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Youth crime: Why don’t some kids value life?

We’ve been here before, dealing with the shock and sadness that comes when lives are cut short in the streets by unimaginable violence. Sometimes these are lives that haven’t really begun yet. Often, the casualties of gun violence in the Mahoning Valley are still kids and almost as often, so are their killers — still in their teens, but already captured by the allure of the streets and seemingly unafraid of that life and the culture of death that comes with it. A week ago today, a man was ambushed in his car in the parking lot of Hoda’s Tobacco at the corner of Paige Avenue ...

US Attorney General Bondi inflicts wounds on herself

On the night of Sept. 21, 1788, Austrian hussars scouting for the Ottoman Army stumbled upon gypsies who offered them schnapps. The Austrians got drunk, encountered part of their infantry, refused to share the alcohol and a fight broke out. One soldier fired his gun; the rest of the army presumed the Ottomans were attacking and the Austrian General of Artillery thought the Ottoman cavalry was upon them. He ordered the artillery to fire. The Battle of Karansabas would go down in history as the world’s worst friendly fire incident. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, so demoralized from what ...

Given widespread support, voter ID laws need not be controversial

President Trump says that “Republicans” should “nationalize the election” or at least take over voting in up to 15 places where he says voting is corrupt. His evidence of fraudulent voting is that he lost in such places in 2020, and since it is axiomatic that he won everywhere, the reported results are proof of the fraud. This is all delusional, narcissistic nonsense. But at this point, if you still claim it’s an open question whether Trump actually lost the 2020 election (he did), you’re immune to the facts or just lying — either about not having made up your mind or ...

Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean O’Brien for denying death row inmate Andre “Kokomo” Williams’ appeal for relief from the death penalty last week. Williams, who many will recall, murdered 65-year-old George Melnick and brutally beat, blinded and attempted to rape his wife Kathryn Melnick in their Southeast Warren home in the summer of 1988. Once again, Williams was attempting to prove intellectual incapacity as a reason to escape capital punishment. But once again, more than sufficient evidence cited by the judge proved otherwise. We join Trumbull County ...

Schools must cut their high rates of absenteeism

At first glance, the pledge by Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50% no later than 2029 in the state’s public schools sounds like a pie-in-the-sky pipedream that stands slim to no chance of ever entering the realm of reality. After all, chronic absenteeism — defined as a student missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason — has catapulted to the top or near the top of major challenges confronting public education in Ohio and throughout the nation. It’s done so for good reason. Statewide 1 in 4 ...