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Letters to the editor

We are not united enough in Ohio DEAR EDITOR: I am writing to you today because as you are aware we just had the primary elections and soon November will be here, and we will be voting again on different issues that concern us Ohioans. Well, I have a big issue with how corporate America won’t allow citizens of the voting class to stand outside their business and collect signatures for a potential levy that I am working on. The levy is Protecting Ohioans Constitutional Rights and currently we have a big problem in the state of Ohio with our legislators all the way down to police ...

A nation full of suspects

Some of the recent legal challenges to the use of surveillance by the Department of Homeland Security upon Americans have resulted in the revelation of truly terrifying behavior by the government, in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. We now know that the federal government spies on innocent Americans without suspicion and without warrants. The spying seems to fall into several categories. The National Security Agency, which is in the Department of Defense, employs about 60,000 domestic spies. These are the folks who want us to believe that they go through the ...

Why Dems need an ‘Operation Kibble’

There's an ancient, almost surely apocryphal, story about a dog food company executive convening a big sales meeting. A very short version has the exec running through all of the company's advantages: the best sales team, the best advertising, the best packaging, etc. He then irately asks, "So why aren't we selling more dog food?" After a long silence, a small voice from the back ventures a guess. "Maybe the dogs don't like it." The story is a cliche, but a useful one, in business and politics. For instance, the pre-launch internal name for "Netflix" was "Kibble," as a reminder that ...

Sonny Rollins knew not to die young

How is it that the “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins lived to 95? Aren’t jazz musicians supposed to die at tragically early ages? Actually, that’s a myth that Rollins and others proved flawed. It’s true that Bix Beiderbecke, king of the cornet, was gone at 28, Charlie Parker at 34, Dinah Washington at 39, John Coltrane at 40. Billie Holiday made it to 44 — not young, but an age that should have been before her time. Some musicians, classical and rock, as well as jazz, reach especially advanced ages. The music stimulates their mind, connects them with others and lowers ...

Sound off!

Schools are out and many grandparents will enjoy summer with their grandchildren. Perhaps spending a day with them at the beach or at a park or having a picnic together at a park. Perhaps teaching the grandchild life skills such as cooking or baking. But I can only wish for those days as a misguided Family Court magistrate has decided my grandchild’s father has all the power. My dream is that my grandchild will not forget me. — Howland Kudos to Louisiana, where balloon releases will be illegal beginning August 2026! Balloons cannot reach departed loved ones in heaven; they cannot ...

Fraudsters run amok

At first, it didn’t sound right. Someone must have miscalculated. How could there be so much fraud that has robbed taxpayers of billions of dollars without anyone seeming to notice? Worse, it appears they didn’t seem to care. Vice President JD Vance convened a meeting on Tuesday of his Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Fifteen Republican attorneys general showed up. Almost two dozen Democrat attorneys general didn’t come, citing short notice. Their invitations went out on Friday, so they probably had a good excuse. Vance urged all of them to help in rooting out more fraud than has so ...