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Ross Gallabrese: County fairs remain special

Local Columns

While there's still a lot of summer left, there are signs all around us that fall is not that far away. We're been seeing back-to-school ads from retailers for some time now, and some students will be returning to the classrooms in a matter of days. Pumpkin-spiced drinks are set to reappear in shops around the country. Dunkin', for instance, has announced that its Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte and other pumpkin-flavored drinks will return to the menu on Wednesday. If that's too early for you, you can wait until Aug 25, when Starbucks has announced its fall-themed lineup will ...

Ross Gallabrese: Pedestrians beware

Local Columns

It's certainly tough to argue against the health benefits that can come with simply taking a walk. It's equally tough to look at the preliminary statistics for 2025 and not be at least a little concerned about the number of pedestrians who lose their lives each year. According to a report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association in July, there were a projected 6,732 pedestrian fatalities during 2025. Now, there is some good news in that number — it's 7 percent lower when compared to 2024, and the largest annual reduction since pedestrian deaths began falling in ...

Ross Gallabrese: Thoughts for a new month

Local Columns

Some thoughts as we head into August: With the way politics have been going, it should come as no surprise that the campaigns for governor and senator in Ohio are even. While there's some variation, based on who has commissioned any particular poll, it's pretty obvious that Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton are in a dead heat in the race to replace Gov. Mike DeWine. It's the same with the race for U.S. Senate — Republican Jon Husted, who replaced J.D. Vance in that spot when Vance became vice president, and Democrat Sherrod Brown find themselves in a statistical ...

Ross Gallabrese: Seasons change

Local Columns

When we last saw the Pittsburgh Steelers, they were suffering through a 30-6 loss to Houston in an NFL wild card playoff game on Jan. 12. Since that Monday night more than six months ago, the team has undergone some changes, not the least of which came when Mike Tomlin decided to step away from the head coaching spot he had held for the last 19 seasons. While we still see him as an analyst on NBC this season, the Steelers will have a new coach in Mike McCarthy. We'll find out if it's a good fit, as McCarthy, the former coach of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, will be ...

Ross Gallabrese: Innovation all around us

Local Columns

There was a lot of excitement this spring surrounding the Artemis II mission that successfully sent four astronauts around the moon. It helped to set the stage for the third mission, which is scheduled for next year and will test the Orion spacecraft's ability to dock with landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. If those tests are successful, the goal will be to send the crew of Artemis IV to land on the moon in late 2028. That would mark the first time humans have been on the moon since December 1972, when Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days there as part of the ...

Gary Franks: Lightning will not strike twice in Maine as Platner steps down

Editorials

Thank God lightning will not strike twice the same spot - in reference to the character issue. Maine's Graham Platner was a seriously flawed Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate despite first being the choice of many Democratic leaders in the state and in Washington. It took repeated charges of sexual abuse to get Platner to step down as the party's candidate. Yet there was a part of me that "did" want him to be the Democratic nominee. It would show once again that the obvious was, well... obvious (like former President Joe Biden's declining cognitive abilities while in office). My ...