Editorial

Nuclear fusion, the combining of the tiniest element, hydrogen atoms, to produce tremendous amounts of clean energy, isn’t far fetched. The sun (like all stars) has been doing it for a few billion years, and humans have achieved fusion reactions for several decades, known as H bombs.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $20 trillion on anti-poverty programs that achieved mixed results.

The state of Ohio should give up, once and for all, trying to have the state Department of Agriculture oversee the permitting of manure discharges from factory farms. It’s too close a relationship, and the federal government — after years of review, agrees.

Greater Ohio Policy Center has conducted a study that shows Ohio is getting older, losing workers and, in fact, losing population in general. Over the past two decades, the state’s population has grown by 3% — but that increase is due largely to growth in Columbus. If you remove the state capital from the numbers, the rest of the state has lost population by approximately 1%.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has been re-elected but with no clear mandate or agenda for leadership in a second term. That said, there’s plenty that needs doing.

Patience in assembling an industrial site, a history of workforce productivity and a global pendulum swing back to manufacturing in America have paid off for Ohio. On the 45th anniversary of Honda’s monumental decision to manufacture in Ohio, the Japanese auto giant was once again at the Statehouse beside an Ohio governor to announce a new factory, this time in Fayette County.

Taxpayers in many Ohio communities are facing truly avoidable payouts and legal fees, all because their elected officials failed to follow the state’s open meeting laws to the letter.

As if to boost the brand of the League of Unrepentant Evildoers, Infowars founder Alex Jones has tried to join the likes of Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and the National Rifle Association in declaring bankruptcy as a way to evade multimillion-dollar court judgments against him. Jones is in the middle of multiple lawsuits over his assertions that small children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, along with their grieving parents, were merely actors in an elaborate hoax.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is still dodging what should be the bare minimum for a gubernatorial candidate: debating his opponent.

Kenneth Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to put a six-month hold on its investigation of the $60 million bribery scandal behind a billion dollar bailout for FirstEnergy.