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Given widespread support, voter ID laws need not be controversial

President Trump says that “Republicans” should “nationalize the election” or at least take over voting in up to 15 places where he says voting is corrupt. His evidence of fraudulent voting is that he lost in such places in 2020, and since it is axiomatic that he won everywhere, the reported results are proof of the fraud. This is all delusional, narcissistic nonsense. But at this point, if you still claim it’s an open question whether Trump actually lost the 2020 election (he did), you’re immune to the facts or just lying — either about not having made up your mind or ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti for his perseverance in successfully pursuing a network of funding sources to begin a massive $6.2 million repaving and improvement project for the rapidly developing Mahoning Avenue corridor in North Jackson. The project, for which Ginnetti has been planning for years, finally got the green light when the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Ohio Public Works Commission chipped in the lion’s share of the project’s cost. The road improvement and roundabout construction at Bailey Road are designed to better accommodate the ...

Schools must cut their high rates of absenteeism

At first glance, the pledge by Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50% no later than 2029 in the state’s public schools sounds like a pie-in-the-sky pipedream that stands slim to no chance of ever entering the realm of reality. After all, chronic absenteeism — defined as a student missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason — has catapulted to the top or near the top of major challenges confronting public education in Ohio and throughout the nation. It’s done so for good reason. Statewide 1 in 4 ...

Has there been voter fraud?

When President Trump claims there has been “voter fraud” in previous elections, what usually comes to my mind is non-U.S. citizens casting ballots. That is against the law. There have been a few such instances, but no credible proof they were enough to change the outcome of an election. There is another kind of voter fraud which has escaped the attention — whether accidentally or deliberately — of the media. Peter Schweizer writes about it in his new book “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers use Immigration as a Weapon.” In a chapter titled “Voter ...

Feeling insecure? You may be on to something

Groundhog Day’s furry forecaster Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of wintry weather. What if we asked Phil to apply his insights to the frigid job market? He might answer the way an alarmed groundhog does, with chattering teeth, and then squeak, “Wheet! Wheet! Cold days are coming for American jobseekers, and they’ll last a lot longer than six weeks.” Economists are using the term “deep freeze” to describe the current job outlook. These are strange times. The official unemployment rate of 4.45% is not a distressing number, but the reasons behind it are worrisome. ...

Slouching toward Fort Sumter?

In the months before the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter, there were lots of sharp divisions in the North about the proper reaction to the first seven Confederate states that had already left the Union. Not all Unionists believed that war was inevitable. Some, in fact, were happy to be done with the departing South and thus see their stain of slavery gone from the Union. Similarly, others agreed that the emerging Confederacy was not worth the trouble and costs of war, and the secessionists could just form their own nation and stew in their own backward, servile juice. But after ...