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Sun won’t shine on JobsOhio

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Sandra O’Brien requiring JobsOhio to comply with open records and meetings laws seems to make a lot of sense — and has little chance of being passed. Several of O’Brien’s fellow Republicans in the state Legislature, including the most-powerful ones, don’t want to see changes to JobsOhio, created in 2011 as a private nonprofit agency to provide incentives to companies to locate and remain in Ohio. The agency is funded through lucrative state liquor profits. O’Brien, R-Lenox, whose district includes all of Trumbull County, on April 9 ...

Lindsey Graham, your fellow citizen

This week, we mourned the loss of Lindsey Graham, who had represented his state of South Carolina in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 and in the Senate from 2003 until he unexpectedly passed away at the age of 71 after a “brief and sudden illness.” And by “we,” I obviously mean anyone with the smallest shred of dignity or honor or respect for their fellow American citizens. “Good riddance,” wrote Ana Kasparian, as did white supremacist and part-time hobbit Nick Fuentes. Not to be outdone, Cenk Uyghur responded by saying that Graham had “moved on to the ...

Former Ohio judges protest politicization of judicial seats

If one takes a step back and looks at the matter logically, Ohio’s requirement that candidates in state supreme court races bear partisan labels is ridiculous. Add to that the decision that allowed judges to endorse political candidates and the situation is laughable. But three former state supreme court justices weren’t laughing last week when they took part in a nationwide effort to protest the politicization of judge’s seats and threats to the independence of the judiciary. Yvette McGee Brown, Michael P. Donnelly and former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor were part of ...

Political views from the heartland

MADISON, Wis. — This is my hometown, where it’s consoling to be in a sane state in high summer. Since Maine Democrats fell for the oysterman hook, line and sinker, they deserve what they get in November. Choosing Graham Platner’s rocky record over a seasoned woman governor, Janet Mills — who could have defeated Sen. Susan Collins in a cakewalk — shows that we still have a long way to go, baby. Platner looked like MAGA lite to me — as a survivor of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. No friend to women, clearly, from his secret life. And a Nazi tattoo! An Aesop’s ...

Republicans, Democrats must control radicals in their parties

It’s starting to sound like we’re in the middle of the Spanish Civil War. For those of you who forgot, the Spanish Civil War was the great prequel to World War II, in which the combatants were proxies for the Communists and the Fascists. Stalin’s Soviet Union supported the former, Hitler’s Germany aided the latter. President Trump and the GOP have decided to run against “Communism” in the coming midterms. In his Fourth of July speech, Trump referenced the Communists in our midst nearly a dozen times. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the ...