One of the telltale signs of a bad meeting is food. If you walk into a conference room and there are donuts or bagels, coffee, juices and soft drinks, you're in for a long meeting. It's even worse when the dimwit who demanded the meeting orders sandwiches around noon. You can kiss productivity goodbye for that entire day.

Today, I ordered – online – a copy of Terence Moore's new book, "My Big Red Machine: The Tales, Drama, And Revelations Of A Fan Turned Journalist Covering Baseball's Greatest Team." Ostensibly, this was – and still is – to be a Christmas present for my 89-year-old father-in-law, Jim Graham. Of course, it is also my plan to quickly read Mr. Moore's book before it is gift-wrapped.

No doubt, I have written this before. I'm sure I've told it before. But around 20 years ago, I started calling Bill Fawley "the fourth commissioner," because so many newly elected commissioners were constantly seeking his advice on certain issues or policies. Needless to say, the "fourth commissioner" – and his institutional knowledge – will be missed by all.

We owe our most sincere thanks to you – everyone who reads and supports our newspaper and our website. Without our readers and advertisers, we could not possibly provide this essential community service. 

Southern Ohio Professor (and retired police chief and criminal investigator) Scott Reinbolt, J.D., was kind enough to share a copy of his 2025 book, "Adrift: A Citizen's Guide to American Policing," this past weekend. At 150 or so pages, it's a relatively quick read, and I enjoyed it. 

I have the feeling that younger generations (damn; I hate writing that, it makes me feel old) prefer social media posts to fair and accurate news reporting. Everyone on social media can present his or hers or "its, they's, them's" (in 2025 moronic parlance) expert reporting via cell phone video, regardless of the facts.

Since it's been a few years since his most-recent call, I had assumed that Ratchethead Ledbottom had passed away and we simply did not receive his obituary. Alas, the old curmudgeon remains upright, and his remains will be a future embalming endeavor (if necessary).

To those – from so-called educators to mainstream media hacks to paid public officials – who have cheered the man's assassination in the last few days, may your sickness soon be healed. It is beyond repulsive, but it is surely not contagious as Charlie Kirk so wisely proved.

To his credit, former President Obama appointed Tom Homan as Immigration and Customs Enforcement's executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations in 2013.  Obama awarded Homan a Presidential Rank Award in 2015 as a Distinguished Executive.  Obama, by the way, not Trump, was dubbed the "deporter-in-chief." Why weren't Democrats crying and protesting then? Hello?

I would suggest that those law enforcement reports submitted to the media ought to include citations for using a cell phone while driving; and it might, perhaps, discourage that all-too-common practice in Ohio and elsewhere.

Regardless of any corporate spin, local service means local service, whether it is in private-sector business, law enforcement, health care, education or anything else. To spin it otherwise, is just the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a disconnected situation with misleading or irrelevant information.

Today, the Chicago Cubs paid tribute to franchise legend Ryne Sandberg, just days after the Hall of Fame infielder died following a battle with cancer.

Many conservatives (and certainly many Republicans, not all of whom are conservatives) have lost trust in the accuracy of news reporting – and with good reason. 

I have said and written for years that former Pittsburgh Pirates superstar (and later former Cincinnati Reds outfielder) Dave Parker (and his former teammate Al Oliver) belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame. After way too many years of waiting for the call, Parker passed away today on June 28 at the age of 74. His special induction ceremony was just weeks away.