Opinion

Congressional Democrats are heading toward another confrontation with President Bush and this time they're hoping they might finally win one. Don't bet on it. Bush sent to Congress a request for $108 billion to continue fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for this current...  Read Story.

The military government of Myanmar " it's still really Burma " is not as insular, corrupt and oppressive as North Korea but it's a close runner-up. And both governments show a stunning indifference to the welfare of their people. That was glaringly on display in the aftermath of a lethal cyclone that ripped across Myanmar over the...  Read Story.

By Ruth Knestrict Smith Every Mother's Day, newspapers run articles about the plight of motherhood in today's culture. Statistics are given on how much a mother's time is worth in business dollars per year (over $100,00, some say); how, on the average, mothers in today's work environments make less than men in comparable positions; and how the burden of managing...  Read Story.

Viewpoint Motherhood backlash It's not easy for full-time moms to re-enter the workforce By Ruth Knestrict Smith Every Mother's Day, newspapers run articles about the plight of motherhood in today's culture. Statistics are given on how much a mother's...  Read Story.

Portage County's first courthouse and jail was built in Ravenna in 1810 when the county had a small population. After the War of 1812, there was an influx of settlers and the 1820 census showed 10,000 people living in the county. During the next decade,...  Read Story.

Fresh off a convincing win in North Carolina and battling his rival to a virtual draw in Indiana, Barack Obama is about 200 delegates shy of the Democratic presidential nomination, a narrow enough margin to press his claim to the party's nod. Hillary Clinton, who expected to lose North Carolina but clearly fell short of her expectations in Indiana, says...  Read Story.

By David Broder Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON " The endless Democratic presidential campaign has lurched from irrelevance to trivia, triggering a near-universal call to bring it to a halt. The two states that voted on Tuesday " Indiana and North Carolina " are so unimportant to Democratic chances of electing the next president that it is unlikely that Hillary...  Read Story.

By Edwin Feulner The Heritage Foundation "What could possibly go wrong?" That's what members of Congress probably thought when they started shoveling bigger subsidies at ethanol producers. Now, with food riots erupting in some parts of the world, we have our answer: a lot. Other factors " a weak dollar, high energy costs, low crop yields in places such as...  Read Story.

It has been 11 months since investigators found that Lurita Doan, chief of the General Services Administration, violated the Hatch Act's ban on politicking on the job, asking her staff how they could "help our candidates." Last week, the White House finally got around to ousting Ms. Doan from the government's principal agency for awarding rich contracts in goods and...  Read Story.

The Bush administration has been notoriously regulation-averse, preferring to let "the market" work its will, but the sub-prime-mortgage crisis seems to have taught the administration that it can't sit on the sidelines while unhealthy business practices grow out of control. Thus, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke has proposed new regulations for the credit card industry that "are intended to...  Read Story.

By Jay Ambrose Scripps Howard News Service Over here is the real world, and over here is the campaign for president, and the two do not meet. It's not just that Hillary Clinton had imagined herself dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, or that Barack Obama had embraced a pastor convinced AIDS is a government plot. It's that the two are...  Read Story.

By Debb Guziak Record-Courier staff writer Once again, preparations for the Record-Courier's annual graduation supplement are under way. It will be published later this month. As I typed the names of the graduating students, I've noticed a few...  Read Story.

I read Monday's Record-Courier and was shocked to see that a man arrested as a sexual predator of minors was speaking at the anti-war protest in Kent on Sunday, May 4. The community should have been warned that he was in town, but there he was, speaking publicly as an expert for the anti-war movement. Why would anyone trust this...  Read Story. (1 comment)

OK, it's time to put the teacher thing to rest in "Sound Off." I take blame for starting the "pay for what they know." I still believe teachers should get paid for what the kids know. My fifth grade son comes home with homework that sometimes I cannot understand. Granted, there are some good, if not great, teachers out...  Read Story.

For more than a year, President Bush has refused to honor legitimate requests from the Democratic majority in Congress for legal documents that he used to justify ordering the abuse, humiliation and torture of prisoners. The Justice Department finally has agreed to show some papers to members of the House and Senate. Sounds like good news? Not so...  Read Story.

Groundbreaking for the new quarters for its Garfield Institute for Public Leadership marks an important milestone for an important addition to what has become a prestigious program for Hiram College. The Garfield Institute for Public Leadership is one of Hiram's six centers of excellence in the College and accepts only 25 fellows annually in the program, which emphasizes a collaborative...  Read Story.

"Living paycheck to paycheck" is a familiar routine for many, especially as they confront rising prices for food, gas and other necessities with no immediate relief in sight. Given the economy, it's no surprise that payday lenders, who offer short-term loans that enable borrowers to cover their expenses, have become a growth industry in Ohio, where the number of payday...  Read Story.

By Ann Mc Featters Scripps Howard News Service If the election were today, Democrats would sweep local, state and national offices " and John McCain would be the nation's 44th president. Polls are showing a remarkable state of affairs. There is strong alarm about what is going on in Washington, and Republicans get the...  Read Story.

From 1978 to 1987, I served as superintendent of the Waterloo Local Schools. It was a challenging, yet extremely rewarding time in a career of more than 40 years. In the beginning, the citizens were divided on their attitude toward the school...  Read Story. (1 comment)

As I drive around Ravenna, I find that many intersections have tree branches blocking the view of the street signs. In my opinion, the view of the sign should take precedence over tree branches in the interest of safety. Nowhere is it more apparent than heading south on Meridian to the corner of Meridian and...  Read Story.