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Applause, Applause!

Columns

Each Saturday, The Express community newspaper highlights people, groups and activities our readers deem worthy of applause. A big THANK YOU to Mike Neff and his friend Carl for helping two damsels in distress last week when we locked ourselves out of our car at Calico Creek in Mill Hall. Thinking Mike would be able to recommend a local locksmith, we placed a call to Mike’s wife Lori, who relayed our situation to her husband. Not only did Mike and Carl drop everything and come to our rescue, but they wouldn’t take a dime for their efforts. Thank you Mike and Carl! You saved ...

Find your purpose, then work your gift

Columns

During the opening week of the fall semester, I had the honor of giving the convocation remarks for The Ohio State University’s Lima campus incoming freshman class. It was a perfect autumn morning, even though I still find northwest Ohio a little nippy during this time of year. The students were engaged, appearing eager to get college underway. I began by telling them to reflect on their key life milestone of graduating from high school as they start the next chapter with their beginning courses and eventually declare a major to prepare for their future careers. I then shifted my ...

Teachers’ desks combine many functions into one piece of useful furniture

Columns

For as long as we have had classrooms, teachers have played many roles in them. This is especially true in the one-room schoolhouses that American students attended from the late 18th century up to, in some areas, the mid-20th century. Teaching in a one-room schoolhouse meant running an entire school, from lighting the stove in the morning to cleaning and closing down the classroom after school. And just like today, the teacher’s day didn’t necessarily end with the school day. The schoolhouse often doubled as a community center, hosting events and performances that the teacher ...

Decades later, betrayal comes to light

Columns

Dear Annie: I’m going through a difficult divorce after 58 years of marriage to an alcoholic. Recently he told me two things I never knew: that he slept with my sister the night before our wedding and, years later, when they were both in the military, with a friend of mine. I always knew my sister flirted with him. She’d tried the same with two other sisters’ boyfriends, and she and my husband spent years publicly claiming to dislike each other while accusing one another of “trying something.” I always thought it was weird but harmless. I never imagined it went that far on ...

Bridging the fresh food gap: Why supporting local farms and neighbors demands urgent action

Columns

If you were to walk through the quiet orchards of Central Pennsylvania this summer, the tangible impact of Mother Nature’s unpredictability would be plain to see. A devastating spring freeze swept across our Commonwealth, severely damaging fruit crops and leaving local farmers facing historic financial losses. As our local agricultural producers fight to recover, a second, human-made crisis has struck our regional food distribution system: a sudden loss of federal Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) funding beginning in early 2025. For the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which ...

The king of debt sticks our kids with the bill

Columns

Trump has made billions since being reelected in November 2024. The underlying transactions are real; what remains disputed is whether they constitute corruption, bribery or merely staggering conflicts of interest. But taking the long view, all of that doesn’t count for much compared to what he’s stealing from future generations of Americans. Yes, Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in income from family cryptocurrency ventures in 2025, even while setting government crypto policy. Included in that bonanza was his $TRUMP meme-coin business: Reuters estimates the project generated ...