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Surprising gun numbers

Local Columns

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

Local Columns

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

Local Columns

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

Local Columns

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 ...

Election cycle continues

Local Columns

Residents of our region who are planning to vote in the upcoming primary elections but have not yet registered are running short on time. If you live in Ohio, Monday is the deadline to make sure you have completed the process to be able to cast a ballot in the May 5 primary. And, if you live in West Virginia and have not already done so, the deadline to register to vote in the May 12 primary will be April 21. This midterm election cycle that we are in the middle of is a little more interesting than most — on the federal level, control of Congress will be decided after the Nov. 3 ...

Mull did great work

Local Columns

The Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce has held 89 editions of its annual membership dinner and awards banquet. Brenda Mull has been directly involved with about one-third of them, a run that just might have reached its end. Mull, who has spent 29 years with the chamber —the first eight as office manager and the last 21 as the executive director — announced during Tuesday's gathering at the Lauttamus Event Center that she would be retiring from the job that she said she truly loved sometime this year. "Tonight's banquet will be a little more special to me than most, because this ...