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Tressel reflects on enormity, complexity of his state post

David Skolnick

Gov. Mike DeWine surprised many people when he announced Feb. 10, 2025, that he was nominating Jim Tressel, the retired Youngstown State University president and a former football coach at YSU and Ohio State University, to be lieutenant governor. While a longtime Republican like DeWine, Tressel had never held or run for elected office before the selection. During Tressel’s time as lieutenant governor, DeWine repeatedly said he had the utmost confidence that he would do a great job and if something happened to the governor, he was certain Tressel could run the state. A couple of days ...

State’s OhioSEE program coming clearly into focus

Editorials

At the end of the school year, Gov. Mike DeWine attended an event at Dublin City Schools elementary school, during which he did a countdown that ended with several young students putting on their prescription glasses for the first time. It was the lead-in for DeWine to talk about the expansion of the OhioSEE program. And, for those of you who remember what it was like to put on glasses and see clearly for the first time, likely quite an effective one. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, OhioSEE has so far administered approximately 1,900 eye exams, with nearly 1,200 ...

Caregivers in need of assistance

Editorials

Millions of Ohioans are caregivers for family members or neighbors in Ohio. As Ohio AARP Executive Director Jenny Carlson put it, “That’s 1 in 4 adults … holding up our health care system.” As public officials demand greater scrutiny over how Medicaid funds are used for at-home caregiving, AARP has conducted a study that shows many of the adults who are caring for aging parents and other family members are struggling financially — and nearing burnout. “Right now, it’s reaching a breaking point,” Carlson said in an interview with Statehouse News Bureau. “We have an ...

Redefine what ‘man up’ truly means to save lives

Editorials

I frequently speak with parents who have lost their child to suicide. Recently, I met with the mother of a teenage boy. She shared he had been dealing with mental health challenges for several months but seemed to be improving. One evening, he sent her a casual “I love you, Mom.” She did not think much of it at the time. After a concerned friend reached out, she used a phone-tracking feature to locate him and tragically found him in his car. After his burial, she discovered text messages where her son had written to a friend about the struggles he was having. The last message he ...

Mass-graves myth is media malpractice

Editorials

A hoax costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and appears to incite arson attacks against dozens of churches. No, this isn’t the latest headline out of Minnesota — look a little further north. In 2021, at a time when media throughout the Western world were still in a state of agitation after the killing of George Floyd, Canadian outlets picked up a story too sensational not to be true: Hundreds of indigenous First Nations children had been buried in unmarked graves at schools run by the Catholic Church in British Columbia. The Kamloops Indian Band said remains of 215 ...

American education dooms young boys to failure

Editorials

It would be better for boys if society stopped expecting them to act like girls. A Texas mom recently shared a video of her son at his kindergarten graduation. The clip shows him squirming in his chair, playing with his hands and stretching over his seat. She captioned the video, “You’re six and the ceremony enters minute 37.” The footage went viral because the boy is cute, and the situation is so relatable for parents. But for boys, moments like this are no laughing matter. Think about most modern early elementary classrooms. Many teachers want students to spend hours a ...