Editorials

No winners arise when you sift through the mess uncovered during the recent trials involving the Allen Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Seven years after Goldman Sachs bought a hunk of China’s Shuanghui International Holdings, the meat-processing giant has returned the favor by offering to acquire America’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods. If the deal survives the scrutiny of Smithfield’s shareholders and the U.S. Treasury Department, the $4.72 billion deal would be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm.

Motorists have been warned. Now it’s time to pay attention.

The Lima News

Circling the wagons, to pick a popular Washington cliché, only helps if you’re inside the circle.

An old cartoon showed a building with a sign over the entrance: “Department of Redundancy Department.” There are many things it makes sense for the federal government to do. The trouble arises when those in charge decide that anything worth doing is worth duplicating.

Akron Beacon Journal

By the end of a recent Senate hearing, committee members had hurled plenty of praise at Apple, sharing testimonials about their favorite i-products. They almost seemed to forget why the witness, Timothy Cook, the company’s chief executive, was sitting before them. Apple rates, as Sen. John McCain put it in anticipation of the hearing, “among America’s largest tax avoiders.”

An immigration bill passed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week, a first step toward revamping the nation’s immigration laws. Three Republicans joined 10 Democrats to move the legislation to the full Senate. The vote reflects a willingness that is becoming rare in Congress to make compromises on major policy issues.

When a U.S. military commander suggests medical facilities at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have to be upgraded to care for aging terrorism detainees, it’s a clear sign that President Barack Obama needs to redouble efforts to deliver on his 2008 campaign pledge to close the embarrassing facility.

State Sen. Shannon Jones has the right idea when it comes to the Ohio Open Meetings Act. The Springboro Republican has introduced a bill in the state Senate that would open more meetings among public officials to public scrutiny. She believes that it is better to err on the side of keeping citizens fully informed.

Republicans in charge of the state legislature frequently point to the federal government in explaining their opposition to expanding Medicaid. They may share Gov. John Kasich’s view about aiding the working poor and those suffering from mental illness. They just don’t trust the feds to hold up their end of the bargain, a commitment to pick up 100 percent of the cost at the start and then 90 percent for the duration.

As good news goes, this would have to do: First thing Tuesday, the medical examiner in Moore, Okla., announced that the death toll had gone down overnight.

The Lima News

• Featured

Three things in a two-week span this month tell you plenty about the way U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan approaches his job in Congress.

Baltimore Sun

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Akron Beacon Journal

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The news that sexual assaults in the armed forces last year were estimated to be up 35% over 2010 brought a swift response from President Obama — that he had “no tolerance” for sexual crimes in the ranks and that perpetrators would be prosecuted and punished.

Bigger isn’t always better, as the Ohio Northern University College of Law will attest.

Administrators at Elida Local Schools are running out of tricks when it comes to offering a quality educational experience on minimal funding.

• Lima, Bluffton schools: Voters in Lima and Bluffton aren’t being asked for new money to fund school operations, only to continue to pay the same amount in the future that they are paying now.

At his news conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a powerful plea for ending the humanitarian and diplomatic disaster created by the continued detention of more than 160 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, more than 100 of whom are engaged in a hunger strike that necessitated the dispatch of an emergency medical team. The problem is that Obama has contributed to the crisis by acquiescing in congressional obstruction of his promise to close the facility. We hope he is serious when he says he will now “re-engage with Congress that this is not in the best interest of the American people.”

The Lima News

Seven years after Goldman Sachs bought a hunk of China’s Shuanghui International Holdings, the meat-processing giant has returned the favor by offering to acquire America’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods. If the deal survives the scrutiny of Smithfield’s shareholders and the U.S. Treasury Department, the $4.72 billion deal would be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm.

Motorists have been warned. Now it’s time to pay attention.

The Lima News

Circling the wagons, to pick a popular Washington cliché, only helps if you’re inside the circle.

An old cartoon showed a building with a sign over the entrance: “Department of Redundancy Department.” There are many things it makes sense for the federal government to do. The trouble arises when those in charge decide that anything worth doing is worth duplicating.

Akron Beacon Journal

By the end of a recent Senate hearing, committee members had hurled plenty of praise at Apple, sharing testimonials about their favorite i-products. They almost seemed to forget why the witness, Timothy Cook, the company’s chief executive, was sitting before them. Apple rates, as Sen. John McCain put it in anticipation of the hearing, “among America’s largest tax avoiders.”

An immigration bill passed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week, a first step toward revamping the nation’s immigration laws. Three Republicans joined 10 Democrats to move the legislation to the full Senate. The vote reflects a willingness that is becoming rare in Congress to make compromises on major policy issues.

When a U.S. military commander suggests medical facilities at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have to be upgraded to care for aging terrorism detainees, it’s a clear sign that President Barack Obama needs to redouble efforts to deliver on his 2008 campaign pledge to close the embarrassing facility.

State Sen. Shannon Jones has the right idea when it comes to the Ohio Open Meetings Act. The Springboro Republican has introduced a bill in the state Senate that would open more meetings among public officials to public scrutiny. She believes that it is better to err on the side of keeping citizens fully informed.

Republicans in charge of the state legislature frequently point to the federal government in explaining their opposition to expanding Medicaid. They may share Gov. John Kasich’s view about aiding the working poor and those suffering from mental illness. They just don’t trust the feds to hold up their end of the bargain, a commitment to pick up 100 percent of the cost at the start and then 90 percent for the duration.

As good news goes, this would have to do: First thing Tuesday, the medical examiner in Moore, Okla., announced that the death toll had gone down overnight.

The Lima News

• Featured

Three things in a two-week span this month tell you plenty about the way U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan approaches his job in Congress.

Baltimore Sun

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Akron Beacon Journal

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The news that sexual assaults in the armed forces last year were estimated to be up 35% over 2010 brought a swift response from President Obama — that he had “no tolerance” for sexual crimes in the ranks and that perpetrators would be prosecuted and punished.

Bigger isn’t always better, as the Ohio Northern University College of Law will attest.

Administrators at Elida Local Schools are running out of tricks when it comes to offering a quality educational experience on minimal funding.

• Lima, Bluffton schools: Voters in Lima and Bluffton aren’t being asked for new money to fund school operations, only to continue to pay the same amount in the future that they are paying now.

At his news conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a powerful plea for ending the humanitarian and diplomatic disaster created by the continued detention of more than 160 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, more than 100 of whom are engaged in a hunger strike that necessitated the dispatch of an emergency medical team. The problem is that Obama has contributed to the crisis by acquiescing in congressional obstruction of his promise to close the facility. We hope he is serious when he says he will now “re-engage with Congress that this is not in the best interest of the American people.”

The Lima News