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January is a critical month for Red Cross

Editorials

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?

Editorials

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

Editorials

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 ...

Can Ohio Democrats compete next year?

Local Columns

In the past two election cycles, Ohioans backed Republicans for the U.S. Senate who had never before run for office. In 2022, voters chose Republican J.D. Vance, best known at the time for writing the best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy” book, over Democrat Tim Ryan, a 20-year congressman. Two years after Vance beat Ryan by 6.1%, Vance’s meteoric rise in politics continued as President-elect Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate. In 10 days, Vance will be sworn in as the next vice president of the United States and is the current favorite to be the party’s presidential ...

Are you as safe as DC during a winter storm?

Local Columns

Washington, DC got nearly 10 inches of snow recently. That was more than enough to shut down the nation’s capital. Thankfully, all of DC’s lobbyists and politicos stayed safe at home. Their local utility, Pepco—which relies on natural gas and coal for roughly half of its power generation—supplied the electricity needed to keep everyone warm. But what about the rest of the country? Are they as safe as Washington? Not necessarily. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC)—which oversees the reliability and security of America’s bulk power system—believes the ...

Public records should be accessible to all citizens

Editorials

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 ...