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Brenda J. Linert

Musk’s media bans a concern, but no surprise

Elon Musk’s abrupt suspension of several journalists who cover Twitter is just the latest in the coverage of the billionaire’s takeover of the social media platform. Late a week, Musk apparently tossed from his platform reporters with The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and more. Also shut down was the account of a Business Insider columnist who published a series between 2018 and 2021 highlighting what she called dangerous Tesla manufacturing shortcomings. Musk, of course, owns Tesla and also purchased Twitter for about $44 billion a couple of months ...

‘Real stores’ bring many holiday pleasures

My husband and I spent a recent evening strolling the corridors of Eastwood Mall. If I’m being honest, I don’t get to the mall often, mostly because I’m always tight on time. I’m sure that’s what leads many shoppers to open up their laptops, especially this time of year. But, ohhh, the things you miss when you shop from your living room couch! We went to the mall in search of a jacket like the ones I’d seen on sales fliers that showed up in my Sunday newspaper, and he agreed it could be my Christmas gift (Yay, me!) We headed for Boscov’s! Remember that ...

There’s plenty of blame to go around in abortion case

There’s plenty of blame to go around involving the horrific story heavily reported this summer about a pregnant 10-year-old child from Columbus who traveled to Indiana to terminate the pregnancy. Blame, of course, goes to the man who raped and impregnated the girl. The man charged with the crime is a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant. That certainly leads many to blame the president and others who have not sealed sufficiently our nation’s southern border. I suspect some also will blame the girl’s parents, demanding to know how could they have allowed this to happen in the ...

Counting votes slowly doesn’t mean fraud

The Associated Press provides a regular column that its editors call “NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week.” (It’s their way, I suspect, of discrediting “Fake news!” without using that buzzword made famous by our last president.) The AP column is intended to explore untrue stories that spread — usually like lightning — via social media, leaving many who see the posts to believe they are informed and sending off a quick “retweet” or sharing it, further adding to swift spread of misinformation. I, too, see and hear my fair share of ...

Cut holiday stress with a few shortcuts

Holiday travel is so much work. I’m not traveling for Thanksgiving this year, but I know some people who are. In fact, one of our news reporters already jetted off to New England late last week with friends. She’s young. Somehow, she might even enjoy the crowds in airports and strange cities. Not me. I’m much happier staying home and cooking my own bird. I’m not even going home to Johnstown this year. I visited my parents there a couple of weeks ago. And I plan to see them again around Christmas, God willing. So rather than fight traffic and what could be snow-covered ...

Fighting to keep the liberty they’ve known

Halfway around the world on Veterans Day — the day when we honor service men and women who would have given everything to defend this nation’s freedoms — another country’s military remains engaged in a colossal David vs. Goliath war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Friday that his country’s special military units had entered the city of Kherson, a strategically key city in the fight for control of Ukraine. The announcement came a short time after Russia acknowledged it had completed troop withdrawal from the major regional capital Russian forces had ...