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Orchids & onions

Editorials

ORCHID: To the Oak Hill Collaborative under the leadership of Patrick Kerrigan and to Charter Communications Inc., doing business as Spectrum, for their successful efforts in narrowing the digital divide in the Mahoning Valley, particularly in Youngstown. For its part, Oak Hill over the past year has given away more than 500 computers and taught nearly 950 classes on navigating the internet. For its part, Spectrum recently donated $20,000 to the collaborative to add momentum to its noble and highly needed mission. How needed is it? Sadly, the city of Youngstown ranks as the second least ...

Donald Trump’s threats to Iran are war crimes

Letters to the Editor

DEAR EDITOR: On Easter Sunday morning, the president of the United States announced his intention to commit war crimes. That’s not hyperbole or partisan rhetoric. Legal scholars citing the laws of armed conflict, using the same framework American military commanders are trained on, confirm that deliberately targeting civilian power plants and bridges constitutes a war crime. Causing excessive suffering to civilian populations clears that bar. We called it a war crime after World War II. The label hasn’t changed. On April 6, The Vindicator ran the headline: “President ...

Vote for Shelley Pratt for county probate judge

Letters to the Editor

DEAR EDITOR: On May 5, Republican primary voters will have to decide on who will be the new Trumbull County Probate Court judge. Shelley Pratt, an experienced Prosecutor and current Common Pleas magistrate is the candidate voters should trust. Magistrate Pratt was a prosecutor for 20+ years in both Ashtabula and Columbiana counties. During that time, she was involved in over 100 cases before the Ohio Supreme Court. In comparison, her opponent has 4. Shelley Pratt has argued before the 11th and 7th districts’ Court of Appeals. Shelley Pratt is a full-time magistrate who has involvement ...

A foolish NATO was a big loser in the Iran war

Editorials

NATO members are not legally required to join any member's military operations that are not formally sanctioned by the alliance or not aimed at protecting the homelands of the membership. But they often do just that. Some NATO members joined the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq on the theory that, in the post-9/11 environment, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were dangers to all Western security. They followed the precedent set by America's 1999 intervention in the distant Balkans, leading a three-month NATO campaign to dismantle Slobodan Milosevi 's often bloody ambitions of a ...

Faith among young people surges

Editorials

PITTSBURGH — Last September, Pastor Jason Howard of the Sanctuary Church in Pittsburgh saw a surge of young people flocking to his Christian congregation, the week after Charlie Kirk was murdered. Howard knew that something had shifted. Yes, their congregation had always been predominantly youth-driven, but this was different. Lines began to form for their services. Public transportation was dropping off children by the busload from campuses across the city, and he knew that he had an obligation to expand. Howard teamed up with local college students at the University of ...

Sound off!

Letters to the Editor

I see a judicial candidate’s sign declaring that Jesus is his savior, and Trump his president. Somehow I just can’t imagine Jesus endorsing someone whose views echo those of a person who recently said of a political enemy, “I’m glad he’s dead.” Have ye no shame? — Youngstown Pete Hegseth demonstrates personal lethality by firing senior generals. He may yet shoot himself in the foot by attributing bombing in Iran to 47’s “fearless war time leadership.” I bet whatever hair product he uses will catch fire during a press conference. Or, the Trump bus will run him over. ...