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Keep politicians, lobbyists out of organized collegiate athletics

Nearly everyone who is a college sports fan, myself included, knows the state of affairs in the NCAA is one fine mess. Especially regarding football and men’s basketball, the two major money-making sports. Elite and even above-average athletes have effectively become free agents selling their services each year to the highest bidders. Every year the school rosters are different, so there’s almost no team or university loyalty. It’s rent-a-player, and the big college teams are now effectively professionals playing in professional leagues. In some cases, players can be paid ...

Do your part to fight abuse of our seniors

Outgoing Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sounded the alarm loudly and clearly earlier this year on the pervasive scope of pernicious abuse against senior citizens in our state and in our community. In remarks to the state’s Elder Abuse Commission, he reported that in the past seven years, Ohio has recorded a 400% increase in cases of reported elder abuse, which includes neglect as well as physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and financial exploitation. Even more astounding: In the vast majority of cases, the abuser knows the victim well. But here’s the rub: Only 1 in 5 cases ...

DC today breaks my heart

Change is not my best friend. Not since the day my family moved from Wisconsin to California when I was 8. Leaving the land of my grandmother, the skating rink and snowballs in winter, Lake Mendota and the tennis courts in summer, the community garden and all that seemed unfair. The Fourth of July parade for kids was pure Americana. I dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Ice cream never tasted better than it did then and there. Los Angeles seemed like paradise lost, with a smoggy sky in a child’s eyes. Grown-ups talked about the Manson murders. Take me back, please! That ...

The rise of trust-fund commies

The Democratic Socialists of America has a class problem that its own rhetoric is designed to obscure. Its rising stars — Zohran Mamdani, son of a Columbia professor and an acclaimed filmmaker; the Ivy-credentialed activists staffing progressive nonprofits; the heirs animating the movement’s core — reveal a pattern the movement cannot honestly explain. The face of American socialism is increasingly young, college-credentialed, and conspicuously well-bred. This is not coincidence. It is structure. The pattern is older than the DSA. Engels co-authored the Communist Manifesto while ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To the Youngstown Board of Education for finding a viable and fiscally responsible solution to its ongoing transportation issues. The board last week agreed to outsource its busing needs to Petermann Bus Co., an Ohio-based private company with experience in school transportation. According to Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor, no current drivers or bus aides will lose their jobs. The contract also will reportedly save the financially-strapped district about $3 million per year while providing service to all students, including high schoolers who had been excluded from district ...

Get all the lead out responsibly but realistically

The public-health jury has been in for some time now, and its verdict on lead pipes is clear and stark. Lead pipes providing drinking water to American households are guilty of serious, toxic and sometimes life-threatening health risks to children and adults. For children, lead leached into drinking water is tied to behavior and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity, slowed physical growth and hearing problems. For adults, the dangers include heightened blood pressure, hypertension, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems for both men and women. That’s why state ...