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Brenda J. Linert

Act like grownups and solve impasse now

Frustrated parents called the Tribune Chronicle newsroom last week questioning why some local schools didn’t implement rehearsed tornado protocol when a twister touched down in Bazetta and Cortland on Tuesday. Others told my news reporters they saw the tornado barreling through parts of Bazetta minutes before the tornado warning sirens began to blare. I also knew something was wrong in the warning system based on the bewilderment heard in 911 dispatchers’ voices about 10:25 a.m. Tuesday. I sat in my office with my police scanner emitting its usual drone. It caught my ...

Lawmakers could limit Ohio ballot initiatives

An Ohio House Joint Resolution that would make it more difficult for citizen-driven changes to the state’s constitution to become law was introduced last month. It would cut the time frame for collecting signatures by four months; require 60 percent of the vote, rather than 50 percent of the vote, to pass the initiative; and create a new rule stating petition signatures expire after 180 days. Issues frequently appear on Ohio ballots because groups with money and manpower have the wherewithal to collect signatures to test ideas using Ohio as the bellwether for U.S. political policy. ...

Unpredictability of 2019 is a certainty

About this time every year, most of us marvel that another year has come and gone. We reminisce as we try to predict what the new year might bring. Of course, we all know there really is no predicting news, and perhaps that’s why we spend so much time reflecting on those unpredictable big events of 2018. For the last 10 days, the Tribune Chronicle has been doing just that by counting down what we view as the biggest local stories of the year. The top story appears on our front page today — the recent and devastating news that General Motors will end local production of the Chevy ...

‘Heartbeat bill’ teed up for costly fight

Many women don’t know they are pregnant by the time a fetus has a heartbeat that’s detectable to an obstetrician. And by the time that heart is beating — normally around 6 weeks into a pregnancy — it would be illegal in Ohio to terminate that pregnancy, according to the controversial so-called ‘heartbeat bill’ that passed Dec. 14 in the Ohio legislature. Abortion-rights advocates and medical professionals say the quick timeline would make it virtually impossible for most women to have access to abortion in Ohio. Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed the bill Friday, but ...

‘Rose-colored’ can be just the right tint

Sometimes one needs only to look at the big picture through an outsider’s eyes in order to see just how fortunate we really are. Sure, it’s easy to get bogged down in the negativity of life — and school. It sure wouldn’t be the first time I heard complaints from young people in my life (i.e., my sons) about things like “stupid school” or teachers who give “way, way too much homework.” And you can only imagine the comments I was hearing last week from my oldest son, a junior at Youngstown State University, who was enduring ... let’s just call it a “challenging” ...

Illegal parking changes come to Weathersfield

Until 2011, Ohio law dictated that any motorist who parked illegally — say, in front of a fire hydrant, in a handicapped parking space or too far into an intersection — would be held criminally responsible for that violation if it occurred in unincorporated areas of the state, not necessarily in municipalities or home-rule townships. The problem was, because the driver of the vehicle isn’t always necessarily the owner of the vehicle, police often would be forced to try to hunt down the driver who had parked illegally, or stand around waiting for him or her to return to the car in ...