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Jobs and manufacturing are on the ballot

American manufacturing is on the rebound, and that good news could hardly come at a better time for President Donald Trump, as Republicans gird themselves for the midterm elections just two months from now. Not that manufacturing is the only sector that’s on a hiring spree — businesses across the board added 162,000 new jobs in August. Even The New York Times calls the latest employment numbers “zesty.” The paper quoted T. Rowe Price’s chief U.S. economist, Blerina Uruci, saying: “It’s a very good report; I can’t emphasize that enough. And it perhaps shows that ...

Ohio launches 2 sites to chart kids’ progress

Want to know more about how well Buckeye State public schools are preparing our young people for the next phase of their lives? The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce announced last week a couple of new tools: one tracking the education level of high school graduates and another tracking career outcomes. According to a report by WFMJ-TV, the idea is to help families, educators and policymakers learn more about their prospects and how to continually improve them. “Parents want to know their child’s education leads to a brighter future,” said department Director Stephen ...

As US loses virtue, it also loses the many blessings of liberty

A farmer can’t make his plants grow, but he can create the conditions that lead to their flourishing. A society can’t make its citizens virtuous, but it can nurture the institutions that lead to virtuous citizens. Great thinkers in Western civilization have long noted the importance of virtue. In Politics, Aristotle declared, “The best life, both for individuals and states, is the life of virtue, when virtue has external goods enough for the performance of good actions.” “Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, ...

All political violence must be condemned, punished harshly

The traditional Labor Day weekend launch to the home stretch of intensive fall political campaigning got off to a rocky, disturbing and intolerable start in the Mahoning Valley this weekend. On Sunday afternoon, an assailant reportedly charged toward the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, during her campaign stop at the 180th Canfield Fair, injuring visitors before he was subdued by state troopers, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. Though at least two people suffered minor injuries from the stampede, Acton thankfully was unhurt. Patrol members and Mahoning County ...