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Sponsored Content Letters to the Editor Ross Gallabrese: Living united For many years now, the United Way of Jefferson County has opened its annual campaign with an event that encourages area residents to come together and help the organizations that help others across the community. It's been known by a couple of names — it started as the Day of Caring and has now grown into a Day of Action. Whatever it has been called, it's always held a special place on the organization's calendar. This year was no different. Volunteers, board members and other associated with the United Way and its member agencies gathered on Aug. 27 in Hellenic Hall at the Holy ... Ross Gallabrese: Election battles heat up Now that just about every area school has opened for the academic year, the Jefferson County Fair has wrapped up its 155th run and teams in Ohio are completing the second week of the high school football season, we can expect to see this year's election campaigns really begin to heat up. That's not really unusual. Labor Day, which this year falls on Sept. 7 and comes as late as it can, usually is when politics starts to get really exciting, especially in a year like this, when Ohio will be attracting even more attention than it normally does on the national level. Winning the state is ... Ross Gallabrese: Statewide candidates still showing interest in community Some thoughts ... • While election season has not really started to heat up yet, there still has been plenty of activity around the area. In the past two weeks, we have seen visits from a candidate for governor — Democrat Amy Acton — both of Ohio's candidates for the U.S. Senate — Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown —and one of the candidates for secretary of state — Democrat Allison Russo. That sort of activity shows that candidates and their parties still are interested in our part of the state and what the residents here have to say. When you consider ... Ross Gallabrese: County fairs remain special While there's still a lot of summer left, there are signs all around us that fall is not that far away. We're been seeing back-to-school ads from retailers for some time now, and some students will be returning to the classrooms in a matter of days. Pumpkin-spiced drinks are set to reappear in shops around the country. Dunkin', for instance, has announced that its Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte and other pumpkin-flavored drinks will return to the menu on Wednesday. If that's too early for you, you can wait until Aug 25, when Starbucks has announced its fall-themed lineup will ... Ross Gallabrese: Pedestrians beware It's certainly tough to argue against the health benefits that can come with simply taking a walk. It's equally tough to look at the preliminary statistics for 2025 and not be at least a little concerned about the number of pedestrians who lose their lives each year. According to a report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association in July, there were a projected 6,732 pedestrian fatalities during 2025. Now, there is some good news in that number — it's 7 percent lower when compared to 2024, and the largest annual reduction since pedestrian deaths began falling in ...