Ohio

Cleveland Browns’ dome scandal a symbol of Ohio’s shame | Letters

Published

1 year ago

April 26, 2025

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Cleveland Browns’ dome scandal a symbol of Ohio’s shame | Letters

Letters to the Editor
| Columbus Dispatch

Browns’ dome a symbol of Ohio’s shame

I am ashamed of the Representatives in the Ohio House and the authors of the proposed two-year budget for the state.

I pray the Ohio Senate will vote this budget proposal down and suggest edits that will better protect our freedoms, not micromanage citizens and cost us more to help millionaires build a new domed stadium.

Seriously, when did we lose the capacity to care for one another?

Supporting families and children with a tax on tobacco is much more proactive and fiscally smart than financing bonds to build yet another stadium in Cleveland.

I beg the voters and our “representatives” to make their voices heard.

I do NOT believe this bill should be passed as-is.

Remove the unnecessary language that has nothing to do with a budget (gender-affirming care) and focus our spending on REAL infrastructure improvements (schools instead of prisons, mental health care for ALL) so that we can be a better example of American freedoms.

Alena Fox, Bucyrus

I can’t retire

I’m concerned about our property taxes in Hamilton County.

I’m not a native of Cincinnati; I was born in Portsmouth.

I bought a home in Anderson Township a year after moving to the area and got a great deal. It was the first home I had bought for myself.

My taxes were very low — I believe around $500-$600 every six months, which wasn’t too bad, but I was still working full time.

Over the years, however, taxes have risen very drastically.

I’m now retirement age and my Social Security check isn’t enough to live on. I now have to work part-time just to basically live.

Last year, my taxes rose by $600.

A couple years ago, I appealed, but it didn’t work. The appeals court didn’t pass it. So now I struggle month-to-month just to pay bills and buy food. I still owe some on my house and make a mortgage payment.

It’s getting harder and harder every day.

I feel like I’m just struggling and surviving every day. I want to stay in my residence, but It’s getting harder and harder to pay my property taxes.

I’m 69 and still working. I and other elderly citizens — especially veterans — need help with our property taxes.

I feel like I’ve worked all my life and now I can’t retire.

It’s really a shame, and I know I’m not alone. Others face similar circumstances.

We really want to stay in our homes, but the way things are going, I just wonder how much longer this can continue.

Sherry Fitch, Cincinnati

Who is deranged?

Re “Criticism of Buckeyes shows how bad TDS has become, April 21: Louis Nobile, you are spot on. The OSU Buckeyes handled themselves with an aplomb that would and should make all Ohioans proud.

The president? Well, you called it. Deranged.

Josh Eaton, Columbus

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Ohio

Can you eat Ohio River fish? Just Askin’

Published

6 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Can you eat Ohio River fish? Just Askin’

Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?

In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.

At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.

There were warnings in 1977

But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.

But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.

So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?

The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.

There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.

In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.

Here’s where to check

Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.

Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish

The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.

Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.

Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.

The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.

Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.

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Ohio

UCLA offensive coordinator visits four-star Ohio State commit

Published

18 hours ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

UCLA offensive coordinator visits four-star Ohio State commit

It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.

Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?

Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.

247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.

It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.

Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.

Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.

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Ohio

Ohio rural healthcare access — an advanced solution?

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Ohio rural healthcare access — an advanced solution?

A report from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found that rural residents are 15% more likely to die before the age of 75. Allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to operate more independently could be a solution to allow better access to care.

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