Editorials

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What a tough month for the Mahoning County GOP. First, at the beginning of month, super volunteer and office manager Connie Kessler passed away. And now super state Rep. Don Manning passes. God bless. They both devoted countless hours to the cause.

-- Boardman

A post Biden-Sanders debate March 16 straight news AP article with no byline described Joe Biden as a "centrist." At worst, this is fake news, at best extremely poor judgment. Centrism is a political philosophy which opposes political changes which result in a significant shift to either the left or the right. Biden is anti-gun, pro-abortion, pro-big government, for increased taxes and regulations. On what planet is that the center? Not on Earth!

-- Canfield

A few weeks ago, I watched our president say the novus coronavirus was a hoax created by the Democrats. He also said he knew more about the virus than anyone. But now he says he knew it was going to be a pandemic and was the first to report it. Now he also knows more than the scientists. A while back, he also said he knew more about wars or military than the generals. Facts and truth do matter. So sad, and I am even a registered Republican.

-- Campbell

To the person from Girard who continually sounds off with negative comments: "Train your mind to see the good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts," according to marcandangel. You will be surprised how much better your life will be!

-- Youngstown

Packed churches on Easter is not only idiotic but deadly. Over a thousand people have died in America and 10 times more will die before COVID-19 passes. Returning to work sooner will send the death toll into the tens of thousands. This gives us time to manufacture more tests and ventilators in order for our medical professionals to treat a reasonable amount of infected people at a time. Making more tests and ventilators is something that our leaders should have done in January and February. Those like Trump who push for returning to work by Easter don't care about people.

-- Campbell

Can someone please tell the lady from New Middletown the novus coronavirus isn't a man-made conspiracy to cause fear in an election year. The way this administration has handled it should put us all in fear. Three months in, no tests, no masks, no ventilators. First, it was a hoax then it will miraculously disappear. This president can't help making things up. This administration has shouted fake news so many times that Americans like this lady now live in a world of conspiracy theories.

-- Hubbard

Liberal columnists are criticizing their favorite target. On March 17, Kathleen Parker said, "We've had a steady rise in confirmed cases," but added, "A crisis seems yet to have occurred." She says Trump's creating hysteria. On March 18, Robert Reich admitted "the outbreak in the U.S. follows the same grim exponential growth path first displayed in Wuhan, China." But Reich is concerned that we lack a system to handle it. Luckily we don't have things like this often.

-- Mineral Ridge

Letters to the Editor

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• Recycling is in progress when the well-intentioned souls living to windward fill their low-sided bins with loose papers, plastic jugs and other unsecured junk that is then blown onto my lawn, where I pick it up and throw it in my trash can. Partially fill plastic jugs with water to keep them in place, bind papers in bundles or staple them inside paper bags with your smashed cans to keep them in place for pick up. Otherwise, you can do a greater public service by walking the neighborhood to pick up the junk spewed from your recycling bin.

-- Canfield

• Has anyone besides me noticed the huge amounts of trash along many roads in Trumbull and Mahoning counties? I'm talking about cans, papers, bottles, plastics, etc. Can we get service groups, anyone needing to perform community service, Scouts, volunteers, correctional facility residents, neighbors, etc., to help with this problem? I surely hope most trash has blown around throughout winter, settling by roadsides and not thrown out of car windows.

-- Girard

• When I was young, my mom would send me to a neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar and I wouldn't think anything of it. If I was asked to get a roll of toilet paper, I'm sure we would have been given one with no questions asked. That's when your neighbor was not just that "person living next door." That was then and today is now. I never thought that a roll of toilet paper had medical properties to cure today's "coronavirus." Come on people, use the common sense you were born with!

-- Austintown

• Alcohol-based hand cleaners and rubber gloves are substitutes for soap and water when it's not available. If people who work in hospitals, nursing homes, doctor's offices, urgent care centers, etc., would wash their hands for 20 seconds before touching patients and equipment, and those who work in restaurants and food service wash their hands before touching food and utensils and after touching money, the world would be a healthier place.

-- Mineral Ridge

• COVID-19 has been active since December in China. President Trump turned down test kits from the world health organization. In 2018 he fired a pandemic response team created by Obama. Trump said he knew it was a pandemic before anyone else did, but did nothing. He said it was under control and would go away in April with warmer weather. Now, with things worsening, Trump says he bears no responsibility. Due to his ignorance, incompetence and lies, many people will die. He has disqualified himself for re-election.

