About 40 mayors across the country are asking the U.S. Census director to push back the deadline of the national count from Aug. 14 to Sept. 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The mayors say that some local resources set aside to help conduct the count now are being directed to protecting c…
Quickly uncovering tricks
My grown son has lived 4,000 miles away from his hometown, doesn’t get back here as often as we both would like and admits to getting homesick occasionally.
A country paralyzed. A booming economy about to crash. Citizens afraid of an enemy they can’t see, hear or smell. The coronavirus has captured the world. Life as we have known it has stopped abruptly.
COVID-19 is forcing cities, townships, villages, school boards and other public bodies to alter the way they do business. Limits on how many people can be in a room, how far apart they must sit and other changes advised by health officials are forcing pubic officials to rethink public meetings.
The onset of the worldwide coronavirus epidemic has changed our lives. We knew about the virus in other countries, but that didn’t alter our daily routines. That all changed just weeks ago, as cases of COVID-19 increased in the U.S. and here in Ohio.
Ignore anonymous letters
Some thoughts and a whole lot of smarmy over COVID-19.
The economic toll from the COVID-19 pandemic is open and obvious all around us: The shuttered restaurants, closed department stores and malls, empty schools and universities and public transit trains and busses pulling up to deserted stops.
Stick to the facts
The past few days have been filled with confusion. Will Ohio residents get a chance to cast their votes in the 2020 primary election?
Until recently, some of us – outside the world of infectious disease research – cheered ourselves into believing the new super-flu COVID-19 was a creation of the 24-hour news cycle.
Rosie and I had a moment last night. I have to admit, it has left me reeling.
Assuming that our country’s latest conflict, the coronavirus, subsides in the next few weeks, my beloved alma mater Kent State University will commemorate the 50th anniversary of May 4, 1970, the most tragic day in its history. It was on that day that members of the ill-prepared Ohio Nationa…
Well, here we are, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. And everyone seems to be freaking out, which is understandable. For those of us with an anxiety disorder, the worry can be crippling. It’s hard not to panic when seemingly everyone around me is panicking. It’s hard to get my mind off …
When Chris Matthews, the gray beard pundit of MSNBC, was hastened into retirement by the network last week, you just knew there was a woman out there waiting to tell the world he once said or did something that made her “uncomfortable.”
There was little doubt that coronavirus would eventually surface in Ohio. The first three confirmed cases in the state involve individuals in their 50s from Cuyahoga County – a married couple returning from a cruise and a man attending a conference in Washington, D.C.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently ruled that wholesale electricity grid operator, PJM, must set a new price floor for bids to supply electric capacity to PJM’s 13-state mid-Atlantic/Midwest region. State utility regulators in the region are unimpressed by the rule and Marylan…
Clarifying park issue
Every week it seems we are reporting stories coming from the Ohio Statehouse on one bill or another that further tinkers with Ohio’s abortion and gun laws, typically restricting abortion services and access to abortion services and expanding access to guns.
The New York Times was then an addictive little feature called “Metropolitan Diary,” a collection of reader-written musings with the big city as the backdrop.
Sometimes, you just need to step back. The political conversations I hear these days are strikingly negative, dominated by what’s amiss in Washington, by the deep divisions in the country, by President Trump’s actions and the aftermath of his impeachment and by the difficult problems we face…
Questions on Beech Brook
Setting record straight
How can Ohio equitably and sufficiently fund public education in all districts – urban, suburban and rural?
Ever since I read my first O. Henry story, I have been hooked on irony and all things ironic. But how do you describe irony?
I recently survived eight days in a place with no TV, no WiFi, no microwave and no furniture except a mattress on the floor and two itty-bitty folding camp stools. Also, I only had two days’ worth of clothes. When I left to retreat back to civilization, I left my son behind, in the barren su…
This is the bicentennial for the city of Solon, and Mayor Edward H. Kraus embraced the spirit of the yearlong celebration during his state of the city address last week by dressing in a hat and cape styled in the era of one of the city founders, Samuel Bull.
The state of Geauga County is strong. That was the conclusion from a group of politicians, business owners, educators and residents who gathered earlier this month to talk about what’s happening in the county. Their views reflected past progress as well as a peek into the future.
Come together on Beech Brook
Last week, I celebrated my 80th birthday, a milestone I’ve been looking forward to for months. Seventy nine is such a blah age. Reaching 80, on the other hand, is generally viewed as an accomplishment. Let’s face it – the 70s are the new 50s but somehow 80 is still considered old and comes w…
I was studying the refrigerated “hummus wall” at my favorite market, looking for the newest flavors among the 87 varieties from 25 mashed chickpea producers, when my cart was t-boned by one of those grocery store scooters.
Site plan needed for Beech Brook
When he was just a young teenage schoolboy, George Washington sat down and copied out 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior.”
What invention of the last 100 years do you still use and appreciate? Think hard because we’re not talking about the big, world-changing stuff like the automobile, television or Google glasses, but the insignificant things we take for granted.
In Chagrin Falls and Pepper Pike, developers and municipal leaders are putting plans on the back burner. We believe it is because residents have voiced their concerns and objections.
History surrounds us. Each of our cities, townships and villages have tales of women and men who worked to settle and grow the communities that today we call home.
Dateline “Chagrin Falls” – It was heartening to see so many people turn out at a village council meeting, last week, to stand as one to save a historical house instead of standing by to witness a bulldozer make rubble of it.
At the time of the American Revolution, the future United States was a small, colonial backwater on the world stage. Yet it somehow produced an array of talented, creative thinkers who forged this republic we still inhabit.
Washington’s warnings
We do love our cell phones. So much so that we cannot seem to put them down while shopping, walking or driving. And although cell phone use can come off as being rude to those around us, it is downright dangerous when we are behind the wheel.
Solon City Council held an emergency meeting on Monday morning to approve a nine-month moratorium on new leases and other development activity at the Uptown Solon Shopping Center.
It’s time to put on the brakes.
Site plan needed before vote
It’s three in the morning and I cannot get to sleep. There seems not enough sheep on the planet to make that happen. My brain thinks it’s three in the afternoon.
Auburn’s zoning in jeopardy
Residents of Pepper Pike over the last few months have been asking a lot of questions about a plan that would create a town center on property being sold by Beech Brook, a behavioral health agency. There has been standing room only in a number of city government meetings. People have freely …
Question: What strikes without warning, throws us into crisis mode then leaves just as suddenly and without explanation? No, it is not an unannounced visit from the IRS or extraterrestrial kidnappers.
Should porches count as part of the square footage of a house? Chagrin Falls Village Council is considering this question in a proposed zoning amendment that is up for a third and final reading on Monday. Often, porches, decks and other outside living spaces are not considered part of the of…
Recently it came to my attention that the office workplace has abandoned the tie and shave everyday look and embraced the casual no shaving style. I thought who am I to fight fashion and joined the men who’ve chosen facial hair club.
