Editorials

Easter orchids

ORCHID: To Flying High Inc., a Mahoning Valley nonprofit focusing on workforce development, for its Adopt-A-Bed fundraiser that has potential to cultivate lasting rewards on two fronts. First, participants in the program at the Mahoning Valley Greenhouse in Mineral Ridge learn critical agricultural skills in raising healthy vegetable plants. Second, once the vegetables are fully grown, Flying High will use its mobile market to distribute the healthy food to pantries and underserved food deserts in the Valley. For all those wishing to see this program grow by adopting one of the limited supply of plant beds, visit www.fhipdc.org.

ORCHID: To the group of 53 Hubbard High School Future Educators of America members for generously volunteering time working as student aides at Fairhaven School for special-needs students in Niles. Last week club members spent the day at the school working with and assisting children on coloring, puzzles and other projects. Josh MacMillan, Hubbard High art instructor and FEA club adviser, summarized well the many benefits of the annual program in instilling "appreciation, gratitude, empathy and humility" in the student aides and by giving them opportunities to oversee projects in a real-world learning environment. This mutually beneficial partnership between Hubbard High and Fairhaven serves as a great model for other schools and FEA chapters to emulate.

ORCHID: To the Steel Valley Pipes & Drums, Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper Steve Murphy and Lynsey Cayton, wife of Nicholas P. Cayton, for establishing a scholarship at Youngstown State University in the name of Nicholas, who was killed in a tragic crash last fall on state Route 11. Cayton was struck by a semi while assisting a truck driver on the roadside.

Murphy, also a friend of the fallen trooper, said the scholarship to be administered by the YSU Foundation will enable Cayton's legacy to live on forever. That legacy is indeed rich and commendable. Cayton should be remembered for his strong sense of duty, his service to his country and community, and the lasting impact he made on those who had the privilege to know and serve alongside him.

ORCHID: To DJV Carpet employees and Mahoning Valley pinball wizards Larry DeMarco, Dan Vecchione, Greg Coulter and Aaron Smigrocky for winning the second annual Corporate Pinball Challenge and Fundraiser, sponsored by Past Times arcade in Girard and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. The high-spirited competition last week featured 42 teams of four players each. Not only did the Austintown carpet store workers win big, their victory also scored a jackpot of benefits for the compassionate Healthy Hearts & Paws Project, the winner's designated charity to which proceeds of the fundraiser flowed.

ORCHID: To U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, for gaining a seat on one of the most powerful committees in the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress. Republican leaders selected Husted for the appointment last week to fill a vacancy caused by the departure of Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, after he was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Husted, the first Ohioan to serve on the panel in 15 years, will have a major say in exercising direct control over federal spending and shaping national priorities through the power of the purse. As an added fringe benefit, typically members of that committee also get more money for their state in discretionary funding.

ORCHID: To the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for awarding nearly $3 million to 122 water systems in the state to support critical improvements to ensure safe, reliable drinking water. The funds specifically will strengthen protection of the water source, properly close inactive wells and invest in emergency generators. In the Valley, Canfield, Sebring, Lordstown, Newton Falls and several mobile home parks will be on the receiving end. These investments reinforce the strong image the Gov. Mike DeWine administration has earned over the years for clean water management, particularly through its H2Ohio initiative.

Letters to the Editor

Sound off!

No Kings protests are useless and ineffective. They are largely performative and lacking in concrete policy demands. These demonstrations are simply a way to "blow off steam" rather than a strategic campaign with specific goals. Trump is still president and continues to make America great again!

-- Struthers

In response to last week's Sound Off: No, Democrats do not want to give illegal aliens the right to vote! This is just another "alternate fact" that the Lying King and his propaganda cable news enablers promote to deflect from his crimes and power grabs. This man publicly said he loves the uneducated and recently said he purposely surrounds himself with losers, showing blatant disrespect to his own supporters, yet they continue to blindly follow and adore him.

-- Hubbard

Has anyone noticed the Hanni for Judge posters? The saintly Hanni is pictured with Jesus Christ and Donald Trump. I am sure that Jesus supports him. Unbelievable!

-- Youngstown

Did anyone notice that Donny recently voted by mail in the latest Florida election? Hmm.

-- Youngstown

To taxpayers: It may only be April, but the deer hunt in the fall will continue. Mill Creek Park has no plans of stopping. They will cite overpopulation, disease, vegetation destruction, collisions with cars, and other reasons. 14.9 deer per square mile is hardly overpopulation, when deer are hardly even seen in the park. They will say that the hunt is safe and successful. Not to the babies to be born in May, who will be hunted in October! Attend the meetings, be informed, get involved.

