Breaking News

Opinion

No confidence: Hegseth sacks all the competents on board

Editorials

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired Secretary of the Navy John Phelan. This comes after Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George. Hegseth keeps firing senior leaders, often arguing the fired were “woke,” but the common thread seems to be that they had good relationships with the president and were competent. When I was in college, I would go back to Louisiana in the summer to work for the public school from which I had graduated. The school was in a building that combined K-12, but elementary, middle and high schools were separate entities until after I ...

Shortcuts to absentee ballot application

Letters to the Editor

DEAR EDITOR: Thank you to Frank LaRose for making it extremely difficult to find the absentee ballot application online. Upon visiting the Mahoning County Board of Elections website and clicking on “Request an Absentee Ballot” then “Download Application Form,” I am redirected to the Ohio Secretary of State website. Scrolling past a smiling photo of Mr. LaRose, I finally see “Absentee Ballot Request” at the bottom, which takes me to yet another page which, after reading through a jumble of directions and links, seems to require me to fill out an HTML form before finally ...

Valley should take a cue from a shrine

Letters to the Editor

DEAR EDITOR: I am writing to share that the Franciscan shrine, on Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side of Youngstown, offers a beautiful celebration of the end of communism and the liberation of Hungary and the Hungarian people. The walking path depicts their oppression by comparing the 14 stations of the cross suffered by Jesus with their own suffering. Then, as with Christ’s resurrection, the Hungarian people were freed by the fall of communism. Fast forward to the present. JD Vance visits Hungary to stump for the communist-loving Victor Orban, who is loved by Trump. Our country ...

Rich Lowry’s Artemis column was a misfire

Letters to the Editor

DEAR EDITOR: Rich Lowry’s editorial regarding the triumph of the Artemis II mission reflects a shortsighted opinion of the U.S. space program. Artemis is surely an accomplishment — one of many at NASA — and, as Lowry suggests, it has its issues (no reusability, older technologies, cost, etc). Nevertheless, the U.S. Space program is one of the most successful and accomplished on earth. The press doesn’t cover unmanned missions but they make up some of the most exciting missions ever undertaken. I will try to cover some of these missions in “letters to the editor.” Consider ...

Responding in a Christ-like manner

Editorials

President Donald Trump has received a lot of backlash for his recent posts on TruthSocial of himself as a "Christ-like" figure and his criticism of Pope Leo's views on the Iran war. Most people on social media are familiar with the often belligerent nature of Trump's posts, and, for the most part, his devoted supporters defend him. This time, however, was different, as many conservatives thought Trump went too far in his war of words with the pope and his AI-generated image of himself laying his hand on a bedridden man with the American flag, the Statue of Liberty and the adoration of ...

Orchids & onions

Editorials

ORCHID: To Austintown public safety dispatchers Kerri Humphreys and Christie Zimmer-Rozzi for their honor received last week as Mahoning County Dispatchers of the Year for 2025. The two received the award from county commissioners for their quick-thinking, detailed and well coordinated response to last October’s fatal explosion at the Phoenix House high-rise in Austintown that uprooted about 140 residents there. The two put into place a massive emergency response protocol that no doubt lessened dangers and likely saved lives. “None of this could have been accomplished without the ...