Breaking News

Editorials

Don’t freak out over major loss of jobs in Valley

At first blush, the latest unemployment data for the Mahoning Valley hits like a ton of bricks. The report last week from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reveals that joblessness in the Mahoning Valley bounced disturbingly high between the end of 2025 and the start of 2026. Unemployment in January for Mahoning County rose to 6.5% from 4.8.% in December; in Trumbull County, the rate climbed even higher to 7.0%. Worse, unemployment in the city of Youngstown jumped to 8.5% and in Warren, the rate leapfrogged to 9.4%. Those latter rates reflect the highest levels among the ...

Dems again attack religion

Democrats are again trying to pry some of the religious vote from Republicans, but their actions expose the insincerity of their approach. The latest example involves an order of Catholic nuns in Hawthorne, New York, who care for the terminally ill. The Washington Times reports the nuns are suing New York State over a transgender rights law that requires nursing homes “to use pronouns, assign rooms and allow restrooms access based on a patient’s gender identity, or risk jail time.” The New York Department of Health also requires facilities to “create communities” that affirm ...

Subsidies keep America on top

That $7,500 tax credit to buy an electric vehicle, now gone, was a “grotesque misallocation of federal spending.” It was a form of “rent-seeking,” whereby companies seek “to dominate the bureaucracy instead of the marketplace.” Thus wrote Kyle Smith in a Wall Street Journal column titled “EVs Can’t Compete Without Subsidies.” Smith deserves the Pulitzer for Clueless Commentary, a competitive category. About six weeks earlier, Trump launched a war on Iran paid for — subsidized! — by the American taxpayers. Some of it was to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program, a ...

How to impeach President Trump, for real

Speaking at a Jan. 6 retreat for House Republicans, President Donald Trump stated, "You gotta win the midterms 'cause, if we don't win the midterms, it's just gonna be — I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me. I'll get impeached." This was before Trump's agents murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, before the Justice Department released more Epstein files, before Trump's disastrous war in Iran, before Trump threatened death to the entire Iranian civilization, before a gallon of gas hit $4 or more, before other prices also began rising because of the blockage of the ...

San Francisco’s latest radical experiment

San Francisco, a city long associated with exotic ideas, has been experimenting with a radical notion — cracking down on car thieves. Unlike some of the city's other adventures, this one is actually working out. Car break-ins are down 85% from 2023, and are down 50% the first three months of 2026, compared with the first three months of 2025. This is good news for residents and tourists, and bad news for auto repair shops that did a brisk business in new car windows. Smash-and-grab break-ins were such an ingrained part of San Francisco life that a secret code grew up around ...

The ongoing Guthrie case

The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been a grueling national story. It has been over two months since Nancy was last seen on Feb. 1 at her home in Tucson, Arizona, and her case is perplexing and incredibly frustrating, as no specific suspects have been identified, and authorities continue to analyze surveillance video and retrieve DNA samples. Savannah returned to the "Today" show this month, and even for those of us who do not regularly watch her on weekday mornings, our hearts are still broken for her, and many of us have ...