EDITORIALS
The Lima News editorial policy is independent of political party affiliation. Opinions expressed in the Our View column reflect the view of The Lima News editorial board. Opinions elsewhere on this page are solely those of the writers.
The editorial board includes Doug Olsson, Publisher (dolsson@aimmediamidwest.com, 567-242-0371); Jim Krumel, Editor (aimmediamidwest.com, 567-242-0391); and David Trinko, Managing Editor (aimmediamidwest.com, 567-242-0467).
Editorial: Trump helps kids, but immigration reform still needed
President Donald Trump did the right thing Wednesday by reversing course to address an immigration crisis. He issued an executive order to end his administration’s inhumane practice of separating children from their parents at the southern border. Nearly 2,000...
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Chicago Tribune: Americans must do something about ‘deaths of despair’
“Deaths of despair” sound like something that would be found in miserable, wretched places — refugee camps, war-torn cities, famine-wracked villages in poverty-stricken countries. In fact, the term has emerged to describe a crisis in one of the most...
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Editorial: Supreme Court gets it right on voter purge
Inactive voters in Ohio receive plenty of warning to “use it or lose it,” the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 5-4 decision that has drawn plenty of criticism nationwide. Count us among the few praising this ruling. The high court avoided...
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Editorial: Officers deserve kudos following large drug raid
The officers didn’t care which agency got credit. They didn’t concern themselves with whose idea or plan it was. All they cared about was getting cocaine and crack cocaine off Lima’s streets. For that, we’re grateful. Officers at the federal,...
read moreEditorial: The kids are all right
A recent survey that shows fewer teens are drinking and using drugs is good news for the future. It’s hard to say whether the drop in the number of teens using drugs — as well as alcohol and cigarettes — is directly related to the sharp increase in...
read moreEditorial: Trump understands optics better than anyone
No details, no timetable, no verification, no mention of human rights, too many concessions, too little in return. If you’re keeping score, it’s easy to record a bunch of L’s for President Donald Trump and a run of W’s for North Korean dictator...
read moreOhio’s medical marijuana program woefully off track
Ohio legislators acted with breakneck speed early in 2016 to craft and enact a detailed program to legalize medical marijuana in the Buckeye State. After voters overwhelmingly defeated a misguided and monopolistic plan to legalize medical and recreational marijuana at...
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Toledo Blade: Trump’s G7 dust-up was overdue
Anyone who was expecting yet another cheery, cheesy G7 leaders group photo from the latest summit of the world’s most important industrialized economies was fooling themselves. The photo of President Donald Trump, arms crossed tightly across his chest while...
read moreEditorial: The lethal threat stalking Trump and Kim
By the 1950s, just years after U.S. B-29s dropped the first atomic bombs, Americans prepared for nuclear war. They built underground shelters and stocked them with supplies. Children at school practiced duck-and-cover drills. In some cities, schools issued dog tags to...
read moreEditorial: When a foolish tariff hits close to home
Tariffs like those the Trump administration is imposing on imports invite trade wars — in this case, foolishly, with U.S. allies and neighbors. Thursday’s rollout of new tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico have us...
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Editorial: Scary to think what Elida school could have faced
“He’s just talking big.” “Showing off.” “Acting tough.” It would have been easy for four Elida High School students to think that way when Tristan Ascura told them he was going to “shoot up” the school when classes...
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Editorial: Lima Mall facing challenges in rapidly evolving retail world
We all knew the closing of the Sears store at the Lima Mall was coming. Walk inside it during the week and you would find more clerks than customers … and there weren’t a lot of clerks. Still, it hurts to face the reality that come September, the once...
read moreEditorial: Up in the air, this athlete is down to earth
Which professional athlete would turn down a free first-class seat, preferring to stay in coach? Which professional athlete would be flying out of Miami not after a night of hard partying on South Beach, but rather making a connection from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after...
read moreEditorial: Up in the air, this athlete is down to earth
Which professional athlete would turn down a free first-class seat, preferring to stay in coach? Which professional athlete would be flying out of Miami not after a night of hard partying on South Beach, but rather making a connection from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after...
