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Hopes for the next Congress

“This is why people hate Washington.” Outgoing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, had good reason to speak his mind this week when lawmakers dropped the ball on the Railway Safety Act. Inspired by the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine on Feb. 3, 2023, the act would have enhanced existing rail safety regulations and added mandates such as reducing train lengths, shortening the distance between hotbox detectors on freight lines, notifying local officials in advance of trains carrying hazardous cargo and a minimum two-person crew on every locomotive. But, as the Lisbon ...

The demand for change isn’t waning

Politicians in Washington, D.C., certainly love their red tape. Despite the damage such bureaucratic bungling does to their constituents, they just can’t give it up. It should not have come as a surprise, then, when they jettisoned much-needed permitting reform late Monday. “It’s a shame that our country is losing this monumental opportunity to advance the commonsense, bipartisan permitting reform bill that has strong support in the United States Senate,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. “Unfortunately, this is just another example of politics getting in the way of doing ...

Good things are afoot in Ohio

Jobless claims heading into the end of 2024 included some encouraging numbers for Ohio. In fact, according to WalletHub’s look at “States Where Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most,” the Buckeye State was a comforting 51st overall in the country. Ohio was 23rd for unemployment claims increases compared with the previous week (Nov. 25 vs. Nov. 18), 21st for unemployment claims increases compared with the same week a year earlier, 21st for unemployment claims per 100,000 people in the labor force and 51st for cumulative unemployment claims in 2024 compared with the same ...

Thank you for Shop With a Cop events

Despite what we learn every now and then about some bad actors in police departments, we know our Mid-Ohio Valley officers do an excellent job serving, protecting — and bringing a little extra Christmas joy to those who need it most. Over the weekend, officers from the Vienna, Williamstown and Parkersburg police departments, the Wood and Ritchie county sheriff’s offices, the West Virginia State Police, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, the Marietta Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office all took part in Shop With a Cop events across the ...

Judging books by their covers

Ohio’s Supreme Court has already ruled the state attorney general cannot reject potential statewide ballot initiatives based solely on their titles. State lawmakers, many of whom are thinking no further ahead than state Attorney General Dave Yost, didn’t like the ruling and are putting together a measure that would expand the state attorney general’s authority to reject citizen ballot initiatives based on their title. According to a report by the Dayton Daily News, the proposal to make the state AG even more powerful was slipped in as an amendment to an otherwise unrelated bill ...

Technology, helpful but also hurtful

Technology can be a wonderful thing. It also can be horrifying, particularly when the law does not keep up with innovations. Ohio lawmakers seem to be working to address one of those shortfalls, as the state House of Representatives just passed Senate Bill 100, which makes it a crime to put or install a tracking device on someone else’s property without their consent. Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? But until the measure is signed in to law, use of, for example, an Apple AirTag to aid in stalking a victim is not in and of itself a crime. According to a report by the Ohio ...