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Data: Childcare challenges overwhelming some parents

Ohio lawmakers have a lot to navigate lately, but recently released data from Groundwork Ohio should give them new tools to understand where working families need them to focus. According to a report based on responses from nearly 500 Ohio parents, Groundwork Ohio says approximately one-third choose to stay home rather than pay high childcare costs. WBNS reported 66% of those parents said they were struggling — an astonishing increase from the 10% who answered similarly in 2023. Approximately one million parents have been forced to reduce the number of hours worked to help care for ...

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

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

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

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

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 brings along assets to U.S. Senate

In choosing Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill Vice President JD Vance’s former seat in the U.S. Senate, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is sending a person with some important assets to Washington, D.C. Husted, who was sworn in to his new position Tuesday, is a politically savvy, long-time public official who understands the state in a way some other candidates for the post do not. “I have worked with him, I have seen him, I know his knowledge of Ohio,” DeWine said. “I know his heart. I know what he cares about. I know his skills. And all of that tells me that he is the right person for this ...