Focus needs to be on reducing gun deaths

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Almost every day we read about gun deaths. What’s behind this problem? The National Rifle Association tells us, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”  Let’s go with that. The FBI reports that in 2012, people killed 144 babies, 422 kids age 12 and under, 1327 teenagers, 96 husbands, 498 wives, 140 mothers, 126 fathers, 168 boyfriends, 494 girlfriends, and thousands of others, for a grand total of 12,723 people—with guns.

The numbers will not go down dramatically until we change ...

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APR
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Gun Policy

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How can be be debating torture?

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The U.S. Senate is locking horns with the CIA over records concerning “enhanced interrogation” techniques practiced at Gitmo Bay. Senator Diane Feinstein accuses the CIA of removing from Senate computers documents concerning interrogation practices. The CIA denies any wrong doing.

The Senate had been investigating whether meaningful information was gained through what most of us—but not the CIA and former Vice President Dick Chaney—would consider to be torture. The CIA is adamant it produced valuable information. Others, like Senator John McCain, ...

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APR
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Social Issues

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Why shouldn’t Northwestern players be allowed to unionize?

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It’s finally happened—just what the NCAA has feared for years: a group of athletes went forward with the idea of forming a union. It took the Northwestern Wildcats to make it happen. The National Labor Relations Board in Chicago decided the day before yesterday that Northwestern scholarship football players should be allowed to organize and vote on forming a union.  http://www.laborrelationstoday.com/Northwestern.pdf

To some, this is crazy stuff. Football players forming a union? No way! These are student-athletes. They’ve got no business ...

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28
MAR
1

Social Issues

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If only kids got the same attention as the abortion issue

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I once thought it was just me, but I now see there are others out there who are concerned. Someone I respect very much has confronted the problem.

What’s the issue?  The amount of time and energy we spend in heated, vein popping, face reddening, take-no-prisoners argument about abortion in comparison to the time and effort we spend on child abuse. It’s as if we’re more concerned with the value of a fetus than we are with the life of toddlers ...

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21
MAR
0

Social Issues

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Washington state places moratorium on death penalty

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On February 11, 2014, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee declared a moratorium on the death penalty, citing its unequal application as the reason. It’s an interesting position for him to take when there are only nine inmates on death row in Washington. In comparison, we have 138 inmates on death row in Ohio. While cost is the focus of my drive to end the death penalty, what Governor Inslee has done helps create additional, welcomed  momentum.

Republican leadership opposes the moratorium, ...

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18
MAR
0

Death Penalty

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When it comes to troubled kids, listen to the pros

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Today’s Dispatch carried two articles dealing with kids. The first concerns a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Ohio Department of Youth Services for punishing mentally handicapped juveniles by placing them in seclusion.  One boy was allegedly locked up alone for 21 days straight. If you’re not shocked by those allegations, you should be, and if you don’t understand why isolation is so dangerous, then you should read David Brooks’ piece about solitary confinement being more ...

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14
MAR
0

Education

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Time for a tough talk on fracking’s inevitable danger

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Some weeks back, the news carried reports about a newly discovered by-product of hydraulic fracturing—radioactive waste. While the oil and gas industry vigorously promote the safety of fracking, as it is commonly known, we need to be concerned about several things.

First, the industry has done its best to downplay the dangers. When speaking before the Downtown Kiwanis Club two years ago, Tom Stewart, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, stated that all chemicals used in the process ...

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12
MAR
0

Energy

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Is litigation over bras frivolous? No way!

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For those of you who missed it, Victoria’s Secret and its affiliate, La Senza, have just engaged in combat with Maidenform—okay, they’re actually litigating, but their cause is awfully important—over who has the right to produce—yes, you guessed it—a bra. Not just any bra, mind you.  We’re talking about the “Bombshell ® brassiere” and the “Hello Sugar ® brassiere.” (Yes, it’s difficult not to engage in sophomoric jokes about this.)

You see, Maidenform accused Victoria’s Secret and La Senza of infringing ...

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6
MAR
1

Tort Reform

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Should Gideon extend to civil cases?

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The Gideon case mandated that everyone is entitled to counsel when facing the possibility of incarceration.  If you can’t afford counsel, the court will appoint an attorney for you, but should we be concerned about the indigent having to go it alone in “high-stakes”  civil cases? Here’s my view, published in today’s Dispatch:   http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/02/19/no-one-should-go-to-court-without-counsel.html

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19
FEB
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Social Issues

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Bill that proposes more student expulsion doesn’t solve the problem

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A bill has been proposed that would give Ohio schools authority to expel, for up to 180 days, students who pose an “imminent and severe endangerment to the health and safety” of other students or employees. The Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics thinks H.B. 334 is a bad idea because it’s reactive and does nothing to cure the problems that underlie bad behavior.  The academy has it right.

H.B. 334 as another step down the road of bad ...

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Social Issues

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