http://www.toledoblade.com The Latest News from Toledoblade.com (v5) Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:14:51 GMT en-us hourly 1 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/06/shirbman-democrats-only-message-is-anti-trump/stories/20260607026 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/06/shirbman-democrats-only-message-is-anti-trump/stories/20260607026#comments Sun, 07 Jun 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/06/shirbman-democrats-only-message-is-anti-trump/stories/20260607026 There’s an old story about a dog-food manufacturer who created a new canine concoction with the best ingredients and infused with the finest nutrients. It was launched into the market with great fanfare. There was only one problem. The dogs didn’t like it. President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One on June 5, at Morristown Airport in Morristown, N.J. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/05/morici-threats-to-america-s-prosperity-begin-in-washington/stories/20260605009 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/05/morici-threats-to-america-s-prosperity-begin-in-washington/stories/20260605009#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:26:18 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/05/morici-threats-to-america-s-prosperity-begin-in-washington/stories/20260605009 THE ECONOMY remains solid. President Donald Trump attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House May 27 in Washington. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/04/lessenberry-public-servant-never-got-around-to-autobiography/stories/20260604017 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/04/lessenberry-public-servant-never-got-around-to-autobiography/stories/20260604017#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:30:09 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/04/lessenberry-public-servant-never-got-around-to-autobiography/stories/20260604017 BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Former Michigan Congressman John Joseph “Joe” Schwarz, who died last week at 88, was one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. He had enough successful high-powered careers for several men, and never really retired. John "Joe" Schwarz, former Michigan senator and physician, talks about his upcoming day after voting at Fremont School in Battle Creek, Mich., Aug. 3, 2004. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/02/hussain-dragnet-abrahams-accords/stories/20260603016 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/02/hussain-dragnet-abrahams-accords/stories/20260603016#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:41:40 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/06/02/hussain-dragnet-abrahams-accords/stories/20260603016 President Trump is on a mission to get every Arab and Muslim country to recognize the state of Israel. Whereas most Arab countries have already recognized Israel, there are some who have made such recognition conditional upon resolving the Palestinian issue. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are among those countries. President Donald Trump looks out the window of his limousine at the construction in Lafayette Park as he departs the White House on May 30. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/shribman-presidents-equivocation-iran-may-bite-him-nov/stories/20260531076 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/shribman-presidents-equivocation-iran-may-bite-him-nov/stories/20260531076#comments Sun, 31 May 2026 02:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/shribman-presidents-equivocation-iran-may-bite-him-nov/stories/20260531076 Reports about a U.S.-Iran peace deal have been served up in recent days as a tasting menu. Instead, it increasingly seems like a palate cleanser. President Donald Trump looks out the window of his limousine at the construction in Lafayette Park as he departs the White House, on May 30. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/walton-stepping-on-lego-special-kind-agony/stories/20260531045 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/walton-stepping-on-lego-special-kind-agony/stories/20260531045#comments Sun, 31 May 2026 02:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/30/walton-stepping-on-lego-special-kind-agony/stories/20260531045 DO YOU have grandchildren? If so, you can feel my distress. Nothing against grandchildren. I love mine with all my heart. But imagine the scene. You’re visiting the kids at their house. It’s the middle of the night. You head to the bathroom in the dark. Suddenly you feel a pain in your foot so severe, so piercing, that it should only be experienced by a condemned man walking to the gallows. Sculp­tures are dis­played dur­ing the open­ing of U.S. art­ist Nathan Sawaya’s ex­hi­bi­tion ‘The Art of the Brick,’ fea­tur­ing works en­tirely made from lego bricks, in Milan, Italy, in 2016. Amer­i­can art­ist Nathan Sawaya has a stand­ing or­der of sev­eral hun­dred thou­sand Lego bricks monthly to cre­ate life-size sculp­tures that have trav­eled the globe. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/27/lessenberry-duggan-dropping-out-of-race-shocks-michigan/stories/20260528019 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/27/lessenberry-duggan-dropping-out-of-race-shocks-michigan/stories/20260528019#comments Thu, 28 May 2026 02:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/27/lessenberry-duggan-dropping-out-of-race-shocks-michigan/stories/20260528019 DETROIT — Michigan politics frequently offer surprises, but there are only two times in the last half century when I have been truly shocked. One was in 1990, when John Engler beat Gov. James Blanchard despite polls showing that just couldn’t happen. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is interviewed, Dec. 3, 2024, in Detroit. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/23/shribman-impact-presidential-truth-bombs/stories/20260524068 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/23/shribman-impact-presidential-truth-bombs/stories/20260524068#comments Sun, 24 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/23/shribman-impact-presidential-truth-bombs/stories/20260524068 Yes, as many of us have wondered, there actually may be something in the water on the American campaign trail or in the White House. Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, left, and former New York Sen. James Buckley chat at a fundraising cocktail party sponsored by the friends of the conservative party, in New York, Jan. 15, 1980. