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image of Lavern Ferrell sitting in a truck

Letter: My grandfather was the first person in Portage County to die of Covid-19. Our family wants more transparency.

What is a nursing home? It’s where the hospitals discharge people for rehabilitation. It is where the frail and elderly live their last days with dignity and comfort. It’s where the most vulnerable with dementia rely on the facility to keep them safe. Families must put their full trust in these facilities to take care of their loved ones and protect them. Nursing homes are navigating a new terrain we have never experienced before this new pandemic of Covid-19 that is tragically taking the lives of our loved ones. This virus is very serious for the elderly population and immuno-compromised patients. We are now seeing it affect healthy younger members of our population, including healthcare workers and physicians.

image of a teal book cover with old photographs stacked at its border. The book is titled The Daughters of Erietown: A Novel by Connie Schultz

One for the Books

Connie Schultz sets her first novel in Northeast Ohio

I long for a book I can wrap myself up in like a blanket. Happily, I found one in The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz. Schultz, of course, is the popular columnist formerly of the Cleveland Plain Dealer who has won a Pulitzer Prize and has written two previous nonfiction books, Life Happens and …And His Lovely Wife (the “his” referring to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown). This is her first novel.

Ravenna Spotlight on History

Ravenna link to Lincoln reduced to rubble

The Horace Young Beebe house was built in 1852 and stood until Monday

Image of a book cover featuring an illustration of soldiers on the left side with guns firing toward the words: "Four dead in Ohio"

One for the Books

In Kent State, an epic rendering of the massacre and its prologue

Reading Derf Backderf’s latest “nonfiction graphic novel” is an immersive experience. Once I started Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, about the shootings at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, I forgot I was reading, following along as tensions became hostilities and erupted in increasing violence. I found myself lost in the book’s power to recreate the conditions of the event, recreate the animosity of government leadership, recreate the feelings of the students.

Head shot of Tom Hardesty, a white man with short hair in a grey golf polo with the caption "Round Two with Tom Hardesty"

Opinion Sports

The hard way on purpose

It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t smooth and it certainly wasn’t anything like we’ve experienced before, but somehow, some way, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is still batting 1.000 on completed sports seasons this school year after whiffing on two of three last year.

Letters to the editor

Letter: Thank you to Ravenna teachers

Thank you to the Ravenna School District teachers for making the hard choices; support staff for doing the hard work; administrative officials for making the hard decisions, and the school board members for representing the hardest hit in our community. As many other districts are now returning to in-person learning, it boggles the mind to realize that we in the RSD have had in-person learning since both before and after the Thanksgiving Covid spike.

Image of the cover of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun: a light yellow hand with a small cartoon sun in it

One for the Books Opinion

One for the Books: With ‘Klara and the Sun,’ a Nobel Laureate is still going strong

Klara and the Sun is the latest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. I found the book emotionally engaging, thought-provoking, and interestingly different. And it’s a good read. Technically a work of science fiction, this is really a tale about the human condition.

Image of two young men sanitizing groceries at a kitchen table

Covid-19 Opinion

Daffodils

In my house in Kent, we were already no strangers to avoidance of germs. I had been diagnosed in 2009 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), essentially cancer of the immune system. My family already knew not to allow friends in the house with so much as a cough and to wash their hands like their mother’s life depended on it.

Opinion Round Two Sports

Round Two: Spring sports bloopers, Tom Hardesty edition

In honor of my first spring sports season with The Portager, I thought this was a good time for some lighter fare. So in that vein, let's take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of the high — make that low — moments of my first year covering spring sports in Portage County for the Record-Courier.

Letters to the editor Opinion Politics

Letter: Protect your rights, HB 22 is a bad bill

Legislators are proposing to amend the law to expand the offense of obstructing justice to include failure to follow a lawful order from a law enforcement officer or diverting a law enforcement officer's attention. There are laws on the books that address those issues; HB 22 is nothing but an overreach aimed at obstructing and silencing the voices of our people.

Letters to the editor Opinion

Letter: Ohioans spoke, the legislature listened

Supporters of public transportation spoke, and the Ohio legislature listened. A new transportation budget investing $8.3 billion over the next 2 years was approved with bipartisan support in both the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate. The bill allocates $70 million in public transit funding.

Opinion

Op-ed: Don’t kill the queen

Bumble bees are among the best pollinators around — even better than honey bees. They can pollinate many different species and genera of flowers, actively pollinating gardens and crops from April through mid-October.

Portage County opened a new emergency command center (see photos)

County auditor and treasurer say tax reform is needed (part 4)

Aurora will demolish some Geauga Lake structures and apply for a state grant

Round Two: Thanks, Mom

Portage County opened a new emergency command center (see photos)

County auditor and treasurer say tax reform is needed (part 4)

Aurora will demolish some Geauga Lake structures and apply for a state grant

Appeals court says Kent can enforce occupancy rules, reversing February decision

Streetsboro approves expansion of Woodside Lake campgrounds

Tree City Feed shuts down after two years under new management

Round Two: Thanks, Mom

Letter to the editor: Supporting farmers’ mental health during harvest

Been There, Done That: The hunt for the perfect workout machine

Portage County obituaries for Oct. 2-3

Portage County obituaries for Sept. 30-Oct.1

Portage County obituaries for Sept. 27-29

Opinion

Letter: My grandfather was the first person in Portage County to die of Covid-19. Our family wants more transparency.

Connie Schultz sets her first novel in Northeast Ohio

Ravenna link to Lincoln reduced to rubble

In Kent State, an epic rendering of the massacre and its prologue

The hard way on purpose

Letter: Thank you to Ravenna teachers

One for the Books: With ‘Klara and the Sun,’ a Nobel Laureate is still going strong

Daffodils

Round Two: Spring sports bloopers, Tom Hardesty edition

Letter: Protect your rights, HB 22 is a bad bill

Letter: Ohioans spoke, the legislature listened

Op-ed: Don’t kill the queen