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Transparency in JobsOhio can only help

King Bureaucracy and its robe of red tape aren’t exactly the model for how to get things done effectively and efficiently. But state government agencies are bound to operate transparently enough that Ohioans can SEE what they would like to improve. JobsOhio brags on its own website that it operates in the shadows, using public money. “We’re private, which means less red tape,” the agency tells prospective development partners. “We ensure your confidentiality and safeguard you from unexpected setbacks.” Given such a message, combined with JobsOhio’s mixed-at-best ...

Be wary when sitting around an open fire

Late spring into summer is the perfect time for sitting around the fire pit in the evening, or burning off the last of the debris from cleaning up your property for the year. And burn laws do change at the beginning of June. “Starting on June 1, you can burn any time of the day. You are still required to stay with it the entire time. You’re required to have the minimum 10 foot safety strip around it. That’s what I would encourage the public is that if they do decide to burn during the summer months, especially July and August it gets very dry and we can have summer fires,” said ...

‘No Kings’ is why Trump’s face should never be on a $250 bill

President Donald Trump’s latest scheme is to print his mug on a proposed $250 bill. The idea is eye roll- inducing, for sure. There are so many other pressing issues for the nation; it’s tempting to stay out of this dog fight. On the surface, Trump’s continued insistence to place his image and name on every entity he desires can seem trivial compared to the weighty global and domestic quandaries also on his plate. Trump’s efforts around the $250 bill are grounded in vanity. But July 4, and the nation’s 250th celebrations are nearing. Central to honoring our nation is ...

How to kill US Supreme Court in one simple step

In 2016, the conservative writer Mike Anton made a galvanizing case for Donald Trump in his famous “Flight 93” essay, arguing that the stakes in the contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were existential. His contention that a Clinton win would cement Democratic electoral dominance forever, such that Republicans needed to charge the cockpit or die, was implausible at the time, and seems more so in retrospect. If Hillary had won in 2016, in all likelihood, she would have been gone in 2020, washed away by the pandemic just like Trump was. This time, though, really might ...

We should stop going backward

Politicizing health care — from vaccines to research and safety-net funding — has led to some dangerous changes in public health in this country. Among them is the surge in measles and whooping cough cases. Vaccine hesitancy fueled by intentional misinformation and disingenuous religious freedom outrage has resulted in significant increases in the two potentially deadly illnesses. Across the country, there have been 1,983 measles cases so far this year, according to an Ohio Capital Journal report that used U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The total for all of ...

Find ways to make data centers, manufacturing jobs both prosper

There has never been a product so much in demand . . . ever. Over 240 million smartphones are in use in America (I asked Siri). There were 84 million cars connected to the internet in 2012, and 305 million are expected to be connected to the internet by 2030 (again Siri). There are millions of GPS units doing everything from finding fishing holes to the distance to the next putting green. Our refrigerators, lights, thermostats, doorbell cameras, and children’s phones are connected to our phones and computers, which are connected to about everything. We can see about every home in the ...