[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Cheers to Butler native Chris Ithen and his wife Joanna, owners of Ithen Global. The Grove City-based custom screen printing company is working extra innings to help satisfy demand for T-shirts and other apparel celebrating the Chicago Cubs’ World Series victory.

The moment the game’s final out was called — at 12:47 a.m. Thursday, after a seesaw 10-inning contest that included a rain delay — presses at Ithen Global on North Broad Street started humming. They haven’t stopped since, as the company works to produce tens of thousands of shirts celebrating the Cubs’ historic, curse-breaking championship.

The company, founded in 1980 by the Ithens, has found a huge market niche doing “hot market” printing for sports teams in the region.

Those jobs revolve around creating apparel for championship games. That Stanley Cup Championship shirt you got last hockey season, celebrating the Penguins’ win? Ithen’s work.

For Ithen, the World Series was a sure thing — it had contracts with both the Cubs and Cleveland Indians to print championship shirts. Either way, the presses, along with about 20 employees, were geared up for full production early Thursday.

Other companies are involved in the production, and Ithen company isn’t exactly sure how many of the Cubs’ championship shirts it will wind up printing. But demand is expected for 2 million or more shirts.

[naviga:h3]Jeer [/naviga:h3]

This feedback via e-mail from a local independent businessman regarding the editorial “ObamaCare premium hikes should be a campaign issue,” published Wednesday: “I arrived home from work today to two pieces a mail in my box: the Butler Eagle and a letter from Highmark. In the Eagle, I saw your timely discussion of the rate hikes. In my Highmark letter, I received this:”

Attached was a notice that his premium was increasing from its current $1,496.93 a month to $2,248.70 in 2017. That’s an increase of 50 percent. Over a year’s time, the additional cost will be $9,033.

As the owner-proprietor of a moderately successful independent business, he doesn’t qualify for any of the subsidies that take the sting out of rising rates for many customers of the Affordable Care Act. He’s looking at the full price.

“I will be telling Highmark to go fly a kite,” our businessman writes, “and I will purchase a not-as-good policy from UPMC for $1,090/month. However, if UPMC keeps going up 25 percent a year, it will just be a couple years before this lesser policy is just as ridiculously priced.

“And our politicians wonder why there is a growing angst among the middle class.”

[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

It’s painfully obvious that no single remedy exists in the ongoing crisis with drug abuse.

But there are little steps we can take in the right direction, steps that remind and encourage us not to give up hope.

One such step, a medicine drop box, has been put to good use in Jackson Township, officials there say. Township police Chief Terry Seilhamer reports success with the drop box installed last year. Deposits mostly have been over-the-counter or expired prescription medications. It might not seem significant, but consider these facts:

- In a 2011 survey, 14 percent of youth admitted to taking prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them.

- 18 percent of the respondents “felt that prescription drugs were not harmful,” according to the survey, which was administered for the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

- The state says 13 percent of high-school aged children in Pennsylvania have abused opioid pain relievers, 6 percent have used tranquilizers and 12 percent have taken amphetamines like Ritalin.

The drop box program reminds the public that there’s a practical way to get unwanted or expired medications out of the medicine cabinet.

It becomes a frame-of-mind issue when a big problem can be broken down into a series of smaller remedies and responsibilities. Medical drop boxes alone won’t change much. But it does help change our awareness and our attitudes about the drug problem. It’s a small thing that all of us can do.