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Keep our local music rockin’

Although a longtime sentiment, Joni Mitchell phrased it well, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” Ironic how these lyrics are actually lines in one of the songs she has performed so many times before a live audience. Ironic how something so many of us have cherished, live local music, has been wounded, diminished, forsaken, forgotten and on its way to being deleted from so many lives. It’s more than sad. It is absolutely heart-wrenching to those of us who have spent so much time enjoying, supporting and participating in live ...

Does Trump need a portrait of James K. Polk?

Donald Trump has a painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, but as he tries to browbeat Denmark into coughing up Greenland, maybe he should add a portrait of a Jackson acolyte — James K. Polk. If cold-eyed American expansionism is the theme, there are fewer better representatives than the 11th president. He added more than 1 million square miles to U.S. territory and extended the country all the way to the Pacific, making him the most successful president not celebrated as part of the American pantheon. Trump’s impulse to throw his weight around and assume control of ...

DeWine puts Ohio spotlight on our children

As Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine begins his final year in office, he appears to have his sights firmly on matters that will affect our youngest residents. Among the programs he hopes to see expand is OhioSee, according to a report by WSAZ-TV. So far Ohio Student Eye Exam has been run as a pilot program in 15 counties: Allen, Butler, Clark, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Erie, Franklin, Guernsey, Huron, Jackson, Lorain, Mahoning, Marion, Montgomery and Ross. It provides vision screening, comprehensive eye exams, prescription glasses (if needed) and further referrals. “Every school in the state, who is ...

Scandal makes strong case for sports-betting crackdown

It wasn’t that long ago when sports betting was illegal. Then suddenly it was as though profit, rather than controlling this vice, became paramount. It was inevitable, given human nature, that bad things would follow legalization. Last week, The Wall Street Journal carried a front-page story that reported “one of the most sprawling gambling cases in the history of American sports: a national and international conspiracy to allegedly rig dozens of games that reached from U.S. college basketball to the top professional league in China.” There was a time in America when laws ...

ICE agents are not the enemies

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are down the drain. The midterms are coming, and if Democrats prevail, his agenda gets boxed in fast. What can he do to avoid that outcome? Well, what’s worked in the past? Immigration! Former President Joe Biden had irresponsibly left borders open for too long, a failure that suited Trump just fine. A bipartisan fix emerged, and Trump pressured Republicans to reject it. He needed a show. Few foreigners are entering the country illegally these days, and so Trump had to create the appearance of a new immigration crisis. Easy. Send ...