-- Poland

On March 30, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission approved opening 8,500 acres of land including Salt Fork Park and Egypt Valley Wildlife Area to fracking. With AI demanding massive amounts of energy and water at the expense of the environment and the demise of wildlife happening before our eyes, we have no control. Ohio is a major hub for AI and cloud computing centers with over 200 data centers and more in the works. Be informed of what politicians are doing. The future is now.

-- Poland

In 1770 one of the first protests occurred in America resulting in the Boston massacre. They said "No" to taxation by the king of England and the great experiment began. Protests from roughly 1900 to 1920 led to the right for women to vote. Protests in the 1960s led to the equal rights amendment. On March 28, 3,300 protests and

8 million Americans said no to King Trump. Are Rulli, Moreno and Husted listening?

-- Campbell

If Pete Hegseth continues to push his Christian nationalist religion on the Pentagon, he should consider two things. One, the First Amendment prohibits establishment of a national religion by law. Two, all the swell stuff theocracy has given Iran. What's next, the memorial inquisition center for limb lopping and stoning in one of Noem's warehouses?

-- Canfield

Republicans chose to mock the 8 million voters at 3,000 events in all 50 states who participated in the No Kings rallies on March 28 by claiming they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, and they are probably correct. It is, in fact, a very real and highly contagious condition that has now affected about 65% of voters. Knowing that those afflicted with TDS will seek relief by flipping Congress in the midterms, perhaps Republicans should think about finding a cure themselves.

-- Struthers

If the President has his signature on all newly minted money, will he sign them all by hand or use an Autopen? Just asking for a friend.

-- Canfield

Where were the No Kings protesters when King Biden chose his successor? No primary, no debates, no votes, no democracy. Where were the No Kings protestors when King Biden ordered people to put an untested vaccine in their body or lose their jobs?

-- Hubbard

The liar crying'wolf, at will, since his 2020 election loss, now has so little public trust that more people, and markets, trust the Persian version of events as much if not more than his multiple false declarations of victory in the war he started. He can't fix his mess, even with a grifted golden Sharpie. God forbid he takes more blood from our sons and daughters to strut his hour upon the stage while telling his idiots' tale. VOTE

-- Canfield

This appears to be an age of consolidation -- hospitals, high schools, Catholic churches, etc. So why can't the public library do the same? One location, centrally situated, as is the newly renovated one on Wick Avenue. Does the shrinking population of Mahoning County really need so many libraries? WASTE, WASTE.

-- Boardman

After the LTTE heading: "Don't be fooled by Trump's tax numbers," the submitter then wrote: "When will taxpayers realize that getting a refund is only getting back the money that they overpaid to the IRS?" I'd much rather get my own money back than have it go to some recipient of a wasteful government entitlement.

-- Hubbard

A political ad featuring a candidate's wife touting her husband's love of family aired four times in two hours on a local TV station last evening. The ad is clearly appealing to women, a demographic they must need to win. I, too, want safe communities, great schools, and a future in Ohio. But I want the candidate himself to tell me specifically how he's going to accomplish these goals, and why he cares so much about a state he never lived in.

-- Youngstown

Trump, wife and youngest son all availed themselves by mail-in voting in a recent Florida election. He is trying to stop us from doing the same. His candidate lost.

Trump plans on building a 250-foot Arc de Trump on the National Mall "obliterating" (his word) the view of the Lincoln Memorial. The French Arc de Triomphe is 165 feet tall. He seems to take over other people's memorials.

-- Liberty

I just don't understand how people blind themselves to the cruelty of Trump. He is vile in his criticism and you just don't think he can get anymore cruel or go lower and yet he does. He criticises Robert Mueller's death with a "glad he's dead", when Mueller volunteered for Vietnam and Trump hid behind his father to avoid the war. He knows nothing of the perils of war and what this war will do to the military and families.

-- Liberty

For the parent in McDonald who wants her 19-year-old, special-needs adult child at a child's splash pad, while it is nothing against special needs it is common sense to leave this rule as is. Children innocently run around, splash and play, that is how a child's play area should be. The slightest bump, push or slash and this parent could try to turn this into a lawsuit if her adult child gets touched. This parent could buy a sprinkler for her yard or suggest a similar splash pad in her area as something designed for special needs with the proper guidance.

-- Girard