Breaking News

Opinion

Vulnerable children needing foster care

Editorials

Ohio’s most vulnerable children are in need of a larger support network, as the number of families willing to be part of the foster care program is shrinking. Further, the number of families who have training in dealing with children with behavioral challenges is even smaller. This despite approximately one-quarter of children having come into children’s services custody not because of abuse or neglect, but because of behavioral health, intellectual disabilities or juvenile justice involvement. “That surprises a lot of people,” Scott Britton, assistant director of the Public ...

Good luck to all fall sports participants

Editorials

Ready or not, here it comes. Another school year has arrived. Yes, already! Classrooms are open or are poised to open soon. Fall sports have already begun. Doesn't it seem many of the non-football fall sports begin earlier and earlier each year? Our area teams kick the 2024 season off this week. Remember when all schools did not start activities until after Labor Day? All sports are special — especially for the student-athletes involved — but it seems fall sports come with so much anticipation and eagerness. It is all part and parcel with a new school year and all the excitement ...

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 ...