“All roads lead to the Mahoning Valley.” You might remember I wrote about that little expression we commonly tout in our newsroom because, well, they just do. Over and over again, it seems that we read national or even international stories on The Associated Press wire only later to find some local connection to them. Well, here we go again. The words began bouncing around the newsroom again last ...
I had a conversation with a reader recently who called my office to discuss a government issue that’s been bothering him. Readers often call our newsroom to vent, sometimes because they know — based on the position we have taken on our opinion page — that they are in friendly territory because we will agree with their assessment of a situation. And sometimes they call to argue and point out all the ...
Pride — in our nation, in our hometown, in our servicemen and servicewomen, or even in our family — has long been the recurring theme in country music. And while love of America and your hometown, not to mention your dog or your pickup truck or your favorite fishing hole, are good and sometimes fun reasons to listen, I can’t say it’s why I tune in each time I slide in behind the steering wheel of my ...
Who seriously ever gets to go to the Super Bowl? Sure, we all know people who have had really rare and cool sporting event experiences. Court seats at an NBA basketball game. Attendance at a college football championship game. Tickets to Game 7 of the World Series. Heck, the Steelers have hosted so many playoff games, I’ll bet countless readers have been there waving their terrible towels. But a Super ...
The metered cost to mail a 1 oz. letter went up a penny this month. Good thing. Maybe the U.S. Postal Service will put the extra money to good use getting the mail delivered on time. Seriously, this is not a matter to joke about. Repeated and outrageous delays in mail delivery are leading many of us to rely less and less on the U.S. Postal Service. But that only exacerbates the problem. Like you, my ...
We have started down an incredible new path in history. Yes, given the events of the last four years, that statement is a no brainer. But I’m not speaking just about the presidential flip from Republican to Democrat, or from conservative to liberal, or even from unorthodox to traditional. Rather, I’m talking about the gigantic leap that garnered support from more than 80 million Americans who in November ...
I don’t always agree with our governor, but on at least one very important issue, I do. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and I are in complete agreement that kids need to get back to school. I say this just as my son, a senior in high school, is pressing me and my husband to allow him to change his education plan from in-class learning to remote learning, but it’s not because of health concerns. Rather, I suspect ...
Five people have now died after pro-Trump protests in Washington turned violent Wednesday and hundreds, perhaps thousands, poured unbridled into the U.S. Capitol building, overpowering the thin police line. By now, we’ve all seen the shocking video footage and photographs. Since then, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the latest casualty from the melee, ...
Allegations of police brutality aren’t exclusive to the United States. And neither is the growing trend of passersby — often random members of the public — stopping to video record police stops and arrests. We are blessed in America with liberties that our founders had the foresight and fortitude to create, granting us rights that are unfathomable to citizens in many countries. They include things ...
What a surreal election this has been. And I’m not even talking about the large number of incumbent upsets in local races, the days and days of ballot counting or the public accusations from our president of fraud and attempts to “steal” the election from him. Yes, civil suits have been filed, with more still to come. And there is other insanity. At least one lawsuit filed in Arizona stems from ...