Opinion

Many weeks in this space, I share stories of home life and what we learn about life through raising our children.

PARK CITY, Utah — After women, young voters and Latinos fled from the Republican Party in droves in 2012, some GOP leaders thought they had a chance to turn things around.

State leaders shirk

Sixty percent of kids in Richmond, Va., are without a dad in the home, reports First Things First of Greater Richmond.

Night to celebrate

WASHINGTON — As soon as the Constitution permitted him to run for Congress, Al Salvi did. In 1986, just 26 and fresh from the University of Illinois law school, he sank $1,000 of his own money, which was most of his money, into his campaign to unseat an incumbent Democratic congressman. Salvi studied for the bar exam during meals at campaign dinners.

HOUSTON — I recently toured the Johnson Space Center here, while vacationing with my retired, itinerant, sainted parents. The most striking thing at NASA’s legendary facility is a Saturn V rocket. It lies within a giant hangar, beneath incredibly bright lights. It is humongous and breathtaking.

It will not be with guns.

The 29-year-old former CIA agent who admitted over the weekend to leaking documents about the National Security’s Agency’s targeting of phone records, email accounts and Internet use of millions of Americans exemplified the ethical dilemma facing those who consider themselves government whistle blowers: They may firmly believe their fellow citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name, but if everyone with access to sensitive information felt justified in betraying the secrets entrusted to them, the government couldn’t function.

Later this week, Sen. Rob Portman will be in New Hampshire. We’re supposed to believe this trip is no big deal. After all, doesn’t everyone go to New Hampshire?

The current unemployment rate of 7.5 percent means close to 20 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed.

With Father’s Day coming up Sunday, this strikes me as a good time to offer up a tip to all those dads who fear they’ve fallen short on the fathering front.

I would like to thank Lima Memorial Health System for partnering with the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to help promote Bike Helmet Safety Awareness Week by hosting a bike rodeo in May.

Medicare, the health program for seniors, is a vast enterprise. Total spending in 2012 is estimated at $551 billion, accounting for roughly 16 percent of the federal budget. The program currently covers about 50 million beneficiaries and pays more than 4 million claims a day to some 1 million care providers and suppliers. Enrollment and spending are projected to grow rapidly as baby boomers become eligible.

Our thanks goes to Mary Lou and her staff for the many years they have put forth to have the Senior Olympics. I have been in it since 2005, and have enjoyed every year. It is a great feeling to cheer for each person as they participate in each event.

Township not

A hyperbolic haze already is engulfing Ohio’s political landscape, a murky mix of truth, half-truths and lies polluting the perceptions of voters heading into next year’s statewide election.

WASHINGTON — Someday, a young girl will look up into her father’s eyes and ask, “Daddy, what was privacy?”

WASHINGTON — The steamboat conveying Andrew Jackson up the Ohio River toward his tumultuous 1829 inauguration had brooms lashed to its bow, symbolizing Old Hickory’s vow to clean up Washington. But sweeping out Washington’s Augean stables, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, is steady work, so steady it never ends. Neither do the policies that cosset sugar producers.

Over the years, I’ve learned to listen to the voice of a woman in my car. But now there are two voices, and I don’t know who to trust.

The tragic death of noted weather researcher and former Discovery Channel storm chaser Tim Samaras has shaken all of us in the meteorological community. He was one of three people killed in the middle of a chase last week in Oklahoma, but he will always be remembered as a scientist first and storm chaser second — someone who helped improve our knowledge of tornadoes and lightning in order to make our lives safer.

The Lima News

Quality and honesty

Jay Leno told his studio audience the other night that President Barack Obama should forget his plans to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and instead close the IRS.