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Ross Gallabrese: Election battles heat up

Now that just about every area school has opened for the academic year, the Jefferson County Fair has wrapped up its 155th run and teams in Ohio are completing the second week of the high school football season, we can expect to see this year's election campaigns really begin to heat up. That's not really unusual. Labor Day, which this year falls on Sept. 7 and comes as late as it can, usually is when politics starts to get really exciting, especially in a year like this, when Ohio will be attracting even more attention than it normally does on the national level. Winning the state is ...

Ross Gallabrese: Statewide candidates still showing interest in community

Some thoughts ... • While election season has not really started to heat up yet, there still has been plenty of activity around the area. In the past two weeks, we have seen visits from a candidate for governor — Democrat Amy Acton — both of Ohio's candidates for the U.S. Senate — Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown —and one of the candidates for secretary of state — Democrat Allison Russo. That sort of activity shows that candidates and their parties still are interested in our part of the state and what the residents here have to say. When you consider ...

Ross Gallabrese: County fairs remain special

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

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

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

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 ...