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Guest column/Keeping government open shouldn’t be a partisan fight

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of my primary responsibilities is ensuring that our government is responsibly funded so it remains open and working for the people we represent, including the hardworking West Virginians. That’s why I’m deeply disappointed to see Washington once again stumble into a completely avoidable government shutdown — this time because Senate Democrats have refused to join Republicans in supporting a commonsense, short-term measure that would keep the government open. Let’s be clear about what this measure — known as a ...

Register … and then vote

In case you have let it slip under your radar, here’s an important reminder: The Nov. 4 election is about a month away, and the deadline to register to vote in that election is Monday. This is an off-year election, which means it doesn’t quite carry the glamour and excitement that surround a congressional election every two years and a presidential election every four years. There aren’t any of those major races on this year’s fall ballot. But the offices that are open, and the issues Ohio residents are being asked to vote on, really are the ones that have the greatest ...

Guest column/It’s time to make tariffs work smarter on steel

Here’s something the global elites and the Biden White House still refuse to admit: Tariffs work. President Donald J. Trump proved it. For decades, foreign governments played us for fools and suckers. They subsidized their industries, manipulated their currencies, slapped trade barriers and tariffs on our exports and laughed when they dumped their products into our markets. Washington bureaucrats looked the other way. The result? Empty factory floors. Broken towns. Families left behind. Trump ended that nonsense. He stood up to China and the globalist elites. He leveled the ...

Guest column/Local newspapers keep our communities strong

Strong communities don’t just happen. They rely on connection — residents knowing what’s going on, businesses reaching the customers who keep them open and citizens having the facts to make good decisions. Local newspapers provide that connection in ways no other source can. In today’s fractured media environment, trust is the rarest commodity. Confidence in “the media” is low. Only 18 percent of Americans say they trust news on social platforms, and fewer than one in four trust cable networks. But nearly two-thirds say they trust their local newspaper — more than ...

Essay’s truth evident 60 years after written

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I came across a copy of an essay in the newspaper that made me sit up and pay attention. It was pretty much the reason I began writing in the first place. You see, the words were so impactful, so truthful, that it made me stop and think — really think about the world, about life. When I first read it, the essay was only about 20 years old. But still, it was dead-on accurate and so well-put that I decided to cut the article out of the newspaper and I placed it among my poems, my keepsakes. I still have it to this day, 40 years later. ...

A real library legend

If you have used any of the services offered at any one of the branches that are part of the system operated by the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County during the last several decades, you have been touched by the efforts of Alan Hall. Hall, who died Sept. 12 at the age of 71, served a the director of the system for nearly 40 years before his retirement. And even after Mike Gray, who worked as his assistant for 16 years, moved into the director’s spot, Hall continued to share his insights and talents with the staff as director emeritus. He could often be found ...