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Opinion

Lawmakers’ attention to RR safety doesn’t amount to a hill of beans

Editorials

Norfolk Southern has suffered another derailment — although this one, thank goodness, was more an inconvenience than a disaster. Monday morning, at the company’s rail yard near Portsmouth, Ohio, eight cars of a train carrying several thousand pounds of soybeans derailed. Three of those cars turned over completely. Scioto County Emergency Management Director Larry Mullins told WCHS the derailment was caused by extreme weather, which led rails at Norfolk Southern’s yard to freeze, thaw, become brittle and break. It’s enough to make one wonder whether knowing such damage was ...

Make sure you will be good to vote in the next election

Editorials

As we catch our breath and settle in to the new normal of a political landscape changed by the November 2024 general election, there is not much time before we must turn our attention to the May 2025 election in Ohio. Eligible voters must not sit this one out, believing the heavy lifting is done for a while. In fact, decisions that have a much greater chance of affecting our everyday lives will be made this spring — city councils, ballot issues affecting our schools … there is a lot on which we must weigh in. To that end, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has issued a reminder ...

Be patient when it comes to gates down at crossings

Editorials

Life is all about decisions. We make so many every day that we almost do it subconsciously. Jeans or khakis? Skirts or pants? Tie or not? What’s for breakfast? What about lunch and dinner? Weekend plans or staying home? Vacation or “stay-cation” this summer? Then there are the big decisions. Who do we date? College or trade school? Where do we live? Where do we send our kids to school? No matter what you decide on any of those possibilities, chances are you’ll live to tell about it. But some decisions can prove to be the last we ever make if we aren’t careful. Railroad ...

Focus on what is right and good for all of our citizens

Editorials

A “golden age,” one in which the United States of America can aim even higher than the moon, was proclaimed last Monday during President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration speech. And while Elon Musk may have thrown his hands in the air to cheer the goal to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars,” and “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” ordinary Americans were more likely to find a common reason to cheer in Trump’s promise to seek a broad government effort to reduce inflation and reduce prices. Though he must be careful to avoid the executive overreach ...

Husted just couldn’t pass up the Senate opportunity

Local Columns

Hardly anyone, including Jon Husted, pictured him as a U.S. senator. But the Republican, who has eyed the Ohio governor’s seat for many years, just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Husted, lieutenant governor for the past six years, gave the vice-presidential nominating speech for J.D. Vance on July 17 at the Republican National Convention. When he got the appointment last week from Gov. Mike DeWine to succeed Vance in the Senate, Husted harkened back to that day at the RNC and said someone asked him at the time about filling that potential vacancy. “That seems so ...

Shooting tragedy impacts so many

Editorials

The names Dakota Wetzel, Rosalie Martin and Joseph Como will be forever linked. On a frigid but sunny Wednesday afternoon, a very troubled Como engaged police near a busy patch of the Calcutta retail area. Shots were fired. Two died including a precious 4-year-old child. Wetzel is a St. Clair Township police detective who responded to a report of a possibly suicidal male walking down a street. Police tried to talk to Como. But he almost immediately opened fire. Just last month we reported on a domestic incident involving Como and family members. According to a Dec. 29 Wellsville Police ...