Editorial

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have been repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to grappling with the highly charged issue of abortion. They did it again in Ohio this month.

Spencer Cox, the new chairman of the National Governors Association, is promoting the idea of “healthy conflict.” The Utah governor has become concerned about the growing problem of toxic arguments in society. As the Washington Post reports, Cox wants people to learn how to “disagree better.”

One of the best things about childhood is getting to go to the library. Oh, sure, public libraries are for adults too — but for kids, they’re often magical. It’s not just all the thousands of books, but the stories within those books that spark the imagination. Getting a first library card is a rite of passage, a step into a wider world, a claiming of one’s own emerging identity.

A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that nearly half of the drinking water in the United States is contaminated with “forever chemicals,” the per- and polyfluoroakyl substances known as PFAS that can cause cancer and other health complications. And Southern California is among a handful of regions nationwide with a higher probability of tap water contaminated with PFAS.

You may have heard that Ohio has an issue on the ballot on Aug. 8.

Using a procedural maneuver, Republican leaders in the Ohio House of Representatives last week stalled a bill to stop electric utilities from forcing Ohio consumers to bail out two costly coal-burning power plants, one of them in Indiana.

It is outrageous that Ohio utility ratepayers continue to subsidize coal-fired plants owned by American Electric Power, Duke Energy, and AES Ohio as part of the bribery conspiracy to bail out FirstEnergy nuclear plants.

State senators don’t seem to be worried about appearances as they sneak into their version of the Ohio budget a provision that specifies the OneOhio Recovery Foundation is not a state entity — and therefore is exempt from complying with public records requests, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Not even the complete freedom from state control that Lorain Schools would gain under the Ohio Senate’s version of the state’s two-year budget is enough to make its approach to education policy worth recommending.

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, news of freedom reached still-enslaved Black people in Galveston,Texas, on June 19, 1865.