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Library levy earns support

The system operated by the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County is a true asset to residents across the region. One of the reasons it can provide the multitude of services it does is money generated from its 1-mill levy. The five-year issue, which generates approximately $1.5 million a year and represents one-third of the system’s revenue, is up for renewal on the Nov. 4 ballot, and voters should approve it. Libraries have traditionally been known as places where you can find books. Today’s libraries, however, offer much more. They are places where area residents ...

Student loan debt a growing concern

Among the concerns for some of those worried about their finances amid a federal government shutdown, continued increasing inflation, high interest rates and an unsteady jobs market, is the burden of student loan repayment. In West Virginia, that burden is especially heavy. According to WalletHub, the Washington, D.C.-based personal financial website, West Virginia carries the eighth most student debt in the country. The Mountain State is 25th for average student debt, but third for the proportion of students with debt and fourth for student debt as a percentage of income. Meanwhile, ...

Getting a handle on credit card debt

For some, use of credit cards is a carefully planned luxury — perhaps used to ensure the accumulation of lots of airline or hotel points — for purchases that can be paid off within a month or two. But for Tri-State Area residents between the ages of 18 and 34, a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data shows the use of credit cards feels like a necessity — and one that is causing them to rack up higher-than-average levels of debt. Along with those high levels of debt come high levels of delinquency, according to reports on the data by the Ohio Capital Journal and Upgraded Points, ...

Plan would help with child care

For many families, finding affordable child care is one of the bigger obstacles to being able to be full participants in the workforce. Sometimes it just makes more sense for a parent to stay home with the kids than to go out into a job that perhaps doesn’t even cover the costs of child care. With the launch of Ohio’s Child Care Cred Program, funding is now available for a program that helps split the child care burden. “Ensuring a stable workforce for Ohio’s growing economy encourages us to support our working families,” said state Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster. “By ...

Keeping everyone safe should be goal

Every once in a while, politicians will float the question of whether drivers should have to retake their tests as a requirement for license renewal after a certain age. With age comes the possibility of reduced vision, perhaps hearing loss, reduced reflexes and other changes we all laugh about as a fact of life until someone mentions them in the context of affecting a person’s ability to drive safely. Then pride kicks in. Well, pride and a little stubbornness as most of us bristle at the idea of the government telling us it’s possible we are less able to do something we’ve ...

Be proactive in cancer fight

Pink is a prevalent color around our communities this time of year — it serves as a reminder that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, according to medical experts, and the most significant risk factors for breast cancer are gender — being a woman — and growing older. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States, with the exception of skin cancers, and accounts for 30 percent of all new female cancers each year. Only lung cancer kills ...