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Looking forward into the new year

Local Columns

As we kick off the new year, I took a look back at my first column of 2025 in which I attempted to set a few goals – both personally and professionally – to carry me through the last 365 days. The bad news...I still have the same headshot photo this column has featured for probably the last 15 years. There were discussions to get something updated, but various schedule conflicts and other things came about and it quickly was forgotten. More people have commented on the continued use of the old photograph, especially since I’ve had my increasingly graying beard to accompany the ...

Local Columns

Well, we blinked. And just like that, another year has slipped through our fingers, joining the long line of years that came before it. But I’ll be honest with you ... this time around, I didn’t even bother keeping an eye on the clock. I didn’t hold my breath for the countdown, nor did I wait for that glittering ball to descend over a crowded Times Square. I’ve performed that dance more times than I can count. I’ve finally learned a hard-won truth: The simple turning of a page on a calendar has never actually mended a heart or fixed a problem. Not for me, ...

Putting the fight against opioids first

Editorials

If money is what it will take to resolve the damage done by the substance abuse epidemic in the Mountain State, we are sitting on an enormous opportunity through funds distributed by the West Virginia First Foundation. Just this month nearly $18 million in Momentum Initiative Grants was awarded to tackle the problem. In this round, there are 76 projects — some statewide, some regional — that will focus on foster care and non-parental caregiver initiatives, youth prevention, recovery housing, behavioral health and workforce development, and reentry and diversion programs. The ...

Looking toward the year ahead

Editorials

With the beginning of every year comes a sense of hope and the feeling that the future ahead of us is at least a little brighter than the past that is behind us. That’s the case as we say farewell to 2025 and welcome to 2026. Education and health care have played significant roles in our region’s economy for many years now, and that figures to continue, with major changes coming. The property where the former Eastern Gateway Community College sat along Sunset Boulevard in Steubenville will be taking on a new look, as Youngstown State University is preparing the building and a ...

The ones we’ve lost in 2025

Editorials

It’s likely that you lost a cultural icon who meant something to you during 2025, whether from the world of religion, politics, the arts or sports. Whether they helped to entertain us, on stage, on film or on television; whether they dazzled us through their accomplishments in athletics; or whether they helped to change the course of the world, each served as a reminder about the importance one person can have on countless numbers of lives. At least one of those deaths had a connection to Steubenville. Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who jumped onto the back of President John ...

Don’t drive impaired this New Year’s

Editorials

New Year’s parties are about to get under way, and it is a good time to again remember not to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking or using any impairing substance at one of those events. National statistics offer a sobering look at the dangers of driving while impaired. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12,429 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2023, the latest year for which statistics are available. And, NHTSA adds, about one third of traffic fatalities involve drivers with a blood-alcohol content of .08 or higher. ...