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Support your local farmers after recent Ohio storms

Recent violent storms across Ohio have provided a reminder about just how much we take for granted our local farmers. Many were hit by another round of storms last week that destroyed this year’s harvests. According to a report by WCMH-TV, Tuesday’s weather events were the worst in central Ohio since the 2012 derecho windstorm. States of emergency have been declared in Perry and Muskingum counties. Those storms did not just produce winds and rain that damaged or destroyed crops, they also took out structures ranging from barns to farm stands. Just a couple of weeks ago in ...

GOP isn’t always best party for conservatives in America

I often get asked for my advice on how to vote. I’m the first to concede these requests come from a very niche slice of the electorate — that tiny remnant of people who know who I am, value my opinion and share my exasperation with both parties. I am going to answer the question. But first let me explain why I don’t like it. I think too many pundits on the left and right fall into the habit of confusing or conflating the fortunes of a party with that of their philosophy. Many come by this tendency honestly. As the parties have polarized ideologically, it’s a natural ...

Clay Travis’ offer exposed WNBA’s inclusion delusion

Leftist dogma requires adherents to assert that men can become women and should be treated as such. That wouldn’t work out so well for WNBA players. Last week, conservative talk show host Clay Travis offered to give the Las Vegas Aces $10 million — with a catch. He wants the Aces, the reigning WNBA champions, to play a game against a state champion high school boys team of his choosing. The winner of the game would receive the cash. “This will be the most money ever paid to win a single basketball game,” Travis wrote on X. “A modern day battle of the sexes.” That’s a ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Jamie Ciccone for her exemplary civic engagement that led to her well-deserved appointment last week as the newest member of the Austintown Township Board of Trustees. Ciccone, who is no relation to embattled Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone, won high praise from fellow Trustees Monica Deavers and Bruce Shepas. She can rightfully boast of a laundry list of community and nonprofit groups she has served in and powered. She also bested at least 12 other candidates, many of whom brought strong credentials themselves. For her part, Ciccone vows that in her new ...

Join the race to win war on breast cancer

The ongoing war on breast cancer brings both good news and bad news to the Mahoning Valley. The good news is that Mahoning and Trumbull counties have made great strides in attacking the disease and lowering the death toll from it. According to the National Cancer Institute within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those two counties rank among the lowest in the state and below the national average in incidence and in fatalities from the disease, and trend lines continue to edge lower. The bad news is that those trend lines are not diving downward as deeply or as ...

Summertime political reruns

When I was younger, so much younger than today (credit The Beatles for that lyric from “Help”), television networks would rerun programs that had originally been broadcast the previous fall and spring. A few still do, like “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy,” but those are syndicated shows. Still, it can be fun to watch programs you missed, or even ones you have seen, especially if you can impress someone with “Jeopardy” answers because you know them. Reruns that always annoy are the political ads, which start before primaries and continue until the day before the ...