-- Girard

• As COVID-19 cases climb, why didn't the Trump administration create a plan in January when they first heard about Covid-19? If it doesn't directly affect him, he doesn't care. So, he claimed "fake news," until the stock market started falling. Now it's too late. Now he claims his administration is doing great work, while cases increase. When cases drop, we should thank governors like DeWine and mayors like that of San Francisco. When over 3,000 Puerto Ricans died after hurricane Rita, he didn't care. He won't care this time either.

-- Campbell

• Democrats' presidential primary has two choices. Both septuagenarians marinated in the DC swamp for decades. Family and friends of both candidates, marketing connections, benefited financially. One, a proclaimed socialist, finds some good in Castro's communist regime. The second struggles to put a coherent sentence together; and at rallies cusses out voters who ask challenging questions. Both, like school yard bullies, call our president names and promise to roll back policies which have given us the strongest economy on record.

-- Canfield

Editorials

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You can bet if any property owner failed to pay the full amount in property taxes, it would not be "unlikely," "convoluted," "problematic" or "difficult" for a trio of elected government officials to threaten, browbeat, garnish and sue them for payment -- regardless of legal costs. Where's the public service in these public servants? They should find the owners of the property who paid too much and pay them back.

-- Canfield

It's unlikely there will be a reimbursement on the library tax error of $631,000 because it is too "difficult" to do. If we, the taxpayer, owned that, they would find a way to collect it. Of 3,300 parcels, they could fix 3,000 easily. The other 300 would be more difficult because of deaths, relocation, new owners.

-- Beaver Township

I find it more than ironic that as Boardman starts to study and map out creeks and flood zones, trustees thought it would be a good idea to cut down more trees and turn a forest into another huge concrete and blacktop area. I believe most Boardman residents think the township has more than enough retailers already. Boardman is trying to stay above water.

-- Boardman

I recently was shocked by the condition of Market Street in Boardman. There were patches everywhere, and it appeared it had not been paved for many years. I have been reading about all the wonderful street and infrastructure improvements around YSU and downtown Youngstown, but no one seems to mention or care about Market Street, the main route from Boardman into Youngstown and YSU. What good does it do to improve downtown but not improve routes to get there? Repaving this street should be priority, as it reflects poorly on the area as a whole.

-- Hubbard

In the state of Ohio, if you tear down a house or building, the cellar must be filled with soil. Someone tore down a house in the middle of Mineral Ridge on state Route 46. They filled the basement with concrete blocks. I can't believe they got away with that, with all the passing traffic on Route 46.

-- Niles

With all the talk of Bloomberg buying votes, what do you think Trump is doing with his ridiculous pardons? Is DeBartolo's pardon going to guarantee the Youngstown area's vote for Trump? Just how gullible does he think people are? Four years is four years too many to be stuck with him. Let's get rid of him and bring our country back to the amazing country that our allies once respected!

-- Struthers

Nancy Pelosi recently went off on a reporter who asked why she hates President Trump. Pelosi replied that she is a good Catholic who hates no one. But as she sat behind Trump at the State of the Union address, she showed nothing but hatred for Trump. At the finish, she tore up his speech and threw it on the table. There are many synonyms for hate -- abhor, loathe and repugnance. Try one of these next time, Nancy.

-- Girard

Peter Schweizer's book, "Profiles in Corruption," shows why we need Trump! Biden has 36 years as Senator and eight years as VP. His family profited from his positions of power. Son Hunter's exploits are well known. Brother James became executive VP of Hillstone International, which received lucrative government construction projects. Brother Frank made millions in US, Costa Rica and Jamaica backed by billions of U.S. dollars. Sister Valerie's political messaging business receives large fees from campaign funds.

-- Canfield

God forbid a non-politician run for president and win like Trump did in 2016. The Democrats' plot to take him down went into high gear. Our president has kept most of his promises. Imagine what more could have been accomplished if Democrats had cooperated. President Trump works hard to bring back jobs, make life here more prosperous and to keep us safe. He has made it more fair for us when negotiating with other countries. Keep draining the swamp, President Trump.

-- Austintown

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