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Letters to the Editor

Residential Electric Bills Just Keep Increasing

Editor, News-Register: I don’t know what changed with the electric company, but my bill seems to go up no matter how careful I am. I’ve switched to LED bulbs, unplugged the coffee maker, and even stopped using the porch light except on holidays. Still, every month, it’s a few dollars higher. If prices keep rising, maybe they could start a “quiet hours” program where everyone agrees not to use electricity at the same time. That ought to make it cheaper somehow — or at least simpler to see what’s going wrong. I know energy costs are complicated, but the only thing I ...

It’s Time for Residents To Simply Get More Radical

Editor, News-Register: Radical isn’t a dirty word, depending on what you are radical for. Are you the kind broadcasting a pathology of hate? The venom of war? Or striving for mutual respect and community care? I’ll say this: only one is worth fighting for. We aren’t angry enough defending those at the margins. Nor organized enough. And guess what? It’s costing us our democracy. The only antidote: Grow a spine. Radical means conviction. That you care unapologetically about an issue. Say it for all to hear. Wear opinions like a badge of honor. The word comes ...

Considering AI’s Rapid Growth: Two Years Later

Editor, News-Register: I’d previously written on this subject in April 2023, when I sent a letter written with the help of an early chat program. Two years later, the technology has moved much faster than most people expected. Since then, the biggest advances have been in how well these systems can handle long projects, understand images and speech, and connect to everyday tools. Programs can now generate documents, charts, or lesson plans with few errors, and can take direction from voice or uploaded files instead of just typed text. By the end of 2026, we’ll likely see AI ...

Showcasing the Best of Ohio County Schools

Editor, News-Register: We had the absolute pleasure of attending a concert recently by the Ohio County Strings at the beautiful Wheeling Park High School Performing Arts Center. Our granddaughter played the viola with her sixth-grade classmates. We were amazed by the huge number of strings performers from sixth grade through high school. Such wonderful talent and commitment to learning the skills needed to play their instruments. We can all be proud of our school system and its wonderful teachers that foster this talent! Thank you to everyone involved in putting on this wonderful ...

President Trump Is the Nation’s ‘Great Divider’

Editor, News-Register: As per usual, the “great divider” of our great nation, President Donald Trump continues to demagogue increasingly that all political violence is generated by left-leaning progressive Democrats when in reality, has been proven to be absolutely not true, based on all irrefutable such evidence. This upon the unfortunate killing of Charlie Kirk, who was the founder of a conservative youth outreach group known as Turning Point U.S.A. Kirk had been a very strong Trump supporter and reportedly advised Trump personally on policy as well as on personal issues, ...

Vote To Support Funding for Your Local Library

Editor, News-Register: The Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County has a renewal levy on the Nov. 4 ballot. There is a group calling itself the Committee for Decent Libraries which is campaigning for the defeat of this levy because it does not approve of some books available to the public, specifically books dealing with transgenderism which are in the young adult and children section of the library. This has been an ongoing issue with this group, which wants all books with which it does not agree, removed. To put this in context, the library has approximately 65,000 items ...