Trade bakes support by Browns fans for Carolina

July 10, 2022

It was a 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 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

July 3, 2022

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

June 26, 2022

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 what I hope was a lovely time in the ...

Don’t let ‘cloudy Ohio’ keep you feeling sad

June 19, 2022

As I write this, rays of bright sunshine are screaming through the window in my newsroom office and bouncing off my computer screen, nearly blinding me. It’s days like this that I realize I really shouldn’t have left my sunglasses in the car. The irony, however, is that the topic of this week’s column is about a recent report on the cloudiness of our region. According to a news release I recently received from an outdoor powersports company, Polaris partnered with The Weather Channel television network on a promotional idea that had to do with luring people outside. Good ...

Is history repeating on 50th anniversary of Watergate?

June 12, 2022

I was a pre-schooler when the Watergate scandal broke in 1972. My most vivid memory was my frustration that PBS was broadcasting the Senate Watergate hearings gavel to gavel, preempting Sesame Street. Incredibly, it’s been 50 years since the “White House plumbers” were arrested June 17, 1972, at Watergate’s Democratic National Committee offices. I also (sort-of) recall Aug. 9, 1974, the day Richard Nixon, facing impeachment and almost certain removal from office, resigned his presidency. That situation was unlike the more recent impeachments of Donald Trump and Bill ...

Question and debate, but use care and logic

June 5, 2022

As we all struggle to make sense of an act that simply cannot be made sense of, families late last week began burying their children. America’s latest school shooting, of course, left 21 people — 19 fourth-graders and two teachers — dead and 17 others injured. The man who entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, to open fire on May 24 also eventually was shot and killed by a border patrol agent who finally took matters into his own hands, entered the building and ended the siege. Investigators will continue to probe the situation seeking answers to questions like what ...