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Special emphasis on blood drive

The need for blood is great throughout the year, and area residents always are willing to step up whenever a call for donors is made. And, while every collection is important, officials with the American Red Cross of the Ohio Valley are placing special emphasis on a drive that is scheduled to be held Monday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center on Market Street in Steubenville. All area residents are encouraged to donate, but the Red Cross is encouraging African Americans to participate. By doing so, they might be helping those who suffer from sickle cell anemia. ...

AED requirement will help save lives

From high-profile nationally broadcast incidents to small-town tragedies that fly under the radar, each of us can think of a situation in which a sudden cardiac arrest might have resulted in a very different outcome if an automated external defibrillator had been on the premises. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine has signed House Bill 47, requiring AEDs in every public and chartered nonpublic school in the state, in addition to municipally owned or operated sports or recreation venues. DeWine signed the bill at Worthington Kilbourne High School in Columbus, where he was joined by ...

Transformer plant good news for area

Our region received some good news Monday when Cleveland-Cliffs announced plans to bring a new electrical distribution transformer production facility to Weirton. Set to begin operations sometime in the first half of 2026, the facility has a goal of employing 600 workers, with an investment of $150 million – including $50 million from the state. This will be an opportunity for many — but not all — of the 900 USW employees who lost their jobs with the idling of Weirton’s tin mill earlier this year to potentially return to work if they would so choose. That’s important, ...

988 making a great impact

Good ideas don’t always prove to be effective once put into practice. But the implementation of Ohio’s 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline two years ago has proved to have been worth every ounce of effort. According to a report from Gov. Mike DeWine’s office, the lifeline has responded to nearly 340,000 contacts during that time. Hundreds of thousands of people facing emotional distress or thoughts of suicide found support when they picked up their phones. “988 is saving lives,” DeWine said. “The lifeline is providing free, around-the-clock support to Ohioans in crisis by ...

Manchin’s concerns about party spot on

For a brief moment on Sunday following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election in November, Sen. Joe Manchin considered switching parties back to Democrat to explore running for office. That changed a short while later as support coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris, but don’t expect Manchin, I-W.Va., to sit on the sidelines and simply toe the line for any nominee the Democrats put forth. “I am not running for office,” Manchin said Monday on CBS, comments he reiterated several times through the day. What Manchin said he would like to ...

Let’s protect Ohio from SLAPP suits

Ohio lawmakers may be on summer break now, but when they return to work they’ll have a chance to remove the Buckeye State from the list of those favored by forum-shopping attorneys looking for a sweet spot to file their clients’ frivolous lawsuits. House Bill 637 and Senate Bill 237 are aimed at quickly shutting down SLAPP lawsuits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. According to a report by the Dayton Daily News, the bills have support on both sides of the aisle. HB 637 was introduced by state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Rep. Elliott Forhan, D-Euclid, ...