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Schools offering more behavioral health care

Editorials

While not every student looks forward to the start of another academic year, for some students the return to school means a return to better access to everything from food to behavioral health care. Regarding the latter, Ohio public schools are improving, as a report by the Statehouse News Bureau’s Ohio Newsroom says there has been a 20% increase in the number of schools offering behavioral health services over the past year. That is good news, as a 2022 survey showed approximately one-third of students say they have challenges with anxiety, and more than 100,000 high school-aged ...

Awareness raised for rural firefighters need

Editorials

For many Ohioans, particularly those living in rural communities, a call to 911 for a structure fire or wildfire is answered by the men and women of a volunteer fire department. They stretch to their limits to protect those living outside the service area of larger, professional departments. They make up nearly 70% of the departments in the state. Those limits are being stretched thinner by the day, as shortages across the state make it harder for volunteer departments to do their jobs. But last week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a new awareness campaign to address that shortage and ...

So, why is Harris buying ads in Mahoning Valley?

Columns

The presidential campaign of Democrat Kamala Harris is spending $90 million over the next three weeks airing commercials in battleground areas as well as Youngstown and Toledo even though the vice president has essentially no chance of beating Republican Donald Trump in Ohio. The Harris campaign said the “$90 million paid media buy will target voters in every battleground state and expand the campaign’s reach into markets like Marquette, Alpena (both in Michigan), Toledo, Erie and Youngstown — markets where the Trump campaign is ceding the airwaves as their candidate spends this ...

EP and area residents should have been told

Editorials

Those who have been keeping an eye on the aftermath of last year’s Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine will know there is still enormous concern over what short- and long-term health consequences will result from the release of chemicals into the air, water and soil. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials revealed relatively quickly that some of their workers going door-to-door after the event got sick. But we are just learning they were not the only out-of-town workers to experience symptoms, and we are learning it because the Associated Press was able to get ...

House Bill would benefit tip earners

Editorials

Ohio Rep. Jay Edwards, R-Nelsonville, is working on a piece of legislation that would let hard-working Ohio residents keep even more of the money they earn, though the details are still hazy. According to a report by WCMH, Edwards is sponsoring House Bill 643, which, for now, is meant to “Express intent to exempt tips and gratuities from income tax.” All that is certain, then, is that the General Assembly intends to take a look at the matter. “These aren’t people getting rich. These aren’t millionaires. These are blue collar people that are trying to get by,” Edwards told ...

More transparency needed in Columbus

Editorials

Bureaucrats and elected officials in Columbus have gotten quite good at using public money to create what they want us to believe are “private” entities. OneOhio Recovery Foundation, for example, is registered as a private nonprofit organization, despite having been launched by Gov. Mike DeWine and state Attorney General Dave Yost to distribute the public money from settlements of lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic. That organization has rightly received challenges to its attempts to operate with less transparency than would be required of a public entity. Another example is ...