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President Trump is not helping on environmental issues

DEAR EDITOR: The Environmental Protection Agency just announced that Ohio is no longer on the list of states that do not meet clean air standards. U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce writes, “As someone who has worked hard to promote policies that protect our environment and boost our economy, this announcement proves that both goals can be achieved.” U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno states, “For Ohio to hit this milestone, Cleveland hit this milestone, is really, really important, because quite frankly, taking care of the environment and being good stewards is not really a partisan issue.” Yet ...

Too much taxpayer money is going to the schools

DEAR EDITOR: In 2024, U.S. schools spent $30 billion on laptops and tablets. They were going to revolutionize teaching by spending 10 times the money on textbooks. Gen Z was the first generation to use computers, and this generation has experienced a decline in IQ. Now we have a new generation on computers. It seems they threw money at a shiny object without showing how this harmed students. They are not being taught by teachers but by a screen, and we, as taxpayers, are losing. Tech is a lazy substitute for better-quality teaching, making teachers just babysitters. Unions demand less ...

Too many rules ruin child-care goals

Child care got expensive — more than $13,000 per child, per year. So many people want government to pay for it. My state just agreed. New York will fund free child care. Yay! But wait, what government does isn’t free. Taxpayers pay. And taxpayers pay more because “government rules have unintended consequences,” says Carrie Lukas of Independent Women’s Forum. Washington, D.C., day care teachers must have a degree in early childhood education. That can take two years and cost $22,000. “Of course you’re going to have to pay a lot more,” says Lukas in my new ...

Don’t count on any fast move of Mahoning elections board

For the past two years, Mahoning County Board of Elections officials have vocally complained about the conditions at its offices at Oakhill Renaissance Place. There’s been a lot of talk. There’s even been singing as board Chairman David Betras performed in front of the county commissioners. Could action finally be forthcoming? That’s difficult to determine, but things have progressed more in the last six weeks than they have at any other time during the past two years. All involved parties agree on one thing: Getting the board of elections and other county offices out of ...

Joyce, O’Neill in 14th District congressional primary races

The Republican primary for Ohio’s 14th congressional representative is a choice between a seven-term incumbent and self-described “workhorse” and a self-described “political outsider” who was most recently a one-term Trumbull County commissioner. Dave Joyce, of Bainbridge, has the endorsement of President Donald Trump and a huge edge over his opponents — both Republican and Democrat — in campaign war chests. His GOP opponent in the May 5 primary is Niki Frenchko, who lost reelection for her commissioner seat in 2024 after a tumultuous four years in office. The ...

Radical Islamists mean what they say

In the Western world, there’s a weird naivety festering throughout our society, rooted in the notion that evil simply doesn’t exist. Thanks to multiculturalism, intersectionality, equity and any other combination of leftist buzzwords, we have the bizarre impression that the world is full of people just like us, who think just like us, who respect the same values we do. For anyone who lives in reality, of course, it’s clear that’s not true. It’s important to acknowledge that the West made massive progress in the realm of equality when it comes to immutable characteristics. ...