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How secure are local elections?

If you have ever visited the Washington County Board of Elections on Davis Avenue in Marietta, you may have met one of the staff members and volunteers who work diligently to assist citizens with voting and registration. Additionally, these local community members, perhaps your friends and neighbors, explain the voting process, test the security of the machines and conduct election audits. The election process can seem confusing when we only show up to vote once or twice a year, but our Board of Elections (BOE) staff work hard year-round to keep our elections safe and secure. I’d ...

Washington County once reached Lake Erie

If you think Washington County is big now, you should have been around in 1788; it was huge. One of the first orders of business after the establishment of the Northwest Territory was to set up counties within the new lands. As the first county in the Northwest Territory and future state of ...

Hunger can be helped

Recently I spent a day hanging out with former Marines who were collecting food to help feed the hungry in the area. Members of the Marine Corps League and the Marine Corps Veterans Association spent a Saturday at tables at both entrances to the Marietta Walmart collecting food and cash donations for the Marietta Gospel Mission, 309 Lancaster St., which will use the donations to help those that need assistance in Washington County. The Roy Trembly Annual Fall Food Drive is a project they undertake yearly to do their part to help people in our communities. We are thrilled to be a ...

God never lies

Back in 2012, NY Times best-selling author Andy Andrews released a thought-provoking book entitled How Do You Kill 11 Million People? “The answer,” Andrews wrote, “is breathtakingly simple. And is a method still used by some elected leaders to achieve various goals today…You lie to them.” In his book, Andrews notes that if an individual or small group of gun-toting hooligans attacked, most people would run or fight, recognizing the threat. But a vastly outnumbered team of Nazi soldiers was able to round up 11 million Jews and send them to concentration camps and, in many ...

Lowell Octoberfest is a delicious tradition

The population of Buell’s Island in Lowell will swell this weekend as thousands make the trip to the park to enjoy good food, good company and one of the largest flea markets to be found in the valley. A trip to the festival is always fun and a great excuse to enjoy some really good food prepared by the different groups in the area that use the festival, and the proceeds from it to fund the good work that they do all year. The park on the island is a real jewel for the small community along the banks of the Muskingum River. Improvements made to the park over the years have been ...

Take a breath regarding the Presidential Election of 2024

A lot of folks around here are having trouble breathing this year, probably because they’re holding their noses. The Presidential Election of 2024 forces America to choose the lesser of two evils. Do we want the childish egomaniac or the socialist flip-flopper? The apparent liar, or the one who can’t seem to put a complete sentence together? The prolific mean-tweeter or the candidate who seems anything but tech-savvy? The candidate no one knows much about or the candidate we know all too well? Hold your nose and make your pick, but you may not be very happy with the ...