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Kamala could be back, and she still won’t win

Editorials

According to New York Magazine’s David Freelander, “like it or not, Kamala Harris is the frontrunner” for the 2028 presidential elections. “She is, friends and allies say, content to just wait. For now. To campaign where asked, see how the midterms play out, and let those White House aspirants champing at the political bit launch their candidacies first,” Freelander writes. “But make no mistake: Kamala Harris is very much looking like a presidential contender-in-waiting.” Here we go again. The article is full of quotes from various supporters, Democratic Party figures, ...

Struthers mayor sends out Big Boy thanks to dozens

Editorials

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who made the Union Pacific Big Boy visit to Struthers on July 12 such an unforgettable historic success. I cannot express how proud I am of our Struthers Team. What we accomplished together was nothing short of extraordinary. When the Big Boy finally ...

Ohio EPA’s call on data center wastewater was right decision

Editorials

Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency made an important decision this week when it opted NOT to proceed with a proposed statewide wastewater discharge permit for data centers. It is encouraging to see the agency understands the importance of reviewing this sort of thing on an individual, case-by-case basis. “After carefully reviewing the significant volume of public comments received on the draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System general permit for data centers, Ohio EPA has decided not to move forward with finalizing the general permit,” the agency said Tuesday, ...

Abnormal is the new normal for the quality of our nation’s air

Editorials

There’s poison in the air outside my house, a bitter smoke of ashes and hot freeway, and it is keeping us all inside. Yesterday morning, the kids’ summer camp announced that the planned trip to the pool had been cancelled. They would do activities indoors all day. “How high can it get?” one of the boys asked, and I admitted I didn’t know. We had gone through a stretch of bad air a few years earlier — also due to invading smoke from Canadian wildfires — and I remembered feeling worried back then, seeing numbers in the 180s. The air quality index for the town today ...

War in Iran may shape US policy for decades

Editorials

The war with Iran that never really ended is back on. Like everybody else, including the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, I have no idea how it will end. But it eventually will, and how it will be remembered will matter enormously. Politics is about many things, but whether you call it “spin,” “framing” or “narrative competition,” storytelling is never far from the heart of it. As the philosopher Richard Rorty observed, “Competition for political leadership is in part a competition between differing stories about a nation’s self-identity, and between ...

Ohio’s bid to recruit, train 40K poll workers is about preparation

Editorials

As Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office prepares for a $1 million initiative to recruit and train an additional 40,000 poll workers before November, the folks at the local level understand this isn’t about volume as much as it is about preparedness. LaRose says the effort updates requirements and resources to ensure poll workers are prepared to serve voters professionally, efficiently and in accordance with Ohio law. And Mandy Amos, director of the Washington County Board of Elections says that’s got a lot to do with the anticipation ahead of hotly contested races for ...