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Brenda J. Linert

Retiring reporter Raymond Smith’s work ethic hard to replace

After nearly 40 years in the business, writing and journalism is the only line of work reporter Raymond Smith says he really has known. It all started when he wrote for his high school yearbook. It further developed during the five years he served in the U.S. Army. Afterwards, he went on to study communication at Cleveland State University and wrote for his college newspaper. Thereafter, he began writing professionally at the Call & Post in Columbus before joining the Tribune Chronicle staff in early 1993. My friend and longtime co-worker bid our newsroom and his full-time journalism ...

Free-thinking politicians? Crazy, I know

What do U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and Sen. Rob Portman all have in common? If you said each has sufficiently ticked off their respective political parties, you’d be correct. To be clear, each has made members of their parties no less than crazy with preposterous ideas that — brace yourself — involved actual free thinking. Democrats, of course, are furious with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Amid last week’s continued horrible inflation numbers, Manchin made clear that any support of President Biden’s climate, energy and tax package was not coming ...

Government overreach must come to an end

Most Americans probably want less government intrusion in their lives. Many government officials, particularly Republicans, campaign on such freedoms. Why, then, are so many elected leaders suddenly moving in the opposite direction and attempting to gain control of our lives? Let’s start with the hot topic of the day. Americans opposing abortion were thrilled when the U.S. Supreme Court last month issued a landmark decision overruling Roe v. Wade, which had established a nationwide right to abortion in every state. Multiple explanations — many from conservatives — on what ...

Trade bakes support by Browns fans for Carolina

It was big week for sports news. No, not “Steelers-win-another-Super Bowl” big, but still pretty big. Our sad Cleveland Guardians (still known affectionately as the “Tribe” to my husband and me) got swept over four games by the Tigers. The equally struggling Pirates took out their frustrations on the World Series-bound Yankees on Tuesday, albeit, the celebration in Pittsburgh was short lived after the Yankees took revenge 16-0 the very next night, splitting the short, nearly sold-out series. Thursday, in a surprise move during the Russian criminal trial being followed ...

Consumers of news just lost one of the greats

One of my favorite political columns of all time came several years ago from the pen of Creators Syndicate columnist Mark Shields. “After 60 years of hanging around candidates and elections, I have learned that political campaigns do not build character. But campaigns — and especially losing campaigns — do reveal character,” Shields wrote in that column. “Let me give you a couple of examples.” He continued like this: After President George H.W. Bush was denied a second term by the young Democratic governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, Bush left the following handwritten ...

Use good sense when sailing the seven seas

Syndicated columnist Diane Dimond once wrote an entire column about crime on the seven seas. Dimond, whose typical Friday columns deal with crime and punishment, that week, as I recall, was talking about crime on cruise ships. That’s not a topic most of us particularly want to read, especially since cruises are getting popular again now that we are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. The topic is of great interest to me because, if all went as planned, my family and I will be returning to port as you read this week’s column after a what I hope was a lovely time in the ...