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Letters to the Editor

Attention. Canfield Cackler: Newspapers used to be written for an eighth grade reading level. Now they’ve moved that down to a sixth grade level. Problem is, 54% of adults read BELOW a sixth grade level. That means you’re not reaching a big portion of your audience. Are you using social media for your rants? Your target audience is probably always on their cellphones. I wonder what level of reading ability they have? — Boardman I see in today’s Vindicator where Gov. DeWine has said he will give no financial assistance to SOBE, the businesses which use SOBE and the citizens who ...

Anthony’s race doesn’t matter

Editorials

The system failed Karmelo Anthony — he stabbed someone to death and is going to jail for it. If this doesn’t strike you as an injustice, you haven’t been paying attention to the voices defending the 19-year-old who was just sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering another teenager at a high school track meet in Texas two years ago. The case has garnered national attention entirely for its racial angle. Anthony is black, and his victim, Austin Metcalf, was white. But there is no evidence that race played a role in the incident, and if both young men had been white or both ...

Legislature won’t answer call to abolish death penalty

David Skolnick

Gov. Mike DeWine’s call to end capital punishment in Ohio doesn’t have a chance of passing the state Legislature, which won’t even consider it at this point. But DeWine’s long-awaited and expected announcement Tuesday at least renews the conversation. There’s been a de facto ban ...

America’s other Independence Day has arrived today

Editorials

Today the Mahoning Valley joins the rest of the country in celebrating a national holiday of freedom and independence. No, we’re not leapfrogging two weeks ahead to the massive America250 Fourth of July hoopla. Rather, June 19 marks Juneteenth or as former President Joe Biden proclaimed it for the first time in 2021, the Juneteenth National Independence Day. The two federal holidays remain intimately entwined. This year marks 250 years since the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which proudly pronounced “all men are created equal.” But for millions of enslaved African ...

Everyone should be free to stay in or get out of Social Security

Editorials

Trustees of the Social Security program just issued their annual report. Each year, the picture of the program’s solvency is dismal. But this year it’s even worse. Rather than falling short in 2033, as reported last year, this year the shortfall is projected to be in late 2032. That’s six years from now. Without action taken, benefits, per the report, will be cut 22% late in 2032. That means that every young working person is now forced to pay, by law, 12.4% of their pay — half paid by them and half paid by their employee — into a bankrupt system. As I recall, ...

Rising cost of fast food puts people in a pinch

Editorials

We know how to make good food at home — when we can. What comes out of our gardens and woods is better than much of what is prepared at a five-star restaurant. But the trouble is these days, not everyone has a garden or the luxury of time to head into the woods, let alone time to prepare such meals. And affordable, accessible, fresh and healthy food is not always an option either, in a region riddled with food deserts. So families turn to what is available, and do their best to afford it. In fact, a recent WalletHub survey that looked at the cost of fast food as a share of median ...