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Battle on between old-guard Ohio Republicans and Trump

The Republican primary for the U.S. Senate is a battle between old-guard Republicans and Donald Trump, who will be the party’s presidential nominee for the third consecutive time, and his many supporters. The old guard, led by Gov. Mike DeWine and former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, support state Sen. Matt Dolan. Dolan has given $10 million of his personal wealth to his campaign and has struggled to raise money from donors. Trump and his supporters have endorsed Bernie Moreno, a former luxury car dealer and blockchain business owner. Moreno has given $4.2 million out of his pocket to his ...

Moreno’s business dealings targeted

During the campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. senator, Bernie Moreno has touted his record of creating jobs and his business success. But there are numerous reports that put his business dealings as a luxury car dealer and blockchain business owner in question. Moreno settled numerous wage theft lawsuits after a jury in Massachusetts ordered him to pay more than $400,000 to two former employees for failing to pay overtime in violation of state labor laws. Moreno admitted in a deposition to shredding documents containing information that was potentially relevant to the ...

Logic wasn’t a passenger in presidential motorcade

Covering national political figures — including presidents and presidential candidates — when they’re in the Mahoning Valley is not one of the more pleasant parts of my job. That’s because what shouldn’t be a terribly complicated event often becomes incredibly time consuming and challenging because of reasons I still don’t understand nearly 25 years after covering my first presidential visit. The reason I don’t understand is simple: there is no logical explanation. When President Joe Biden visited East Palestine last week, I had to first drive to Pittsburgh — and right ...

Self-funding during an election is a big benefit

Being able to self-fund in a political election — particularly in a partisan primary when the timeline is condensed — is a huge benefit. So when I reported that state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus had given $250,000 out of his own pocket to his campaign for the Republican nomination for the open 6th Congressional District seat it raised a lot of eyebrows. Stoltzfus of Paris Township is one of three Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination in the March 19 primary. The others are state Sen. Michael Rulli of Salem and Rick Tsai of East Palestine. The primary is earlier than ...

Are there any benefits to Biden’s planned visit?

President Joe Biden certainly took his time to finally announce a visit to East Palestine, the site of a massive train derailment a year ago that garnered international attention. Biden, a Democrat, said a month after the derailment that he eventually would visit the Columbiana County community. He and his press secretary repeated the contention he eventually would show up. Finally, the White House announced Wednesday that Biden will come to East Palestine sometime in February. No date was given. If a date couldn’t be finalized it probably would have been better to wait until ...

Call from NYC hit like a ton of bricks

The calls to the Lisbon office of the three Columbiana County daily newspapers came from all of the country once the East Palestine train derailment took center stage on the national news. In one moment, you’d pick up the receiver and hear the concerned voice from a railman out in Nebraska wanting to explain precision scheduled railroading to whomever would listen. In an another instance, you’d be on the phone with Nashville NPR entertaining a request to get someone who lives in East Palestine to go on at 5 a.m. for a morning show interview. One call in particular, though, really ...