I cringed the other day during a newsroom discussion. Primary election season is right around the corner. As if that’s not bad enough, somehow it’s about to be campaign season for — brace yourself — the next presidential election. That is what triggered the cringe. You see, ...
At some point in history vaccinations became politically divisive. I’m not sure exactly when that happened, but it must have been sometime after American physician Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine in the 1950s, because at that time, people seemed to have no qualms about lining up ...
I was forlorn. “We forgot to play,” I told my husband last week, moments before the Mega Millions drawing was set to go off. Or was it the Powerball? Does anyone else think all these massive lottery jackpots are running together in their dreams? It’s easy to confuse them. An Associated Press report I read recently cleverly described the phenomena as “the Golden Age of lottery jackpots.” As I write this, Friday night’s $1.35 billion (yes, with a “B”) hadn’t yet been drawn. If there was no winner, that prize will get much bigger before the next drawing Tuesday ...
I’m not sure whether the date of Friday’s state legislative action was intended or merely coincidental. It was, of course, the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on our Capitol and on our democracy in an attempt to disrupt Congress’ affirmation of the 2020 presidential election results. Friday also was the day Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law new state voting restrictions that he and Ohio’s chief elections officer Secretary of State Frank LaRose believe will shore up election security and protect against fraud. The sweeping package of election law ...
It’s travel season. It’s likely I didn’t need to tell you that, especially considering all the recent news reports about the onslaught of horrible travel delays affecting so many Americans this holiday season. I’ve personally heard some of those stories, including two friends who told me about unrelated trips they planned for the holidays in which their scheduled flights were delayed or canceled. In both cases, the only good news was that each got to stay home, rather than wasting Christmas Day curled up in uncomfortable seats inside the airport. But I digress. It’s not my ...
On a shelf in my home is a football bearing the logo of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It also bears a simple autograph: “Franco Harris 32.” I must openly admit I committed a grave sin of professional journalism in getting that ball autographed many years ago. It was the only time in my career that I’ve done that. The legendary Pittsburgh Steelers running back, along with his counterpart Jim Brown from division rival Cleveland Browns, paid a rare visit together to a Warren Steelworkers Union Hall on a rainy Saturday morning several years ago. They were stumping as part of a political ...
