be starting soon. High school football is set to begin this week, with some teams even kicking off on Thursday. Undoubtedly, the season will be atypical, but that won’t keep away our sports ...
Presidential candidate Joe Biden made history last week by selecting a woman of color, Kamala Harris of California, to share the Democratic ticket with him. Now, just days later, Americans will mark another election milestone — this one with significant local ties. Tuesday is the centennial anniversary of ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women in America their full ...
My kids are grown — well, pretty much grown. My oldest just earned his bachelor’s degree, and my youngest is preparing to start his senior year in high school. Despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19, he’s made his choice and is adamant that he will return to in-person school this fall, hoping to go as long as school officials and the governor say that he may. As you know, Gov. Mike DeWine last ...
The congressional website hosted by recently departed humanitarian and civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis remains active. Near the top of the site is a press release dated July 17, the same day he died, in which the Democratic congressman from Georgia explains a letter that he and fellow Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, and other bipartisan members sent to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos supporting two ...
My youngest son has been training since January for his senior cross country season that should be starting in coming weeks. Thanks to COVID-19, he already sacrificed his junior baseball season, even missing out on the high school team’s planned spring break trip to Myrtle Beach for a tournament in April. Who could have ever expected this past spring season to be a total wash? It’s been challenging as a ...
The San Francisco Police Department announced last week it will stop releasing mug shots of people arrested unless those people pose a threat to the public. The decision comes in an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes, police Chief Bill Scott announced. He said the department no longer will release booking photos of suspects to the media or allow officers to post them online. Booking photos, of ...
“It’s a murder hornet,” the headline in Monday’s Vindicator warned. Sure, that might sound frightening, but “only if you’re a bee,” it continued. The story detailed the recent arrival of native Asian “murder hornets” to America’s northern Pacific coast and what it could mean to already struggling colonies of honey bees, if and when the giant hornets make their way to Ohio. It was ...
Little did we know when my eldest son, a senior at Youngstown State University, headed off in March to Fort Lauderdale for a last hurrah during spring break with his college friends that it REALLY would be a last hurrah for college. I recall my mother asking in the early days of the coronavirus leading up to his trip if her grandson still was planning to travel. Believe me, there was little chance my son, like ...
Scotch-taped to the computer monitor in my very messy newsroom office are a few things critical to my daily routine that I have collected through the years. There’s a list of the telephone extension numbers for members of my staff. There is a photocopy of the AP Stylebook page delineating the difference between “lay” and “lie” — because I have been known to confuse the two. There is a Bible verse, ...