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Parents in need of back-to-school discounts can receive a break

Editorials

Need a budget break on back-to-school shopping? Ohio’s Department of Taxation has one built in Aug. 7-9, with a sales tax holiday that should help. Though there is no expanded holiday this year, for those three days, clothing priced $75 or less, school supplies priced $20 or less and school instructional materials priced $20 or less will be exempt from sales tax. While most of us are capable of using common sense to sort it out, the department does note the sales tax holiday does NOT apply to “food in restaurants, boats/watercrafts, titled outboard motors, motor vehicles, ...

Is it any wonder why Americans have soured on college?

Editorials

Even colleges can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Just 38% of Americans have high confidence in higher education, according to a Gallup poll. That’s down from 57% in 2015. Gallup found three main reasons for this lack of confidence are political agenda, cost and not preparing students for a future career. This is a stunning — and much-needed — fall from grace. Many schools and politicians spent decades pushing ever more kids into college. Sen. Bernie Sanders even sponsored the “College for All Act.” It was endorsed by numerous left-wing groups, including ...

Ohio’s lack of affordable housing just getting worse

Editorials

Affordable, accessible housing is getting harder to find in Ohio; and the “affordable” part is getting a little harder to define. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio shows a “modest” two-bedroom apartment in the Buckeye State is even further out of reach now than it was a year ago. Last year, the group estimated a full-time worker would have to make $22.51 per hour to afford to rent at HUD’s Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of their income, according to a report by the Ohio Capital ...

Saved by the boys of summer: baseball to the rescue — again

Editorials

At my age, I shouldn’t care so much whether the Boston Red Sox win or lose, let alone permit my daily mood to rise or fall accordingly. It’s only a game. It’s supposed to be a pastime (according to AI, something that “helps make the hours pass pleasantly when you are not working”), not an obsession. There are 162 games a year and letting your emotional state hinge on whether your favorite team scores more runs than the other team is obviously senseless. And yet. Generations of Americans have been swept up by the game. Children never forget their first trip to the ...

Erica Schwartz’s impossible task in leading CDC

Editorials

Erica Schwartz, the nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked last Wednesday whether she supports the Trump administration’s cancellation of mRNA vaccine research. “This is the first time I’m actually hearing about this,” she said. “As a private citizen, I certainly was not following that.” Really? Schwartz said several times that she believes mRNA vaccines are safe and effective, but her professed ignorance of a decision that sent shock waves through the public health field highlights how much she’ll struggle to be effective if ...

McDowell ‘town hall’ shields mayor from accountability

Editorials

When public officials promise a “town hall,” they invoke a sacred American tradition of open dialogue, direct accountability and unvarnished truth. They promise to face their constituents, look them in the eye and answer the hard questions. But Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell’s ...