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Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To the North Jackson Historical Society and prominent Jackson Township business owner Tim Lehotsky for their roles in restoring a more than two-century old cemetery in that community. Lehotsky has earned high praise from NJHS leaders — and rightly so — for playing such a crucial, hands-on role in revitalizing the historic Covenanter Cemetery. He manually repaired and righted numerous fallen gravestones, unearthed bases that had sunk underground,and painstakingly chipped away at a tree to free a gravestone encased in its trunk. Among those he restored were those of American ...

State board must deny parole for Valley cop killer

If all goes the way of one Fred E. Joseph Jr., that violent, psychopathic, unrepentant and incorrigible killer of a respected Niles police officer could be free to menace Mahoning Valley streets again as early as Sept. 1. That frightening scenario must never be allowed to play out. That’s why the Ohio Adult Parole Authority must unanimously and unequivocally deny parole for Joseph at his upcoming July hearing. As many older Valley residents will readily recall, Joseph, then 17, and his accomplice Randy Fellows, 18, arranged an undercover meeting on local drug activity with Niles ...

A word from the other side

President Trump and Vice President Vance spent most of last week trying to convince Americans the “Memo of Understanding” (MOU) with Iran is a good deal for the United States and world peace. That’s not what Iran believes. Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has hailed the MOU as a major “victory” for Tehran. The “greater jihad” would now begin, he promised, according to a speech aired by Iranian state media last week. You read that correctly. The greater Jihad. To some this might sound like the same ...

We should vote on ideas, not physical likeness

MS NOW commentator Ali Velshi was not alone in complaining that women are “underrepresented” in Congress. It is true that women account for 51% of the U.S. population but only 29% of the House members. To which I say, “So what.” Basing the notion of fair representation on racial, gender or ethnic identity needs to be put in a folder — a paper folder stored in a dusty steel file cabinet. Most of us have additional identities — as electricians, teachers, environmentalists, grandparents, bus drivers, stock investors, union members. Who would represent me under this broader ...

How Trump is handling 4 messes he created

Referring to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz commented on X: “Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.” (Walz could have added: “blamed others for his failure, conjured up a conspiracy, then prosecuted them.”) One remarkable aspect of Trump’s horrendous reign is how many crises and problems he’s brought on himself — created them out of thin air. Then he brags about how well ...

Is this a republic or is it turning into an empire?

The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, embraces two value sets. The first is natural rights, and the second is limited government. After 250 years, neither value has survived, and the opposite of each currently prevails in America. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration in three days while staying at a rooming house in Philadelphia. He had been greatly influenced by the British philosopher John Locke. Locke is the godfather of the theory of natural rights, which he extrapolated from the natural law teachings of Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) ...