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Ed Puskas

Suddenly, we’re all spouting off on free speech

Free speech has been on the minds of many in the two-plus weeks since the assassination of conservative Christian firebrand Charlie Kirk. Fellow conservatives have framed Kirk’s murder as an act designed to chill free speech by those who shared his traditional values of God, family and country. The motives of the coward who took Kirk’s life aren’t yet fully known, but he clearly did not appreciate the message the Turning Point USA CEO delivered on college campuses across the United States. Some Democrats have rushed to defend their own version of free speech in the days since a ...

Where can I find the best emergency-backup pizza?

I’m sending out an SOS … for pizza. It’s not that I can’t find any. This is, after all, the Mahoning Valley and pizza is one of the things that we do better than 98.6% of the United States. But despite spending 30 years living and working here — and eating more than my share of pizza from Warren, Youngstown and various other points on the map — my pizza-loving heart belongs up north. No, not Ann Arbor, Michigan. Are you crazy? Who would spend money up there if they didn’t already live there and had no other choice? I’m talking about Jefferson, in the heart of ...

On DNA, the Mad Hungarian and where I came from

You would think that spending 40 years in a deadline-oriented business would eventually cure a case of raging procrastination. But you’d be wrong. My 40-year anniversary in newspapers is sometime in October. But after all those years of deadlines and commitments and determining what to leave in and what to leave out — apologies to Bob Seger — the notion of “why do today what you can do tomorrow?” is still sometimes problematic. So it took me more than six months to actually make use of the Ancestry DNA kit that The Princess got me for Christmas. It wasn’t so much laziness ...

What has happened to the value of human life?

Every great movie has a quote that sticks with you long after the lights come back up and you walk out of the theater. In Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western “Unforgiven,” that line is delivered by the acting and directing legend himself, as retired gunfighter Will Munny. The character’s remark to The Schofield Kid shortly after the young man’s first “kill” has always stayed with me. “It don’t seem real ... how he ain’t gonna never breathe again, ever … how he’s dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger,” the kid reflected, almost with a ...

Property tax crusaders deserve recognition for efforts

Politicians used to work for us. If you’re old enough, you might remember when that was so. Forty years ago or so, we — the people who elected them to office — were their bosses and most of them seemed to understand and appreciate that. As a result, most were sensitive to the needs and concerns of their constituents because doing so increased their chances of being reelected. But somewhere along the line, probably as lobbyists and money became more central to that goal than acting on behalf of the communities they represent, many of those we sent to the state capital or to ...

Canceling Colbert: How late-night TV lost its way

What in the name of Buddy Hackett has happened to late-night television? We had it so good in the 1980s, when NBC’s late-night offerings were appointment TV — particularly Johnny Carson and David Letterman. Carson’s monologues and skits and Letterman’s stupid pet (and human) tricks were comedy gold. I couldn’t wait to see the next weird thing Dave would drop off a roof. “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night” back-to-back was the perfect combination of Carson’s old-school comedy and talk and Letterman’s new and zany antics. Carnac the Magnificent was my favorite ...