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Brenda J. Linert

Series focuses on growing government secrecy

Cheryl Geidner figured council members in Volant, a tiny borough north of Pittsburgh, would adopt a preliminary year-end budget despite no discussions at public meetings on the proposed financials. She never figured they’d raise property taxes by 57%. That’s what The Associated Press ...

Chinese criminal case a trial for press freedom

As Christians around the world prepare today to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, one man will do his worship and preparations alone in an Asian prison cell. That’s where Hong Kong’s famous activist publisher Jimmy Lai is being held — in solitary confinement, no less — facing ...

Pirated obituaries are new low in fake news

Metro Editor Marly Reichert was puzzled by the phone call to our newsroom last week from a person offering a news tip about a local pilot who supposedly died in a military aircraft crash. The caller was adamant that pilot Lt. Col. Scott Julian of Cortland, whose obituary we carried recently, ...

High court must preserve right to jury trial

Sometimes there are rights that are so accepted as part of the fabric of our democracy it’s believed they never will change. No, I’m not discussing the current hot-button controversial abortion rights issue. Rather, I’m speaking about a bedrock constitutional principle that even ...

Openness must start now or pushback will grow

The reaction was swift, strong and divided. I’m speaking of the community’s reaction to Youngstown State University Board of Trustees’ presidential hiring decision, but ironically that statement also could apply to the hiring process itself. Since the board announced its decision to ...

Holiday shopping big part of Turkey Day, even in 1940

Citizens of Orangeville were having troubles, the Nov. 14, 1940, Warren Tribune Chronicle front page stated. It was because of two Thanksgiving Days that year. Although officially a Trumbull County town, the little village, population 500, lay partly in Ohio and partly in Pennsylvania, ...