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Seattle Times: Congress should hold opioid manufacturers accountable in the drug epidemic
State officials across the country are stepping up to show the leadership that Congress has failed to muster to urge that opioid manufacturers be held accountable for the devastation of the national drug epidemic. Attorneys general from 36 states including Washington,...
read moreCommentary: Trump just poured ice water on the economy in service of his trade war
Macroeconomic Advisers, a research firm focused on the U.S. economy, reported Wednesday that the U.S. trade deficit in goods was “much narrower than expected,” implying “substantially more” U.S. exports in the second quarter. So it revised its...
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Chicago Tribune: The challenges of trying to kill a new superbug
Scientists and political leaders have warned for years of the looming health peril posed by so-called superbugs — bacteria that have gained resistance to current antibiotics. Researchers across the globe are locked in an international arms race to find new, more...
read moreEditorial: The NFL kneels before the altar of profits
The owners of the 32 National Football League teams sent a wrongheaded and, frankly, un-American message to their players Wednesday: Expressing your opinion during the national anthem is no longer permitted. “A club will be fined by the League if its personnel...
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Bloomberg News: How to get to talks with North Korea
President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is, in itself, no cause for regret. Going ahead with a meeting that had little chance of success would have been a mistake, compounding errors the administration has...
read moreEditorial: Make it easier for military veterans to see private-sector health care providers
Opponents of a measure to make it easier for military veterans to see private-sector health care providers instead of relying on the Department of Veterans Affairs have one big complaint: Doing that could lead to privatizing the VA, they complain. Horrors! Take...
read moreCOLUMNS
Ken Pollitz: Just your typical family vacation
Having grown up outside Chicago, the annual family summer vacation was a trek up north to a rustic and quaint cottage in the middle of some Wisconsin woodlands positioned on a modest lake, secluded and small enough for one’s voice to carry from shore to shore....
Christine M. Flowers: People think they know what I believe because I’m a conservative columnist. They’re wrong
PHILADELPHIA — Earlier this week, a producer from a local television station called to inquire if I would like to come on and defend the separation of parents and children at the border. I politely replied, “No, thank you.” I couldn’t figure...
Lori Borgman: Bless your hearts, and bless our fast feet
We have returned home from a short trip to Savannah, Georgia, and would like to confess. Our crime? Walking fast. I blame Southern Living magazine. We booked a vacation apartment in a building more than 100 years old in the historic district. It had 12-foot ceilings,...
Cal Thomas: The politics behind separation anxiety
Need proof that the current controversy over children of undocumented immigrants is more political than humanitarian? Hillary Clinton said she was “adamantly against illegal immigrants” and supported a border wall until she ran for president in 2016. In...
George Will: Can Bill Weld restore conservatism?
WASHINGTON — “This,” exclaimed Margaret Thatcher, thumping Friedrich Hayek’s 500-page tome “The Constitution of Liberty” on a table in front of some Conservative Party colleagues, “is what we believe.” It also is what...
Joe Blundo: Backpack project wants to help teachers
Melanie Huber has stories that could melt the coldest heart. She teaches special-needs children at Cedarwood Elementary School on the South Side of Columbus. Most of her students come from low-income homes. One child arrived at school without shoes because it was his...
Brian Dickerson: Woke and dangerous: Why we mustn’t let 16-year-olds vote
If you don’t understand why letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote is a terrible idea, I suggest you ask a qualified expert to remind you how badly things have gone in the past whenever America gave some previously disenfranchised group of citizens a seat at the...
John Grindrod: The epiphany that was the Fuggerei
Certainly for me, one of the reasons I’ll venture forth to trod on foreign soil is to combine pleasure seeking with information gathering. On my recent trip to Germany, one experience in the ancient Bavarian city of Augsburg, which traces its roots back to...
