Closing Chicago EPA may cripple Great Lakes effort

April 23, 2017

Sources recently revealed to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reports that President Donald Trump may plan to downsize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by shuttering the regional branch office in Chicago and consolidating it with the EPA’s Kansas office. Of course, federal agencies often face criticism for being overstaffed, bureaucratic, overreaching and inefficient — and all that often is true. But before you start applauding the dismantling of this particular agency that many believe enforces too many regulations driving business and industry out of the United ...

Drug crisis has reached emergency status

April 21, 2017

People we know are dying — 39 of them so far this year in Trumbull County. If the deaths were due to any reason other than illegal drug addiction, I suspect Americans would be reacting much differently than they have to deaths brought on by this opioid crisis. We treat with care the lifelong cigarette smokers who contract lung cancer and heavy drinkers afflicted with cirrohsis. Aren’t these ailments also brought on by serious addiction? But this scourge is about opioids. April Caraway, executive director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said if it ...

Newsroom visitor hopes for end to racism

April 9, 2017

I often receive phone calls, emails and even impromptu visits from readers who have been wronged or who are so frustrated that they turn to the newspaper, hoping we can share their problems and help turn things around for them. While I genuinely would like to find a solution for every one of these folks, the fact is many times, I cannot. Sometimes the story they tell is a consumer complaint that is so focused on a narrow issue that it simply would not be of interest to our general readership. Sometimes they are seeking revenge and hoping we will help them by publicly embarrassing ...

Childish disagreements, stall tactics must end

April 2, 2017

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK We teach our kids in preschool to cooperate with one another. All through middle and high school sports, we teach our student-athletes about the importance of teamwork. Successful private businesses — like Google or Disney, for instance — hammer the premise of working together toward a common goal. So why is this concept lost when our elected leaders show up inside the Capital Beltway? Last week, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, expressed his frustration that even his own party couldn’t come together to gather enough ...

Kids become innocent victims of opiate epidemic

March 26, 2017

For at least the third time since the opiate epidemic began spiraling out of control locally, a Trumbull County baby had to be revived earlier this month after overdosing on opiates. Every day we hear that opiate addiction is a disease. We hear that many people have developed a dependence on heroin and other opiates stemming from their reliance on legally prescribed pain medication. We hear that often these people have a physiological gene that leads to dependency, and of course, all these things are true. But none of those things excuse carelessness or stupidity involved when a ...

Horton is a hit, and so is reading

March 19, 2017

Dr. Seuss is famous not just for putting together silly rhymes in ridiculous stories, but for the reason he did it. Born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1927, Dr. Seuss, as he eventually became known, created his silly rhymes largely because he wanted to help children find enjoyment in reading. He believed kids weren’t interested in reading because it was, well, boring. I’m here to tell you, there is nothing boring about “Horton Hears a Who!” That’s the Dr. Seuss book I got to read to second-grade classrooms at Jefferson Elementary on Warren’s west side recently. It was my ...