View From The Pugh

(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - Winter utility bills, ongoing inflation and easing pandemic-related supports are putting pressure on Ohioans' household budgets. Food banks report struggling to meet demand. State lawmakers recently provided $25 million in the year-end spending bill to help address ongoing food hardship. Joree Novotny, director of external affairs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks said her staff saw a significant decline in the number of families with children needing help during the last half of 2021, when households were receiving expanded monthly child tax credit payments. 

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(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - Ohio's child welfare system is increasingly strained by greater numbers of kids with complex mental and behavioral health problems. Social services agencies across the state say they need support and help placing kids in long-term care. Comments from Deanna Nichols-Stika, executive director, Wayne County Children's Services; and Scott Boone, director, Knox County Job and Family Services. Ohio families are experiencing greater mental-health challenges coming out of the pandemic.

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(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - The Environmental Protection Agency has released rules which would for the first time require regular inspections of all methane-emitting oil and gas production sites throughout the country. Groups backing the new rules said they will also pave the way for more jobs in Ohio's the natural gas industry. The rules are an update to standards the Biden administration released last year. Sarah Spence, executive director of the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum, said in addition to cleaner air, the changes could mean more employment in the methane-capture business, particularly in the state's Utica Shale region. 

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(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - Ohio's child-welfare system is plagued by a shortage of mental-health professionals. Experts said having consistent access to therapists, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists could change the trajectory for kids who otherwise would be placed in institutions, increasingly lacking the space for them. Theresa Lampl, CEO of The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Services Providers, said to offset the community consequences of lack of access to care, mental health should be viewed as a persistent health condition, and treated on par with heart health, diabetes or other chronic diseases. She said that requires creating value to attract more people to the profession. 

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(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - Experts believe improving Ohio's overwhelmed foster-care system requires implementing solutions to set families up for success long before a crisis occurs. Dr. Joe Luria, physician and vice president of mental health operations for Cincinnati Children's Hospital, said families who are either frustrated with the health care system or can no longer manage their child's behaviors end up in the emergency room as a last resort. He wants to improve community education on mental health so caregivers can spot early warning signs of distress.

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(PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE) - A labor union representing agricultural workers in Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia says it isn't waiting around for federal immigration reform to continue pushing for undocumented workers' rights. Nearly 200 delegates recently voted to re-elect union President Baldemar Velasquez to a 14th term. Velasquez said the Farm Labor Organizing Committee plans to focus on defending workers employed on some of the state's largest farms who often face wage and working-conditions exploitation. "Laying the groundwork for talks we want to have with some of those big farms," he said, "and with the greenhouse industry in that Norwalk area." According to the Ohio Department of Agriculture, thousands of migrant and seasonal workers enter the state each year to work on farms, in processing plants and at other agriculture-based businesses.  

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Joe Frost, Paul Yanchek and Chris Pugh rank the top five fast food places in Ohio. 

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Canton Repository reporter Charita Goshay talks with Chris Pugh about the current state of U.S. journalism. 

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Joe Frost, Paul Yanchek and Chris Pugh talk about this weekend's snowstorm and all things Christmas. 

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Joe Frost, Paul Yanchek and Chris Pugh draft the top Christmas songs of all time.

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