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Here’s some reasons to vote yes on school levies

If you need a good reason to vote [x] yes on your local public school levy, please read to the end of this column.If you're looking out for number one (if you don't-who will?), remember this law of real estate: Property values rise and fall with the performance of your local schools. It's a Catch 22, since taxes will certainly go down if your schools begin to fail and property values drop. In other words, you'll definitely want to support your local schools in every reasonable way in addition to voting for basic renewal / operational levies.If you have deep convictions as a Christian, ...

Anger—the Dominate Force on Internet Communication

You would expect that most "tweets" would be expressions of love and appreciation toward one another, right? Wrong. At least that's the finding of a new study of the Chinese social network Weibo; that's a platform resembling Twitter and boasting "twice as many users." They conclude that the most "influential emotion in online interactions" is anger. What does this reveal about the social media, and why it seems easier to "rage" at a screen than directly to a person?Beihang University researchers examined 70 million Weibo "tweets" over six months; they were sorted into the emotional ...

Prepare for the ‘s’ word in Ohio

The real test of my ''I love Ohio'' mettle is when snow - yes, "the 's' word," shows up on the weather forecast. In October. I had convinced myself that snow would not show up on my weather app until late November at the earliest, so you could probably hear my naivete shattering across the Valley.I like fall; it's my favorite season. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin brownies, pumpkin bread (you're starting to glimpse our fall menus), leaves changing, a crisp in the air to match the crunch of leaves beneath my feet. Fall is when I first met my wife; I realized I ''liked'' her around this ...

Bullying explored at festival

In late July of this year, readers of this page found an opinion piece, "Exploring the bullying epidemic," by guest columnist, Bill Finnigan. In his writing, Finnigan refers to an article in The Christian Science Monitor by Stephanie Hanes.Finnigan's words are still posted on the tribtoday.com website, and an exploration of Hanes' writing gleans more than one article by that author on this subject. I recommend reading all of these and more.At first, it seems difficult to disagree with the folksy ideas and solutions offered by Finnigan. He suggests that the most effective remedies for ...

Obamacare or Affordable Care Act?

People never cease to amaze me. Recently one of the Jimmys of late-night TV (I was asleep then so I can't remember which one) did a "man on the street"segment where they asked individuals which they thought was better - Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act? Pretty much everyone chose the latter, stating how much better it seemed, was more affordable, a good choice for all.How about you. Which do you think is better? (Stop reading for a minute to consider; now give me your answer.)If you, like those asked on TV, also said the Affordable Care Act, listen for the big buzzer signaling you ...

Hit this idea out of the park

Every once in a while, you get thrown a slow pitch you can really hit out of the park. Such opportunities are rare, but when they come, it is incumbent upon all of us to swing hard and hit that ball over the horizon.Over the past few columns, I've tried to push all of us to seriously consider our own responsibility for the transformation of our city and our county. I've tried to show how transformation happens when ordinary people live their ordinary lives. I've tried to cast a vision for ways that we could all be a part of making Warren great again, not by going back, but by moving ...