Election season heats up

May 9, 2026

While Tuesday's Ohio primary election featured a local race that attracted a lot of attention, when all of the ballots were counted, there were very few real surprises. Despite the interest in the Republican primary for the 96th House seat, the voter turnout in Jefferson County was 22.95 percent, not too far from the 20 percent or so that had been expected and right in line with the state's turnout, which was 22.56 percent, according to the secretary of state's office. Wintersville's Ron Ferguson, the incumbent, won that contested race, defeating former state Sen. Frank Hoagland of ...

OVHC continues to grow

May 2, 2026

A couple of the takeaways that came from this year's Ohio Valley Health Center Gala were a reminder that a few simple thoughts can grow into an organization that has transformed the lives of thousands of area residents, and that one person can have a big impact on everything around her. Like many things, the center, which has provided quality health care for the region's uninsured and underinsured for more than 20 years now, got its start when community leaders, including the Rev. Bruce Hitchcock, the former director of Urban Mission Ministries, started to look for answers to a simple ...

Surprising gun numbers

April 25, 2026

Among the more interesting of the large number of reports issued each year by various state agencies is the annual set of statistics on concealed handgun licenses in Ohio provided by Attorney General David Yost. The numbers for 2025 continue to show some of what you might expect — the number of new licenses issued in the state has continued to fall. Last year's total was 13,876, a drop from the 14,440 that were issued in 2024. When you add that to the 63,283 renewals that were recorded last year — a process permit holders must complete every five years if they want to keep ...

Walking can be dangerous

April 18, 2026

Wherever you are, and no matter what time of day it is, if you look around, it's likely you will see someone out for a walk. Take a trip through any neighborhood, and it's a sure bet you will come across someone who's enjoying being outside. Some people like to walk in the evening, some in the morning and some hearty souls like to be out in the heat of the day. It's a great way to get some exercise and to interact with your friends and neighbors, things that we all too often forget should be important parts of our lives. But while it's hard to underestimate the benefits of ...

Reporter’s Notebook: To The Moon

April 13, 2026

If you're reading this today, I am in George Town, the capital city of the Cayman Islands in the middle of my third Royal Caribbean cruise. I'm writing this column before shipping off from Port Canaveral in Florida along the Space Coast, a short drive away from the launchpad where the Artemis 2 mission to orbit the moon took off. It seems every time I leave for my annual vacation, which sometimes is a cruise but usually is a week’s stay at my mother-in-law's timeshare in Kissimmee, I miss witnessing a rocket launch of some sort. These days, it's usually a SpaceX launch. In fact, ...

It’s tax time once again

April 11, 2026

There certainly are a lot of things that many of us will be looking forward to doing during the weekend. It's a pretty sure bet that completing income tax paperwork will not be among them, but, with the deadline of Wednesday quickly approaching, those who haven't finished that yearly chore will be scrambling to get that wrapped up and submitted to the Internal Revenue Service, the state that you live in and the agency that is in charge of collecting local payments. Making sure our required obligation to ensure the government can continue to function remains one of the least ...