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Closed primaries driving America crazy

Editorials

How could Donald Trump with bottom-scraping approval ratings decide who would represent the Republican Party in the upcoming Texas senatorial race? The primary system offers an explanation. A simple open primary system would have let the broader public choose — and, ironically, save Republicans from a very possible loss in November. Open primaries let registered voters cast a ballot without being members of the party. Closed primaries allow only party members to vote. About 15 states now run genuinely open primaries. There are mixed systems that still help small numbers of voters ...

The Hamas ‘deal’

Editorials

President Trump and members of his administration are (pick your metaphor) whistling past the graveyard, engaging in wishful thinking and/or deluding themselves into believing a demon can be transformed into an angel. The Trump administration has announced a “deal” has been reached between the terrorist group Hamas that has occupied Gaza for years and Israel that will lead to Hamas’ disarmament and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip. What would supposedly follow is a rebuilding of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble. Much of the world and its media blame Israel ...

Letters to the editor

Letters to the Editor

An inside look at what Mike Hovis is all about DEAR EDITOR: Let me tell you a little about who we are. I grew up as a Teamster’s daughter. Michael grew up as a steelworker’s son. Our parents worked hard just to make ends meet. We weren’t handed anything. We struggled. We did without. We learned not to ask for what wasn’t ours. We learned that if you wanted something, you worked for it. So please … don’t judge us without knowing our story. We know what it’s like to start at the bottom. We know what it means to worry about paying bills, to sacrifice, and to ...

Don’t fall for this tale of woe the way I did

Ed Puskas

When you reach a certain age, your doctors begin asking the question. Have you had any falls in the last six months? For a long time, the answer was no. It wasn’t that I was graceful and blessed with the balance of a Flying Wallenda. But I was definitely more agile 25 or 30 years ago ...

Orchids & onions

Editorials

ORCHID: To Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Christopher Becker and Mike Burnett on his staff for their ongoing work to reestablish meaty habitual criminal statutes with tougher penalties in Ohio law. In recent years, such taut and escalating prison sentences and fines for repeat felony theft, burglary and drug offenders have been watered down or rescinded in efforts to reduce prison crowding. But as veteran Prosecutor Watkins effectively argues, “Confronting repeat offenders with decisive consequences is essential to protect the financial well-being of our neighbors and ...

Why the Blanche nomination should be rejected

Editorials

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is not qualified to be the attorney general of the United States because he has demonstrated a hopeless conflict between the rule of law — which he has taken an oath to support — and his sense of personal loyalty to President Donald Trump, whom he represented for several years in a notorious but frivolous criminal case in New York. What to do about a nominee as chief law enforcement officer in the land who has and will not disavow this conflict? Reject him. Here is the backstory. For America’s first 100 years, there was no Department of ...