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When we think of MLK, we think of his dreams

Monday may be the official celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., but Jan. 15 marked the 96th anniversary of his birth. King wasn’t yet 40 years old when he was gunned down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. It was around 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968 when King was killed by a single bullet fired by James Earl Ray. King was to conduct a rally later that evening. The civil rights leader and Nobel Prize winner was talking with Rev. Jesse Jackson and musician Ben Branch while leaning on the green railing on the motel’s second floor. According to Branch he was asked to perform ...

January is a critical month for Red Cross

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?

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

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 ...

Are you as safe as DC during a winter storm?

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

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 ...