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Homeland Security agency rises as danger to citizens

“True is it that we have seen better days.” — William Shakespeare Pearl Harbor brought out the best in the American people. We responded by pulling together for a major mobilization when an act of war landed on our soil in 1941. That December day, which Franklin Roosevelt eloquently declared would “live in infamy,” is within living memory. Twenty-five years ago afterthe Sept. 11 terror attacks, the opposite happened. The George Bush White House sowed a society of suspicious, separate and scared strangers. When the World Trade Center towers fell in crumbling clouds of dust, ...

Let’s not turn stay-at-home mothers into welfare queens

The Trump administration is drafting a rule that would let married couples with a stay-at-home spouse collect federal welfare benefits. The money comes from a 1990s Health and Human Services fund meant to cover daycare so low-income parents could work or go to school. About 870,000 families draw on it now, roughly 80% headed by a single working mom, and it pays about $9,000 per child per year. Vice President JD Vance champions the change, and the administration intends to do it without a vote in Congress. Superficially, the policy sounds good. Children raised in two-parent, ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To the Ohio Parole Board for recently rejecting early release from prison for Fred Joseph Jr., the monster convicted of killing a Niles police officer in 1982. Joseph, many will recall, posed as a drug informant and then ambushed and shot Officer John Utlak in the head in a secluded Mineral Ridge parking lot. For that brazen crime, Joseph truly deserved the life sentence he received. His actions since imprisonment — 46 violations of breaking prison rules and verbally abusing correction officers — also prove he clearly is unfit to return to society. As Trumbull County ...

Legislators face large agenda but little time

Time is rapidly running out for our great state’s lawmakers to address a wide host of critical public policy issues gnawing at Ohioans. Too bad they plan to squander most of that potentially productive time. Now that summer is unofficially over, you’d think our state legislators would be rip-roaring ready to high-tail it to the Statehouse to get back into action. If so, you’d be sadly mistaken. The Senate plans to convene this coming week for committee work and a possible full session with only a handful of other dates on their legislative calendar for the next two months. ...

Don’t ever forget 9/11

I was sitting in my home office not far from the Pentagon when it happened. The TV behind me had the sound lowered but I suddenly became aware of a major development. I reached for the remote and cranked up the audio. A plane had struck one of the twin towers in New York. TV anchors initially speculated it must have been a small plane that had run off course, but soon a much larger plane struck the building and then a second one hit the other tower. It quickly became clear America was under attack. I saw smoke rising from the Pentagon and went up on the roof to get a better look. My ...

Rent control still does not work well

In 2022, politicians in Minneapolis and St. Paul voted for rent control. I said that would lead to bigger problems. Was I right? My update video reveals what happened. St. Paul politicians pushed rent control, saying rent caps would stop “unfair profiteering.” But what the heck is “profiteering,” and how is it different from “profit”? Who decides what is “unfair”? The opportunity for profit is what persuades people to invest in things. And build things. If enough people invest in new housing, rents will stop shooting up. That’s just how markets work. ...