Kathleen Parker: Inhumanity rules the border
WASHINGTON — Put yourself in the room with immigration officials and try to imagine exactly which argument would convince you that separating children from their migrating parents would be a good idea. Would it work for you because you’re a stickler for...
John M. Crisp: Trump winning at home, winning on the road
Whatever you think of comedian Bill Maher, you have to credit him for his apt description of the Donald Trump presidency: Maher, along with others, is calling it a slow-motion coup. A coup that, as he asserted several weeks ago, Donald Trump is winning. On his home...
LETTERS
We welcome letters of 275 words or fewer. Letters are subject to editing for length, clarity and grammar. They should be concise, to the point and original — no form letters, please. Letters dealing with private disputes or containing criticism of private individuals or businesses are not published. Letters must have a signature (unless emailed) and a full name, address and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes only). Writers are limited to one letter a month. Letters may be published on our website. MAIL LETTERS TO: The Lima News Letters Column 3515 Elida Road Lima, OH 45807 E-MAIL LETTERS TO: letters@limanews.com ONLINE FORM: Click here to send a letter to the editor online.Letter: Policy was inhumane
I am responding to the editorial by Kathleen Parker that appeared in The Lima News on Tuesday, June 19th. In her editorial, Ms. Parker referred to the current immigration policy on our southwest border as suffering from an “inherent lack of empathy” and a...
Letter: What great care looks like
We want to offer a tip of the hat and much kudos to the following: • The 911 dispatcher who guided my wife through the request process and stayed with her until confirmation that the ambulance was on the way. • The Shawnee Fire Department Ambulance service...
Letter: Easy fix will save lives and money from colorectal cancer
Colonoscopies are proven to prevent colorectal cancer and save lives, but any added costs can be a deterrent from getting screened. Skipping recommended screenings could mean a patient receives a later-stage colorectal cancer diagnosis that can be more expensive to...
Letter: Golf outing was an ace
The Equestrian Therapy Program would like to offer mega thanks to Terry Dunn, Jamie Zerbe and The Sugar Street Bar and Grille for sponsoring the third annual golf outing, “Par for the Horse.” The staff at beautiful Hidden Creek Golf Course were wonderful...
Letter: No more plea deals
I among many of my peers would like to pose to the judge of Allen County Common Pleas Court and to the prosecutors who work within the legal system of Allen County a question: Why is it that every single time there is a high or even medium profile case going on in our...
Leter: Tell me hiring won’t be rigged
Treasurer, auditor … not even sure which job is actually open. I am, however, quite confident that King Keith has the name (hmmm!) already chosen and ready to serve. But let’s have interviews to make it look somewhat democratic! And to think,my wife...
Letter: How in America could that happen?
In the 1700’s, people were brought to this country in chains and forced to work for free labor and we look back and wonder how that could have happened in America. In the 1800’s, Native Americans were forced off their land and placed on reservations and we...
Letter: Children’s Developmental Center appreciates $10,000 donation
The Children’s Developmental Center, a United Way Agency located within Lima Memorial Health System, would like to express its gratitude for the generous donation of $10,000 from Ohio Elks Lodge No. 54. The Cerebral Palsy Fund Board has been a wonderful...
Letter: LPD officer’s actions appropriate
After reading various accounts and comments about the recent arrest at the St. Gerard Festival, The FOP, Lima Lodge 21, would like to add a few comments. The ORC291.33 (A) states: “No person, recklessly, or by force shall resist, or interfere with the lawful arrest of...
Letter: A ‘shout out’ for LMH staff
I want to give a big”shout out” to Lima Memorial Hospital nurses on the 2nd floor and hospice nurse’s and a wonderful thank you to Dr. Sandy. My mother, Ethel Argyle Gross, was there for nine days. They all did a great job taking care of her. We were...
