Spectrum

An African-American father and a black mother explain how they need to warn children about possible violence against them by police or others. This starts at a very young age and continues through young adulthood in a repetitive manner. It’s called “The Talk” and it happens in every black family with children, says Isaiah Simmons, a father, a minister, and a court bailiff. Simmons has a son and a...

Too often we, as a country, focus only on the incidents of violence perpetrated on African Americans by police officers instead of looking at the total picture of racism that perpetuates the criminal justice system from the streets to the courtrooms, says Judge Gayle Williams Byers, of the South Euclid Ohio Municipal Court. Racism goes well beyond what happens in the streets, she says. It truly is...

In 2012, Gayle Williams Byers was elected to become the first black judge for the South Euclid Municipal Court in Northeastern Ohio. She came to the job with a wealth of experience after being a Congressional staffer on Capitol Hill and after spending nearly a decade as an Assistant Prosecutor in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland-area). However, despite her election win, her experience and the honor of b...

Since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police, demonstrations against police violence have traversed the nation. Yet, during these demonstrations, there have been 383 press freedom incidents including some 173 assaults on journalists 78 physical attacks (50 by police) —49 tear gassings —27 pepper sprayings —89 rubber bullet / projectiles injuries and 48 equipment/newsroom dama...

Dr. James R. Gaskell has been a physician for over 50 years specializing in pediatrics. He also is the Health Commission of Athens City and County in Southeastern Ohio. When he took that job 20 years ago, he certainly didn’t expect to be fighting a major pandemic from the bottom up—from the grassroots front lines. He normally does his job in a small Appalachian community and rural county. His majo...

Some Memorial Day crowds seemed large and people were not self-distancing. They were jammed in swimming pools, on crowded boardwalks and watching auto racing. Most without masks. It seems that many want to reopen the economy and break out of isolation regardless of the risks. They are tired of lockdowns and restrictions. However, recent polling still shows the large majority of Americans are fearf...

Colleges and universities and average families are all feeling the financial pinch from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts are dramatic. Dr. Richard Vedder, emeritus distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University, outlines, for the Spectrum Podcast, how these loses will really be felt. He notes that higher education was already under financial distress before the pandemic arrived. Many...

Almost every aspect of government and certainly the legislative and executive branches are addressing multiple aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic from medical protocols and providing medical supplies to economic devastation. Some view the partisan pull about this issue in Washington as a battle between science/medicine and ideologies. However, TIME Washington Correspondent Philip Elliott says that c...

Colleges and universities across the country are trying to anticipate how to handle their students this fall. Will they teach remotely or have students back on campus for in-person instruction? Will there be hybrids of partly remote instruction and partly regular classroom teaching? Several institutions have already made decisions to have students back while others have chosen to teach primarily r...

There are valid arguments for opening the country after the COVID-19 shutdowns. But those actions must be tempered by good medical data and with the safety of people being foremost, says Dr. Todd Fredrick, Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. These decisions to open our businesses and society should be based on good science that...

Local news outlets are being used more than ever by people during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, these local outlets are struggling for financial survival and many are losing the battle. For the past month, major news outlets such as The New York Times, Atlantic, The Hill, Fortune and others have been ringing the death knell of local news media. On April 10, the New York Times reported that 33...

While most of the focus, during this time of crisis, has been on our major metropolitan areas and big-city hospitals, state public health officials and local county health commissioners have been working overtime to make sure we are as safe as possible. State Public Health doctors, like Dr. Amy Acton in Ohio and others have led the way in advising governors and assuring the public of up-to-date in...

In any type of crisis, disaster or peril, trust is the most important element in successful crisis communications to the public. This is according to John Born, who has had more than 30 years of experience in crisis communication. Born served as the director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety for Gov. John Kasich and was on board during the Ebola crisis. He also previously served as colonel a...

While we concentrate on medical pandemic experts and public health officials for prognostications about the Coronavirus pandemic, primary care physicians are often on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19. They frequently go unnoticed by the pundits and the policymakers. They are the “unsung heroes” of this fight, says Dr. Kenneth H. Johnson, the Executive Dean of the Heritage College of O...

When we are in times of crisis, we look to our leaders nationally, statewide and locally to provide us with guidance on how we will make it through the crisis and arrive safely on the other side. At the foundation of what we expect from leadership is honesty and transparency, says Beverly Jones, an author, career consultant and executive coach. Jones has been an attorney, lobbyist, corporate execu...

Health care will be one of the main issues facing Presidential candidates in the 2020 Election, according to Dr. Daniel Skinner, a political scientist and health policy professor at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. People are concerned about issues of health costs, access and health care quality, says Dr. Skinner. They also are extremely concerned that health insura...

Long before the Civil War and the Underground Railroad, “free people of color” were instrumental in settling the Northwest Territory as Americans pushed West after the Revolutionary War. Dr. Anna-Lisa Cox, an award-winning historian on the history of racism and race relations in 19th Century America, has discovered hundreds of Black families who came West, owned land, and were instrumental in tami...

Anne Hazlett is the Senior Advisor for Rural Affairs at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In the year she has been in that post, she has traveled rural America to assess the drug crisis. After meeting with grassroots elements across the country, she is encouraged that progress is being made in the opioid battle. Overdose deaths are down breaking a long-time upward trend. Hazl...

Lisa Friedman, a veteran reporter about climate change and environmental policy, says that covering climate change issues during the Trump administration has been a real challenge. “I often feel like I’m just writing the obituaries for environmental and climate change policies,” she added. Friedman notes that the Trump Administration has spent the bulk of the first three years in office ‘’undoing”...

Three cases are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States that could have significant impacts on the employment rights of LGBT workers. Decisions will be issued before the Court recesses at the end of June. These cases will determine if the 1964 Civil Rights Act prevents employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation and transgender status. Lydia Lavelle, politician and law pr...

We often hear stories about drug addiction and the opioid crisis from physicians, policy makers or people involved with the legal system. However, we rarely hear from people directly impacted by the epidemic. That’s not the case in the book “Not Far from Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio” co-edited by Dr. Daniel Skinner and Dr. Berkeley Franz from the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio...

The Friday killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by an American drone has thrown the Middle East into chaos. Philip Ewing, the former national security editor for National Public Radio (NPR) and currently an election security editor on the NPR Washington Desk, sorts out some of the possible short term and long term consequences of this action. Even after Iranian officials have pledged “reve...

Abdul Williams has had a hot decade of screenwriting for both the big screen and television. Over the past 10 years, he has written a feature film and two award winning series for the Black Entertainment Network (BET). In 2010, his first feature film “Lottery Ticket” was released and in 2017 and 2018 BET released major series – “The New Edition Story” in 2017 and “The Bobby Brown Story” in 2018. B...

Since 2002, Rachel Dissell has been a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. During her 17 years at the newspaper, she has covered trauma and trauma victims and one major tragedy after another. Her career has focused on complex and emotionally draining issues such as the impact of violence on women and children, life-changing environmental topics, corruption and several instances of social injus...

The concept of using foreign correspondents housed in other countries to help inform the American public of the news is a concept that goes back to Colonial days. Yet today, news organizations have drastically cut back on full-time correspondents abroad opting instead for a smaller reporting corps and the use of free-lancers and citizen journalists. So says long-time journalists and authors John M...