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Bad Columbus Police behavior needs fixed

Whether the problems at the Columbus Police Department are the quality and number of recruits, training, policies, culture or all of the above, ordinary citizens continue to suffer. Just a few days ago, Columbus Division of Police Detective Demetris Ortega pleaded guilty in a fatal hit-and-run crash, and admitted he had been drinking heavily before the tragedy. Back in February, the U.S. Department of Justice recommended reforms for the department after a two-year review of scandals ranging from how officers handled protests against racial injustice to deadly officer-involved ...

Air taxis could help uplift Ohio’s economy

For those who grew up watching flying cars in cartoons or sci-fi movies, such an idea probably seems like nothing more than a Hollywood fantasy. But here in Ohio we’re getting pretty good at making what once seemed like the ideas of a faraway future come to life right now. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, to learn Joby Aviation plans to built electric planes that can take off and land vertically, at a site on the Dayton International Airport grounds. “When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday. “We find this very, very exciting ...

East Palestine residents still waiting on promise

Back when Norfolk Southern was making promises in an effort to halt passage of the Railway Safety Act, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, avoided getting involved with the process. Now, he says, it is clear he made the right call. “In the run up to the markup of the Railway Safety Act, Norfolk Southern and its backers in Congress announced that they had reached an agreement to establish a fund making East Palestine residents whole for the diminution of their property value,” Vance said Monday. “This announcement was a transparent attempt to distract from the fact that they were opposed to ...

A shortage of blood donors impacting American Red Cross

Despite repeated attempts to lure more donors over the past several months, the American Red Cross reports it had even fewer people donate — making the national blood supply dangerously low and reducing distributions of some blood types to hospitals. The shortfall for August alone was 30,000 donations. “Hurricane Idalia further strained the blood supply with blood drive cancellations and reduced blood and platelet donations in affected areas,” the Red Cross reports. With such an urgent need, the Red Cross continues to look for ways to entice donors. For this entire month, donors ...

Local schools just need to keep getting better

Ohio’s Department of Education has released this year’s School Report Cards, and results are underwhelming. Still, the ODE points out “Report Cards are designed to give parents, communities, educators and policymakers information about the performance of districts and schools — to celebrate achievement and success and identify areas for improvement.” In other words, they are a tool that should help us do better for our kids. Nobody is out to bash a particular underachieving district. Just to cast light on a need for betterment. In each of our county newspapers we have been ...

Redistricting process keeps running an obstacle course

What a mess. Ohio’s redistricting process just keeps running up against one political obstacle after another. Late last week there was a double hit, as Thursday night Gov. Mike DeWine canceled a planned Friday meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission because Republican lawmakers still cannot agree on who to appoint as their party’s co-chair on the commission. And, state Attorney General Dave Yost again rejected petition language for a constitutional amendment that would change the system for making political maps. Though representatives of Citizens Not Politicians maintain ...