Apr 17, 2015 4 min read

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

As politically unpalatable as it may seem, the Obama administration’s decision to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism is an inevitable bow to reality. Cuba remains a repressive, one-party police state, but it no longer exports subversion throughout the hemisphere as it did when the Reagan administration placed it on the list in 1982.

Crossing Cuba off the list should not be deemed a reward but an acknowledgment of the change in behavior. Indeed, changed behavior was cited by the Bush administration in 2006 when it took Libya off the list after it ended a program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Removing Cuba from the list lifts some financial sanctions on the island and thus gives U.S. banks confidence that they aren’t violating U.S. law if they facilitate monetary transactions for their customers. It also helps bring Cuba back into the international financial system, which could help empower the private sector by increasing investment on the island and loans to small businesses.

Congress now has 45 days to act if it wants to reject the removal, but that would obviously meet with President Obama’s veto, even if it could win approval in the Senate, turning it into another unproductive political melodrama. Better to just skip it.

Hillary Clinton announced Sunday that she is making a second run for the presidency.

She did so by way of a feel-good video. The former secretary of state, former two-term U.S. senator from New York and former first lady didn’t mention her resume during her two-minute, 15-second spot; she didn’t even appear in her video until the last 30 seconds or so.

Instead, she enunciated her views through the everyday Americans she featured in her online announcement – people of all ages, races, genders and sexual orientations looking hopefully toward the near future.

Indeed, not only did she soften her image – if only for her announcement video – she also sounded a populist message that almost certainly will resonate with many Americans – that the American Dream belongs not just to “those at the top.”

Of course, one well-made video does not a successful presidential campaign make. And though Clinton is the odds-on-favorite to be the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nominee, there are many months to go before the Democrats’ convention in Philadelphia.

But for now, Clinton has gotten her second presidential campaign off to a good start. We shall see if she can sustain the momentum.

A disturbing pattern at the Statehouse is just how easily Republican majorities in both chambers bend to the will of the gun lobby. Time and again, an expansive view of Second Amendment rights has trampled reasonable objections, even from representatives of police departments and sheriff’s offices.

The latest example is a bill that would do away with permits, training and background checks to carry a concealed weapon. The legislation would allow those 21 and older and not otherwise banned from having a weapon to carry a concealed firearm.

It’s a huge stretch to see common-sense requirements such as background checks and eight hours of training as unconstitutional restrictions of gun rights. Neither the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio nor the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association favors doing away with the requirements.

The logical question, as put by Jennifer Thorne, the executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, is this: “Do we really want to increase the number of people who carry hidden, loaded weapons in the state of Ohio?” Lawmakers should listen to those calling for a balanced approach that gives public safety an appropriately high priority.