Repair, reuse or redo it, but never throw away

February 2, 2018

Back in the late fall, I received a letter from reader Lloyd Revis, who lives in Warren. He has written before and apparently we had similar backgrounds and experiences when we were growing up. My apologies to him because when I tried to find his letter to re-read it, I had put it someplace where I couldn’t find it He lived on a farm near Oakfield, which is east of North Bristol, if you have never heard of the community. At one time when it was a main stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was an active, busy community. In his letter, Lloyd mentioned that the word “replace” was ...

Interior Dept. moves on drilling regulation

January 21, 2018

Last fall, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke began formally unraveling an Obama-era regulation that would raise the cost of drilling for energy on federal lands. Environmental groups are already claiming the Interior Department’s moves are unlawful and environmentally disastrous. They’re wrong on both counts. The rule is illegitimate and unnecessary. Repealing it would save thousands of Buckeyes’ jobs. The rule in question, finalized last year by the Bureau of Land Management, requires drillers to cut “flaring” in half on public lands. Drillers burn — “flare,” in ...

Christening ‘Miss Minute Man’

November 28, 2017

It was 1942. Many of us kids at Garfield Elementary were preoccupied with the war that had started for the U.S. right after Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. I was in first grade. We had fire drills, air raid drills and demonstrations on extinguishing incendiary bombs. We were told to keep a bucket of sand in the attic. Any time we had a chance to do some artwork, the boys usually used Crayola crayons to draw pictures of warplanes, especially P-40’s with their scary shark mouths. On the playground with arms out to the sides — like wings — and a mouthful of water, we became ...

Tragedy dampened joy of moving

November 14, 2017

It was 1940 in good old Warren. Spring had come and we were having a new home built next to the water tower on Genesee Avenue. It was exciting for me to run through the unfinished rooms of that strange new place. I turned 5 that October and had a big birthday party at our York Avenue home with the neighborhood kids as guests — like Mary Joyce Gehring, Carol Mansfield, Kenny Adair, Nancy and Jimmy Chappell, Marilyn Grimsley and Gail Gardner (an outsider). Dad joined us and brought in a large Lincoln Logs set that was so big that its wooden container was mounted on four wheels. It ...

Tax reform would benefit local firms, families

November 12, 2017

Today the United States tax code is a whopping 74,608 pages. According to the National Taxpayers Union, 94 percent of all Americans use tax professionals or tax software to prepare their returns. Our businesses in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys also incur costs, sometimes tremendous costs, associated with complying with those 74,608 pages. To afford our businesses the opportunities to invest more time and money in their products and services, the Trump Administration and Congress should expeditiously approve the first comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax system in more than 30 ...

Seven was always lucky number

October 31, 2017

It was 1947 in good old Warren. That year certainly didn’t hold the drama that 1946 did. Even though the U.S. was at peace for a while, we still worried about the atomic bomb and Russia. Shortages had just about come to an end. It was the year that Dad lost his mom and I lost my dog, Nickie. Even though Grandma was much more important, many can vouch for how close a kid and his pet can become. I was 11 and it was a little difficult transitioning from the sixth grade at Garfield Elementary to seventh grade that September at East Junior. We could now race down the hallways at full ...