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Local babies, toddlers need our help, too

Editorials

Too many in our region are experiencing needs that go beyond food, clothing, housing, transportation and medicine, as inflation just won’t let up. For parents of very young children, there is another necessity many of the rest of us don’t consider: diapers. "I don't know that folks are aware that diapers are a real need in our community and diaper insecurity is prevalent,” said Cammie Loane, registrar and financial clerk of the Marietta/Belpre Health Department, which has organized a Diaper Drive this month. If you’ve ever had to keep one (or more) baby or toddler supplied with ...

OMA must continue good work in building trust with feds

Editorials

It is no small feat to reportedly mismanage something so terribly that the federal government steps in and says you’re done. But that’s what happened last year with Ohio’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center, for which the Office of Inspector General says the Ohio Department of Development failed to report accurate financial results and ensure subrecipient expenses were allowable. Now, the National Institute of Standards and Technology says it trusts the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association Educational and Industrial Development Institute to handle the job. OMA says it will be ...

Fighting food insecurity may be up to us

Editorials

Most Ohio households are feeling the continuing and increasing squeeze of higher prices. Far too many are feeling that squeeze to a degree that is forcing them to make unsustainable decisions. According to a survey included in the Ohio Association of Foodbanks annual report, of the 2,644 food pantry visitors surveyed between April 18 and May 22, 57% of households were forced to choose between paying for utilities or paying for food. In households with children, that percentage increased to 65%. In addition, 63% said they had to choose between transportation or food and 59% said they had ...

Husted right to get rid of problematic staffer

Editorials

Plenty of politicians are getting caught saying the quiet part out loud these days, but few have been as bold as Stephen Woytek, political director for U.S. Sen. John Husted, R-Ohio. Woytek was rightly fired by Husted after discovery of social media activity that at best indicates a person so out of touch he should not be working on Husted's campaign. At one point, he was using as his Facebook profile picture a photograph of soldiers from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. That would be Hitler's personal bodyguard. Woytek's social media accounts also featured photos of him ...

MOV Climate Corner: In my life

Local Columns

As a child growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, I remember the weather having four separate seasons during the calendar year. There seemed to be a specific winter, spring, summer and fall that were distinct and different. Although summers could be hot, daily temperatures rarely reached 100 degrees. Torrential rains and out of season snow storms were rare. Tornadoes and earthquakes never occurred locally or in nearby states. But the changes in the temperature and weather experienced in my own short life span seem astounding. Short at least as compared to the age of our universe or our ...