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Gee leaving a rich legacy

Editorials

Monday marked the conclusion of an extraordinary chapter in American higher education as E. Gordon Gee stepped down from his presidency at West Virginia University. Spanning more than four decades and multiple institutions, Gee’s career has been characterized by visionary leadership, an unwavering commitment to student engagement, keen insight into the future of education and a profound impact on the nation’s academic landscape. Gee’s journey began where it ends — WVU. He first served as the university’s president from 1981-85. His leadership trajectory then took him ...

Guest column/Ramaswamy has the right focus for governor

Local Columns

In 2012, I was invited to a conference held by the Milton Friedman Institute in Indianapolis. The institute invited 20 or so legislators from around the country to discuss school choice issues and how much progress had been made to that point. Like most conferences, we heard from a variety of speakers, one of whom was Tony Bennett (not the singer and not the basketball coach), the superintendent of education from the state of Indiana. Bennett oversaw the institution of educational reforms including expanding school choice options for then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Bennett made a ...

Start of survey welcome news

Editorials

It took long enough, but about a month ago, federal officials announced there are finally plans for long-term study of the possible health outcomes after the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine. The National Institutes of Health is launching a five-year, $10 million research initiative. In announcing the effort, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thanked Vice President J.D. Vance, who was representing Ohio in the U.S. Senate at the time of the crash, for continuing to press the matter. “You helped drive the first large-scale, coordinated, ...

Ohio’s BMV sets shining example

Editorials

Not every technological upgrade is a homerun, but at least one improvement in Ohio is paying big dividends for the state and its residents. With a change as simple as allowing certain transactions with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles to take place online instead of in person, more than 10 million trips to BMV offices have been saved since 2022. Among the options available online are renewal of driver’s licenses or identification cards. More than 608,000 Buckeye State residents have taken advantage of that so far; and now the option has been expanded to commercial driver’s ...

Not a time to be silent

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: Two days after writer and speaker Caroline Myss, who had an unbearable trip to Moscow to engage at a conference for healing, peace and kindness, returned, she started whining to an elderly man seated next to her about all of the hardships she had faced on her journey — delayed flights, hotel reservations canceled and having to sleep on a stranger’s floor. When she was done, the elderly man was silent for a moment and then introduced himself as someone who worked with the Dalai Lama. He said gently that they both believed that when a lot of difficult and chaotic ...

Reminded how I omitted something last week

Local Columns

Last week, my column was written a little differently than those you have read these past two years. It wasn’t written how I usually express myself in this little corner of the paper. Yet, it was still something personal about my life. And it was still being able to share some of those little moments which I believe we all have in common. Either way, it was different. Maybe that was a good decision, or maybe it was an awful one. I can never be quite certain. I was explaining to a friend of mine who doesn’t read the paper what my column was about. I told him how the radio ...