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ORCHID: To Carl Foote of Boardman for embarking on an ambitious and compassionate 700-mile bicycle trek to benefit research to battle the debilitating Alzheimer's disease. Foote, 74, a veteran benefit bike rider, is in the middle of his excursion across the entire perimeter of Lake Erie in Ohio, Michigan, Canada, New York and Pennsylvania. This isn't Foote's first rolling rodeo. In 2024, he biked 2,200 miles across the country on U.S. Route 62 for the same mission. As he put it before launching his Lake Erie project, "Every mile of this ride represents a step forward in the fight against a disease that affects millions of families."
ORCHID: To the Autism Society of the Mahoning Valley for its success in opening its first-ever permanent home in space at the Youngstown Business Incubator's West Federal Street building in downtown Youngstown. Officials of the society cut the ribbon last week on its new permanent headquarters. The space will give the nonprofit a much-needed continuing physical presence in the community to thereby increase awareness and support for its laudable mission to offer information, referral, family support, advocacy, professional development, awareness and other resources. It also gives the organization room to grow new programs to serve close to 10,000 on the autism spectrum throughout Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. We wish it well and hope its growth mode continues unabated.
ORCHID: To Tim Ryan, the former longtime U.S. House representative for the Mahoning Valley, for his prestigious appointment to a national commission on artificial intelligence and the future of the American workforce. Created by the American Enterprise Institute and the Urban Institute, the bipartisan commission, chaired by former U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, plans to assess how artificial intelligence is reshaping jobs, skills, benefits and earnings. It also seeks to develop practical policy options to help workers, employers and governments adapt. The appointment of Ryan to this bipartisan commission is right up his alley for his current leadership of Unlikely Majorities strives to reduce political and cultural divisions between Democrats and Republicans on key public policy issues.
ONION: To those disgruntled drivers who actively engage in road rage and thereby endanger the safety of themselves and others. In Boardman last week, police report a motorist who said he narrowly escaped a collision with another vehicle was attacked with a hammer and struck five or six times by the driver of the other vehicle. Short of physical attacks, aggressive maneuvers like ramming, brake-checking and cutting off other vehicles often result in devastating, sometimes fatal, high-speed crashes. Sudden swerving or erratic braking can cause a driver to lose control entirely, leading to multi-car pileups or rollovers. Clearly, such rage -- generally caused by traffic stress and impatience -- is unacceptable. It also can land those irrational enough to indulge in it well deserved and lengthy prison sentences plus hefty fines.
ORCHID: To Hynes Industries of Austintown for winning an AI Impact Award from Smart Business, a Cleveland-based media company serving Northeast Ohio's business community. The manufacturer of custom roll-formed and fabricated metal components was recognized for its exemplary use of artificial intelligence to increase productivity and reduce production costs. Its new automated, vision-based quality inspection system won many cheers. Cheers, too, to Hynes for extending its continuing tradition of excellence. It recently also won for the fourth straight year the Platinum Supplier Award by Wabash, a recognition the manufacturer of commercial truck-trailers awards each year to high-performing suppliers across the nation.
ORCHID: To the Altrusa Club of Youngstown for its meritorious community service in awarding grants to 12 area teachers to help them defray their own out-of-pocket expenses to support classroom activities. The average teacher, after all, these days spends an average of $900 of their own money, on resources to help carry out educational goals. This local Altrusa Club chapter, one of about 315 worldwide, clearly meets and exceeds the organization's overriding international goals of leadership, literacy, partnership and service.
ONION: To perpetrators of a malicious scam in which consumers purchase shipping containers online but never receive them. The Better Business Bureau of the Mahoning Valley recently reported numerous complaints regarding the container scam in which consumers say they paid for containers using wire transfers but never received their purchases. The local BBB also discovered the company claiming to be selling the products does not exist at its stated location in Canfield. Words to the wise: Follow BBB recommendations by researching all online merchants before coughing up payments, be skeptical of unfamiliar companies and unrealistically low prices and always send payments through secure methods -- not wire transfers or gift cards.