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Ohio’s elections set standard for nation

On Dec. 2, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose certified the official results of the Nov. 5 general election. In doing so, he noted voter turnout was the second-highest on record in Ohio (the 2020 general election was the highest.) With voter participation at 71.7 percent — there were 5,851,387 votes cast out of 8,159,946 registered voters — there was a lot to keep track of and to get right. But LaRose said the consensus among bipartisan elections officials was that this had been the smoothest in the state’s history. “More people are paying attention to the process of ...

Manchin has earned thanks and respect

Last week West Virginia prepared for the end of an era, as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin gave his final speech on the floor of the Senate after having devoted his life to serving the state’s residents for more than 40 years. Manchin has been a stalwart for the Mountain State, at all levels — the House of Delegates, the state Senate, West Virginia’s secretary of state, the state’s governor and, since 2010, a powerful voice for us in Washington, D.C., as a member of the U.S. Senate. Filling the shoes of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd might have been a daunting task for some, but ...

Pearl Harbor still resonates

The words President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, remain as powerful and meaningful today as they were when they were first spoken some 83 years ago. Americans were stunned and still reeling from the news that Japanese forces had attacked our Pearl Harbor naval base at Oahu, in the then-Territory of Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, when Roosevelt spoke for a little more than seven minutes, including breaks for applause, the following day: “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America ...

Spirit of season continues to shine

Our region will continue to revel in the magic of the Christmas season during the next couple of weekends. From Wintersville to Chester, and many locations in between, this weekend will offer a wide variety of things to see, hear and do. Thousands of residents from across the Tri-State Area are expected to pack the streets of downtown Steubenville at noon Saturday for the annual Sights and Sounds of Christmas Parade. The parade will feature marching bands and cheerleaders, dancing groups, homecoming queens, colorful floats sponsored by community organizations and local businesses ...

Aging can affect how we drive

How many of us greeted one of the more senior members of our family as they arrived for the Thanksgiving feast and wondered how in the world that person was still able to drive safely? How many threw in an extra “watch for deer” to that person on the way out the door, just in case? It may seem unfair to have such worries simply because of their age, but according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Safety Administration, fatal traffic accidents involving drivers over the age of 65 increased by 4.7 percent between 2021 and 2022, to 7,870 nationwide. That ...

No easy answers in East Palestine

More than a year ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Norfolk Southern celebrated the “last load of contaminated soil” being removed from a site near the derailment of an N&S train in February of that year. Now, Chris Hunsicker, overseeing remediation efforts in East Palestine, has had to go before the Village Council to report exceedances of vinyl chloride, benzene, trimethylbenzene and 2-butoxyethanol have been detected through confirmatory sampling. “We are not saying it’s perfect. Nobody is saying that, but we are getting toward the end of the process,” ...