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Giving back with the Teacher’s Closet giveaway

As supplies purchased ahead of the start of this school year are perhaps starting to run dry, Wood and Washington County teachers got a boost earlier this month when the Hall Financial Advisors Giving Foundation hosted its annual Teacher’s Closet giveaway. More than $20,000 worth of classroom materials were distributed. “(A local teacher) was talking about how the students are really struggling this time of year with school supplies, and all the supplies that were brought in at the first of the year have clearly run out,” founder and CEO of Hall Financial Advisors Chris Hall ...

Only the beginning for justice-involved youth

Ohio young people face a range of challenges, but children who find themselves part of the juvenile correctional system are staring down hurdles most of us cannot imagine. Rather than having some time in a juvenile correctional facility become a life sentence that dampens their opportunities forever, the Ohio Department of Youth Services is working toward providing educational and vocational opportunities for what it calls “justice-involved youth.” To that end, Gov. Mike DeWine and Department of Youth Services Director Amy Ast attended the opening earlier this month of a new ...

CVB connects our region to the world

Travel and tourism are a big industry in Ohio, but many in the Mid-Ohio Valley do not realize what a big role Washington County plays in that industry. We got a good reminder this week during the Marietta-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau annual meeting. “We’ve seen a 6.1% increase in our bed tax revenue for Marietta and Washington County, which we see as a great indicator that people are coming to Marietta and enjoying all the attractions that we have here,” said Executive Director Deana Clark. Clark and her team made a good decision when, after purchasing and ...

WV lawmakers’ health effort must be done right

As a few attempts to address West Virginia’s woeful health indicators and perpetually bottom-of-the-barrel quality of life rankings have made their way into public policy over the past year, lawmakers have continued to look for new ways to address the matter. As it seems these days everything must have a call back to some other well-known political slogan, the Make West Virginia Healthy Act of 2026 is meant to get ahead of some of our state’s worst health challenges. “We all know the numbers … West Virginia leads the nation in chronic disease, disability, preventable ...

Efficiency effort worth considering

Lawmakers who were sent by voters to Columbus to cut wasteful spending and unnecessary layers of government have an interesting idea in front of them in state House Bill 520. The measure, now sitting in the House Local Government Committee would “establish and convene a Blue Ribbon Committee in each county to review and assess each taxing unit within the county and each county program or department to identify duplication of services and generally to streamline and improve county efficiency and effectiveness.” One could point out the irony of attacking inefficient, multi-layered ...

Quality food becoming less available

Food insecurity may seem to many of us like a problem for someone else, somewhere else. For others, it is an urgent and very personal worry. A map produced by the Institute for Local Self Reliance shows there are food deserts in every state. In Ohio, they are growing. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, the institute defines an urban food desert as a low-income census tract with at least 500 people or 33% of the population living a mile or more from the nearest supermarket, large grocery or supercenter; rural food deserts have the same parameters with the exception of ...