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Guest Column: Filing formal and informal complaints

I suppose it would come as no surprise to you that most of the comments we receive at the Public Service Commission are from people who are complaining about their utility services or the rates they must pay. We invite the public to comment on any and all cases before the Commission. It certainly is your right, and the Commission welcomes your comments. We have multiple ways by which you can file comments with the Commission. These include filing online, by mail, or physically coming into the Commission to state your mind while we are in session. Today, I would like to spend a ...

Somewhere along the way, our hearts changed

There were moments when I was putting together the above story when I was taken back to those days when I was around the age of being a fourth-grader. I guess that would be about, what … 10? I’m pretty sure all of us could go back and conjure up a few memories from our childhood during that time. You see, the children in that story are filled with a sadness for each of these dogs and cats living at the local animal shelter. And they are filled with so much love for every single one. No exclusions. Not just the cute puppy with its fabulous puppy breath. Not just the ...

Talking budgets with California on my mind

As you are reading this, I am vacationing with my wife and mother-in-law in Southern California, staying at a resort just south of Orange County. For my mother-in-law, this is a bucket list trip to dip her toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. For my wife, this is an opportunity to visit Disney Land and see Hollywood. For me, it is about reconnecting spiritually with my biological mother’s side of the family. My mother, Ethel Mae Glee Adams, died in 2019 due to complications from lung cancer, being a lifelong smoker. My grandparents on my mother’s side have been dead for ...

It’s officially time to write the next chapter

We often get quarterly financial reports from companies with some ties to our area, even if they don’t necessarily have a physical presence in the Ohio Valley, so I was expecting to see a release from Cleveland-Cliffs appear in my inbox sometime this week. What I wasn’t expecting in the email, which was sent out just after 5 p.m., Wednesday (just in time for a significant percentage of people to have left work for the day) was the one sentence blurb located at the bottom of a list of operational changes being made by the company: “In addition, the Company will no longer be ...

I wish everyone knew what being a mom is like

I once had a friend who used to tell me all the time that she never wanted to have children. She was adamant about it. Years later, she got married to a man who adored her. He soon became my friend, too. They were a happy couple. Never really argued. Always called each other by a pet name. They were always going to baseball, hockey and football games. They visited restaurants all the time. They would go on vacation to places they found interesting and stayed up late watching movies on tv with one another. They had time to do whatever they wanted to do. No one ...

History in the Hills: Remembering V-E Day

This past Thursday, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. V-E stands for Victory in Europe and was officially recognized historically on May 8, 1945. On that day, World War II in Europe ended with the surrender of the German forces. The war itself didn’t end with V-E Day, but rather, after Japan surrendered in August of that year. My wife and I have always been interested in this period of history and have been reading a lot lately on the subject. I finally found time to read Tom Brokaw’s book “The Greatest Generation,” describing the life and times of folks who were ...