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Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To the Oak Hill Collaborative under the leadership of Patrick Kerrigan and to Charter Communications Inc., doing business as Spectrum, for their successful efforts in narrowing the digital divide in the Mahoning Valley, particularly in Youngstown. For its part, Oak Hill over the past year has given away more than 500 computers and taught nearly 950 classes on navigating the internet. For its part, Spectrum recently donated $20,000 to the collaborative to add momentum to its noble and highly needed mission. How needed is it? Sadly, the city of Youngstown ranks as the second least ...

Multi-pronged attack is needed to wage war on child abuse

Those cruising past Warren G Harding High School or Boardman Park this month cannot help but notice the gargantuan garden of colorful pinwheels planted firmly in the ground and spinning whimsically in the wind. That plethora of 2,500 total pinwheels is designed to grab attention to a noble but challenging cause: preventing child abuse and neglect in our community, state and nation. The symbolism of the pinwheels is stark and heart-rending as each represents a case of abuse or mistreatment of a child in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in 2025. As April has been declared Child Abuse and ...

Pope Leo’s flawed war doctrine

Pope Leo XIV used part of his Palm Sunday message to castigate the United States for attempting to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power and threatening the world with mass destruction. In doing so, the “American Pope” confused the real enemy in the war. Addressing thousands in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope claimed God rejects the prayers of leaders who wage war. He called the Iran war “atrocious” violence that cannot be justified by faith. He further said that God doesn’t hear the prayers of people whose “hands (are) full of blood.” Does he not include Iran’s ...

Did you really think Trump would lower prices?

President Donald Trump’s assault on our democratic institutions did not stop voters from giving him a second term. The top reason they cited for reelecting him was the economy, notably their unhappiness over high prices. During the campaign, Trump promised to “bring prices down, starting on Day One.” How he would do this was left to our imagination. It seemed something along the lines of using his awesome powers to freeze prices and even make some melt. That and a pack of lies. Two days back in office, Trump issued a “Fact Sheet” headlined “President Donald J. Trump ...

Faith among young people surges

PITTSBURGH — Last September, Pastor Jason Howard of the Sanctuary Church in Pittsburgh saw a surge of young people flocking to his Christian congregation, the week after Charlie Kirk was murdered. Howard knew that something had shifted. Yes, their congregation had always been predominantly youth-driven, but this was different. Lines began to form for their services. Public transportation was dropping off children by the busload from campuses across the city, and he knew that he had an obligation to expand. Howard teamed up with local college students at the University of ...

A foolish NATO was a big loser in the Iran war

NATO members are not legally required to join any member's military operations that are not formally sanctioned by the alliance or not aimed at protecting the homelands of the membership. But they often do just that. Some NATO members joined the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq on the theory that, in the post-9/11 environment, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were dangers to all Western security. They followed the precedent set by America's 1999 intervention in the distant Balkans, leading a three-month NATO campaign to dismantle Slobodan Milosevi 's often bloody ambitions of a ...