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/21/lessenberry-anti-semitism-on-the-rise-in-michigan/stories/20260521012 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/21/lessenberry-anti-semitism-on-the-rise-in-michigan/stories/20260521012#comments Thu, 21 May 2026 10:31:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/21/lessenberry-anti-semitism-on-the-rise-in-michigan/stories/20260521012 Several years ago, I was sitting at a table one morning at Rosie’s, a classic diner in the old industrial town of Escanaba in the Upper Peninsula. The place was mostly deserted except for some guys on bar stools at the counter. El-Sayed Stevens https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/19/hussain-do-shias-want-annihilate-israel/stories/20260520016 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/19/hussain-do-shias-want-annihilate-israel/stories/20260520016#comments Wed, 20 May 2026 02:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/19/hussain-do-shias-want-annihilate-israel/stories/20260520016 Ever since the ouster of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the king of Iran, in 1979 by a popular religious uprising, the Shia religion and Shia clergy have been the focus of attention by the Western media. A demonstrator holds a poster of the slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strike on Feb. 28, and an Iranian flag during a pro-government gathering at a square in downtown Tehran, Iran on May 19. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/shribman-case-for-conservation-conservatism/stories/20260517035 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/shribman-case-for-conservation-conservatism/stories/20260517035#comments Sun, 17 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/shribman-case-for-conservation-conservatism/stories/20260517035 PARSONS, W.Va. — Under a canopy of red and sugar maple, yellow poplar, and sweet birch trees sits a colorful vernal riot of wildflowers like Canada violet, phlox, and Solomon’s seal — and a case study of a modern collision of two of the hardiest ideological perennials on the political landscape of America: conservation and conservatism. Sprinklers water the North Lawn of the White House on May 16. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/walton-slowest-thing-on-four-wheels-grocery-cart/stories/20260517025 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/walton-slowest-thing-on-four-wheels-grocery-cart/stories/20260517025#comments Sun, 17 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/16/walton-slowest-thing-on-four-wheels-grocery-cart/stories/20260517025 In keeping with a recurring theme of mine — let’s call it “Things You Won’t Read Anywhere Else” — today we dive into the fascinating world of grocery carts. A worker in Port­land, Ore., re­turns shop­ping carts on a day when most cus­tom­ers prob­a­bly left them in close prox­im­ity of the store. But let there be a foot of snow and see what hap­pens, warns col­um­nist Tho­mas Wal­ton. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/14/lessenberry-mich-constitution-revision-trust-the-people/stories/20260514032 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/14/lessenberry-mich-constitution-revision-trust-the-people/stories/20260514032#comments Thu, 14 May 2026 10:38:34 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/14/lessenberry-mich-constitution-revision-trust-the-people/stories/20260514032 DETROIT — Regardless of whatever else happens, there’s one proposal certain to be on the Michigan ballot this November. Voters will be asked if they want to call a convention to write a new state constitution. Virtually the entire establishment is against the idea. In this Oct. 27, 2016 photo, Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, speaks during the launch of the "Big Rig" accountability tour outside the Capitol building in Lansing, Mich. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/shribman-barney-franks-deafening-whisper/stories/20260510060 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/shribman-barney-franks-deafening-whisper/stories/20260510060#comments Sun, 10 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/shribman-barney-franks-deafening-whisper/stories/20260510060 BOSTON — As he lies dying, the man who once snarled from the floor of the House of Representatives — whose rhetorical rockets’ red blare mercilessly exposed the logical flaws in the arguments of his overmatched opponents, whose piercing, pitiless wit stung his rivals, whose caustic asides roiled his political caucus — can barely muster a whisper. Former Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) speaks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. signed the H.R. 8404, Respect For Marriage Act in Washington in 2022. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/calmes-judicial-nominees-fact-challenged-unfit/stories/20260510059 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/calmes-judicial-nominees-fact-challenged-unfit/stories/20260510059#comments Sun, 10 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/09/calmes-judicial-nominees-fact-challenged-unfit/stories/20260510059 Who won the 2020 election? Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington on Oct. 7, 2022. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/morici-tariffs-most-burden-those-on-bottom-economic-rung/stories/20260508011 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/morici-tariffs-most-burden-those-on-bottom-economic-rung/stories/20260508011#comments Fri, 08 May 2026 10:37:38 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/morici-tariffs-most-burden-those-on-bottom-economic-rung/stories/20260508011 PRESIDENT TRUMP’S tariffs aren’t working as advertised. An employee works at a cash register in a grocery store in Schaumburg, Ill., Sept. 18, 2025. https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/hussain-pakistans-moment-sun-revisited/stories/20260509009 https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/hussain-pakistans-moment-sun-revisited/stories/20260509009#comments Sat, 09 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/columnists/2026/05/08/hussain-pakistans-moment-sun-revisited/stories/20260509009 Pakistan has emerged as an unlikely Middle East negotiator facilitating the talks between the United States and Iran. A few years ago, this role would have been unthinkable. Pakistan was going through political instability and near bankruptcy. Somehow the country overcame some of the stigma and put itself on the global stage by facilitating mediation between Iran and the United States. In this photo released by the Pakistan Prime Minister Office, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, fifth left, meets with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, center, in Islamabad, Pakistan on April 25.