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January is a critical month for Red Cross

If the weather has been a hindrance to your daily (or weekly) routine, think about what it has meant to organizations dependent upon the help of others to fulfill their missions. For the American Red Cross, January can be a difficult month. Weather is factor, yes, but so is the active cold and flu season, which may make it harder for some to keep blood donation appointments or be eligible to donate. “The start of the new year is one of the most challenging times to collect blood products as the threat of severe winter weather builds and can often lead to widespread blood drive ...

Are the tax breaks for data centers worth it?

Ohio leadership has for quite some time been promising improvements in employment opportunities for residents. Lofty goals such as having a large employer within commuting distance of every Ohioan gave us reason to hope. What we got — in droves — are data centers, which don’t check many of the boxes when it comes to benefitting residents. Policy Matters Ohio, a progressive watchdog organization, took a look at all those data centers and what they mean for the state. There are more questions than answers. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, data centers could be ...

Watch credit scores, be fiscally prudent

Some of us may have shied away from looking at our credit scores once we finished our holiday shopping, but WalletHub took a look anyway and found perhaps we’d better do a little work. In “States With the Largest Credit Score Decreases,” West Virginia ranked 11th. The average credit score in the Mountain State fell by 0.61% between the third quarters of 2023 and 2024. In fact, by the end of Q3 2024, the average credit score in the state was 647. Ohio is doing a little better, with a rank of 22nd. In Ohio, the average credit score fell by 0.58% in the same period, with the average ...

Public records should be accessible to all citizens

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a years-long case in which state Attorney General Dave Yost has been trying to avoid complying with public records requests from the Center for Media and Democracy. The center is seeking records from a time period in which the Republican Attorneys General Association (which accepts corporate donations) put together a letter opposing clean air restrictions to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Center for Media and Democracy initially requested documents regarding the RAGA letter in March 2020. At the time Yost couldn’t ...

Do what you can to help locally-owned businesses

If it took you several days to dig out, clear your driveway and sidewalk, maybe even wait for the roads closer to your home to be safe enough to drive on, you’re not alone. The lousy weather was likely an inconvenience for you and your employer, with various levels of emergency being declared to keep as many people off the roads as possible. Now, stop and think for a minute about what the loss of those precious days has meant to many of our small, locally owned businesses — particularly retailers and restaurants. If you thought you were done worrying about whether to shop small and ...

Be vigilant in protecting animals from the cold

Weather-wise, the first full week of January isn’t a surprise. It is wintertime and most of us are acutely aware of what it can bring. Sure, we have had a good share of mild days through past winter seasons. But frigid cold with minus zero wind chills — like this morning — come with the territory. As does the ongoing snow accumulations expected tomorrow into Saturday. When such conditions set in, it’s time for us to bundle up and take some precautions to ensure we remain safe and healthy when we are outdoors. Our pets, however, cannot do that for themselves, so we need to be ...