ORCHID: To Howland Township trustees for recently approving a tax abatement to facilitate construction of a 592,000-square-foot $160 million distribution center for the Kimberly-Clark Corp. adjacent to its 1 million-square-foot $800 million paper-products plant under construction. The distribution center, groundbreaking for which is tentatively planned for early next year, also would create about 65 jobs in addition to the 500 at the plant. Long before its doors swing open, the K-C Corp. has established itself as one great neighbor to Trumbull County and the Mahoning Valley.

ORCHID: To Altobelli Real Estate and Home & Land Developers LLC for breaking ground last week on a new housing development that will feature 32 building lots in the Kline’s Farm neighborhood of Liberty. The new homes will do their part to ease the critical housing shortage in the Mahoning Valley and should find ready buyers in our region’s growing labor force. Lyle Huffman, executive vice president of government affairs and community impact for the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, summarizes aptly the assets of the project: “When there is investment in attainable, well-planned housing, it supports our efforts to grow the population, strengthens the region’s economic competitiveness and advances the growth that keeps the Valley moving forward.”

ONION: To any and all callous thieves out there who try to profit from misfortune to children. In Warren, two residents recently pleaded guilty to the theft of a children’s bounce house from a city park with intentions to sell it on Facebook Marketplace. Any thievery is bad enough but when it targets treasured playthings of children, it is doubly egregious.

ORCHID: To John Freeman of Girard for his recent and well-earned appointment as chief of police in that city. Freeman brings to the leadership post a wealth of valuable experience and expertise. He has been with the city police department for 16 years and previously worked on the Weathersfield police force. He’s also certified as a cybercrime investigator and examiner. We’re confident the city will be in good hands under his competent, seasoned and focused leadership.

ORCHID: To Warren City Council and the Champion Township Trustees for last week forming a Joint Economic Development District to help spur development of Mercy Health’ s $30 million emergency room and outpatient center in the township, which is expected to bring 75 jobs to the area. The two communities will share in income tax revenue from the facility for which work has begun on a 66-acre site near Kent State University at Trumbull and the Trumbull Career & Technical Center. We join Champion Trustee Rex Fee in his optimism on the future of the much needed health-care project: “We welcome Mercy Health and look forward to them achieving their vision for the campus.”

ONION: To supporters of Ohio Senate Bill 50 that recently passed and was sent to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk over its potential for taking advantage of the cheap labor of young people. The bill would permit 14- and 15-year-olds to work until 9 p.m. on school nights — two hours later than current limits — and would permit them to be paid the paltry federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. We side with Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, who said, “How dare we pretend that putting 14-year-olds on late-night shifts, in dangerous workplaces, is somehow helping families.It’s not helping anyone. It’s exploitation, plain and simple.” DeWine should waste no time in vetoing it.

ORCHID: To Hubbard City Councilman at-large Michael Kerr for his lobbying on Capitol Hill recently for funding of the HEARTS Act, legislation passed late last year designed to ensure schools are prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency through funding of Automated External Defibrillators. He was one of many advocates urging Congress to appropriate dollars for the coming fiscal year to implement the potentially life-saving program. Kerr, a CPR instructor, knows more than a thing or two about the critical value of AEDs. If a victim has access to a defibrillator and CPR within three to four minutes, there is about a 93% survival rate, Kerr noted. Their presence in every public school would lessen the number of heartbreaking tragedies such as the death of a 17-year-old Ohio wrestler this year who collapsed and later died after waiting 30 long and anguishing minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

ONION: To all dimwitted trigger-happy numbskulls who terrorize public safety by playing Wild West games on urban interstate highways. A recent example of such played out on Interstate 680 in Youngstown, where a man in a tan coat reportedly shot at a moving vehicle from the sunroof of another moving vehicle near the South Avenue exit. No one appeared to be injured, but a bullet hit the victim’s engine block and disabled his car. Though this police report could have had a much more tragic ending, suffice it to say that city police should do all in their power to capture the dangerous and aggressive traveling assailant and work to keep that ilk off of all public roads all the time.