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Some children are too young to ride e-bikes and scooters

In parts of Ohio, it’s impossible to drive up to a youth sports practice or large gathering of friends without noticing the pile of e-bikes and scooters where older generations might have left their bicycles in the yard. But those electrically driven forms of transportation can be even more dangerous than our trusty old bikes (cinder block and plywood ramps notwithstanding). A couple of Ohio lawmakers have the right idea, then, with state Senate Bill 477, which would ban children 13 and younger from operating the devices, and require all users to wear helmets. According to a report ...

We’re chasing significance in the wrong places

It seems like everyone wants to be a social media influencer these days. Researcher Matthew Simoneau surveyed middle and high school students from 2021 to 2024 and more than 60% of them said they wanted to be social media influencers. People think fame and fortune will make them happy. But ...

Christa Pike must still be executed

“Capital punishment presents moral questions that philosophers, theologians, and statesmen have grappled with for millennia,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a 2015 concurring opinion, so the Constitution’s Framers “handled it the same way they handled many other ...

Republicans won’t lose US Senate

CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten said something interesting last week. He said Republicans have a stubborn habit of outperforming their September polling in the states that decide control of the Senate. He is right, and reiterated a point I have been making for some time that leads me to believe all might not be lost for the GOP in the Senate. In the major 2024 races, Republicans outran their September polls by 9 points in Iowa, by 6 in Ohio, and by 5 in Michigan. A skeptic will say that was 2024, with President Donald Trump on the ballot. As Harry noted, go back to 2018, the first ...

Mike Hovis by a nose in Trumbull County commissioner race

Most candidates from opposing political parties running for the same post struggle to find common ground with flashlights and maps. Republican Michael Hovis and Democrat Kristen Rock — vying for a Trumbull County Commissioners seat — actually have some. Both told our editorial board in their separate endorsement interviews that the commissioners — as currently constituted — are moving too slowly on some of the issues facing the county. In other words, Trumbull County could benefit from a little less conversation and a little more action, with apologies to Elvis ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To art students in Youngstown State University’s Community Engagement Internship program and to the management of Blooming Crazy Flowers and Gifts in Boardman for their collaboration that resulted in a massive and colorful public art mural for all to enjoy in the heavy-traffic Market Street area of Boardman. The mural serves as a supersized gift to the township to mark the shop’s roots in the Mahoning Valley and its 50th anniversary in business. The YSU students also received talented help from a large contingent of Boardman schools students and residents. Like the many ...