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Tentative deal good for county

There have been a lot of changes at the tract of land that sits at 4000 Sunset Boulevard as the decades have passed. Residents of the region have watched during the past 60 years as the 84-acre site in Steubenville’s West End has gone from holding the abandoned Jefferson County Infirmary to the modern Eastern Gateway Community College, which brought affordable, high-quality higher education and job training to the region. Now, it appears the property is nearing another transformation, one that likely will bring a new educational opportunity to the community while opening a large ...

Don’t drive drunk, don’t drive high

“If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI.” That’s the theme of an effort by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help local law enforcement be highly visible from now through Labor Day, as they crack down on those taking the risk to drive impaired. Even in states such as Ohio where adult-use cannabis is legal for recreational use, it is still illegal to drive under the influence. It doesn’t matter what substance is to blame. But, according to West Virginia’s Governor’s Highway Safety ...

Weirton’s water questions remain

Not long ago, Weirton’s water system — and the people it serves — went through one of the worst winters in the city’s history, with hundreds of line breaks and numerous water outages happening during a period of several weeks. People weren’t happy, and, eventually, the complaints found their way to the West Virginia Public Service Commission, which held a public hearing in Weirton and launched its own studies of the system. Among its findings, the PSC ruled Weirton’s storage tank capacity is not sufficient enough to meet requirements of the city, that approximately 40 ...

Gee’s OSU return offers perspective

Ohio State University isn’t letting its former President E. Gordon Gee rest for long, after his departure as president of West Virginia University. They’ve asked him to return to Columbus for a one-year consulting role. According to a report by The Columbus Dispatch, that role will include working with OSU’s new Salmon P. Chase Center to recruit faculty and increase the center’s presence on campus and nationally. Chase was Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury and later the sixth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving in that role until his death in 1873. ...

Tourism plays big role across Ohio

Buckeye State officials had good reason to celebrate when they took a look at the economic impact of tourism in Ohio in 2024. Those numbers are looking up. According to a news release from the state Department of Development, Ohio saw 3.5 million more visitors in 2024 than in 2023, for a total of approximately 242 million visitors. Approximately 20 percent of those travelers were interested in being here long enough that they booked an overnight stay. State officials say that meant $57 billion in economic impact and $4.7 billion in state and local tax revenue. For the state’s ...

Schools are open ­— watch for students

School is already in session for most students across the Tri-State Area. With the beginning of the school year comes a possible change to our morning or afternoon driving routines, as school buses filled with children will be everywhere. Get back in the mindset of giving yourself plenty of time to get to your destination during pick-up and drop-off hours. School buses might be a little slower and make frequent stops, but the drivers are not out to get you, personally. Their job is to make sure kids get to and from school safely. And they can do that because (most) drivers follow a ...