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Some parts of Ohio struggle to provide mental health care as demand spikes

With increasing talk about a growing sense of anxiety and fragile mental well-being, it makes sense that some Ohioans are seeking needed mental health care. For most of them, finding timely care is a challenge. Health Policy Institute of Ohio says 75 of the state’s 88 counties are mental health shortage areas, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal. “We also did some focus groups with parents and caregivers of children needing mental health services and just asked about their experiences and some of them talked about wait lists two years long to get into a certain ...

Breakfast on the Hindenberg

I stumbled across an old menu the other day on social media, one claiming to be from 1937, for the passengers on a German zeppelin crossing the Atlantic. “Breakfast,” it read, “on board the airship Hindenburg.” The words dotted the page in elegant script like a poem: “Coffee, tea, milk, cocoa Eggs, boiled or in cup Frankfort sausage Ham, salami Cheese, fruit” I wondered if it was fake, written as it was in English, when the airship had been designed and its luxuries planned to broadcast the triumph of post-World War II German engineering. Joseph Goebbels ...

Minnesota fraud case raises questions

Back in the mists of time, Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey was asked on “Meet the Press” whether he liked spending the taxpayers’ money. The question was barbed, but his response was masterful. Yes, Humphrey said, he was fine if the public dollars went to beneficial projects and the money was carefully spent. Today’s scandal in Minnesota could have met the first requirement, but it doubly failed the second in spectacular fashion. While the loss of perhaps $1 billion to criminal operators was shocking, the blatant nature of the schemes proved even more so. The state’s political ...

Resolve to assist Red Cross in ’26

If your New Year’s resolutions included finding small ways to do good more frequently, the American Red Cross has some ideas for you. You — yes, you — are needed, right now. A glance at the organization’s website reveals an alert that there is an “EMERGENCY NEED for type O blood” because winter weather has caused a decline in donations. There’s even a pitch that if you give blood before Jan. 31, you can earn points to be used toward rewards. Here is information about blood drives through the end of January in the Mahoning Valley: TODAY — 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., St. ...

Youngstown must build new identity, not reclaim old one

Words matter — especially when they are chosen as the guiding slogan of a new administration as newly elected Mayor Derrick McDowell has done. “Reclaiming Our Identity” may sound reassuring at first glance. It suggests pride, roots and a return to something once whole. But when applied to Youngstown, the phrase collapses under scrutiny. It is not forward-looking, not transformational and ultimately misunderstands both our past and our present. Youngstown does not need to “reclaim” its identity — because our identity has never been lost. Our history is not missing. It is ...

Guess who’s afraid of getting impeached again?

President Donald Trump is afraid of getting impeached again. He said as much earlier this week. “You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be — I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” he said. “I’ll get impeached.” He spoke those words, coincidentally, on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which formed the basis of his second impeachment. It was a startling pronouncement from someone given to endless expressions of a hyper-inflated ego. This is a man who, throughout his long public and political ...