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It’s time Ohio rethinks priorities

Ohio leadership has for quite some time been promising improvements in employment opportunities for Buckeye State residents. Lofty goals such as having a large employer within commuting distance of every Ohioan gave us reason to hope. What we got — in droves — are data centers, which don’t check many of the boxes when it comes to benefiting residents. Policy Matters Ohio, a progressive watchdog organization, took a look at all those data centers and what they mean for the state. There are more questions than answers. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, data ...

Black History Month a chance to reflect

Black History Month 2025 is a chance to consider the ways work and working of all kinds intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. “African Americans and Labor” is the theme that has been selected by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the founders of Black History Month, which runs through Feb. 28. It’s a multi-layered topic, and one that allows for study and discussion on many levels because, the association writes, of the many levels — free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary — of life that labor ...

Sharing progress around the region

As you look through the pages of the first installment of our annual Progress Edition that is inside today’s paper, you will find a real sense of optimism — a great deal of which is being driven by the men and women who have important roles in the region’s economic growth. “We need to think regionally, not just in terms of our own city or county,” explains Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli. “We’ve been preaching a regional approach to development,” adds Brooke County Commissioner A.J. Thomas. And, according to Hancock County Commissioner Eron Chek, ...

Pinewood Derby tradition alive

The Pinewood Derby is a piece of Americana that hearkens back to a treasured time when fathers taught sons about working with their hands and with tools to create something of value. That piece of Americana nowadays involves moms and sons and daughters, brothers and sisters or uncles and nephews and nieces or grandparents and grandchildren — anyone who is willing to invest a little time in the life of a young person — but the concept remains the same: Teach a young boy or girl about using the skills of their own handiwork to enter a competition that is all about fun and ...

Let’s make rail safety a priority

Norfolk Southern has suffered another derailment — although this one, thank goodness, was more an inconvenience than a disaster. Eight cars of a train carrying several thousand pounds of soybeans derailed Monday morning at the company’s railyard in Portsmouth. Three of those cars turned over completely. Scioto County Emergency Management Director Larry Mullins told WCHS-TV in Columbus the derailment was caused by extreme weather, which led rails at Norfolk Southern’s yard to freeze, thaw, become brittle and break. It’s enough to make one wonder whether knowing such ...

Lower comp costs are good for Ohio

Ohioans have plenty of reason to worry about prices that just seem to keep going up and up, but there may be good news ahead for the state’s private employers. Because of prioritized health and safety measures in our workplaces — and at least one state agency willing to take into account how the work done by those who pay taxes and fees might make a difference in what needs to be paid — the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation board of directors will be considering yet another rate reduction in February. “At (Gov. Mike) DeWine’s request, we are proposing a new rate ...