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AI has potential to do harm

As an old-school news hound — meaning I can remember typewriters — I am familiar with the old newsroom saying, “If you don’t like the news, just wait a few minutes.” Lately, I find myself waiting more than a few minutes for another shoe to drop in a present-day saga widely referred to as the “Hugging Face” breach. Or perhaps you’ve heard it referred to as the “rogue” OpenAI agent, although I still have questions about just how rogue it was, since it seems to have been doing only what it was designed to do, like it or not. The story began July 21, when tech giant ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To the 12 residents of Austintown Township who demonstrated commendable civic engagement by submitting letters of interest/applications to become a governing trustee for the community. The recent resignation of Trustee Robert Santos has forced the two remaining township leaders — Monica Deavers and Bruce Shepas — to solicit, review and select his replacement. Given the high quantity and quality of the applicants, that will be no easy feat. Those 12 applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds serve as a model for residents of all communities throughout the Valley to consider ...

Congress must act to protect consumers from data center risks

The massive proliferation of data centers in our state and nation has fast rocketed to become the undisputed hot potato issue of 2026. To argue otherwise flies in the face of in-your-face realities. In the United States, nearly 4,000 data centers have opened in recent years with an additional 1,500 sites proposed or under construction. In Ohio, artificial intelligence and cloud computing demand have fueled construction of about 200 such centers, the fifth-highest number of any state in the nation. But as they grow, so, too, does fierce and sometimes caustic pushback in communities ...

Bring back ‘nattering nabobs’

President Trump’s performance at last Friday’s retooled White House Correspondents’ Dinner made me nostalgic for the days of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s media attack dog. In a speech, Agnew called politicians critical of Nixon administration policies “nattering nabobs of negativism,” a phrase written by his speechwriter William Safire, and later usurped by media to apply to journalists. That was mild compared to the disgusting personal insults Trump hurled at journalists who were at the dinner to support the White House Correspondents ...

Democratic Socialists are shockingly racist

The Democratic Socialists of America use people of color as fashion accessories. Sure, they put black or brown faces on ballots, and they talk a big game about racism. But black and brown voters are not choosing their candidates. The DSA national membership chooses, and it is 85% white. Look at the crowds. In October 2019, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders staged a rally at the Queensbridge housing project, across from Manhattan. Its residents are 47% black, 34% Latino and 10% Asian. News photos showed a nearly unbroken sea of white enthusiasts. The head of the ...

‘Charitable giving’ isn’t what you think

I want to start today with a warning about "charitable giving" and end with a primer on wealth inequality. The two are closely related, as I'll explain. We're on the cusp of the biggest gusher of "charitable giving" in history. Beware. We tend to think of "charitable giving" as unambiguously good because we equate "charities" with organizations that help the poor and equate "giving" with generosity. But both assumptions are wrong. In fact, the "giving" is actually a giant tax loophole that provides the super-rich a means of dramatically cutting their tax bills while quietly funding ...