Clint Cooper is the Free Press editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, representing the conservative side of the newspaper's opinion section. Previously he worked as a lifestyles reporter, and has been an assistant sports editor and Metro staff writer for the newspaper. Prior to the merger between the Chattanooga Free Press and Chattanooga Times in 1999, he was sports news editor for the Chattanooga Free Press, where he was in charge of the day-to-day content of the section and the section's design. Before becoming sports news editor, he was a staff writer. In the Life section, he is responsible for the content of the weekly religion page but also contributes entertainment stories to the current section; health, home and profile stories for the daily Life pages; and general news articles to the news columns. In the past, he has written on technology and baby boomers for the section. Clint has received honors over the years for his writing and design in both individual work and work as part of a team or section. Among those are several best overall team coverage awards from the Southern League (when he was either lead writer or content/design editor), a best section award by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association (when he was content/design editor) and several first-place awards in the community lifestyles category of the Tennessee Press Association contest (as part of a staff). The Chattanooga native is a cum laude graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a degree in mass communications and did postgraduate work there in secondary education. Clint and his wife of 21 years, Donna, have one son, Patrick, 18. He enjoys acting, reading and running. Contact Clint at 423-757-6497 or ccooper@timesfreepress.com. You may friend him on Facebook.
Contributions by U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-Missouri, to his sister's law firm now have risen to more than $1 million since 2002, according to campaign filings.
by Clint CooperIf an industry cannot detect chinks in its armor, its days may be numbered.
by Clint CooperThe U.S. House impeachment hearings are proving that nearly four and a half years after Donald J. Trump came down a golden escalator at his New York City Trump Tower to announce his presidential run, Democrats still don't understand why the electorate rallied around and then elected the brash businessman.
by Clint CooperA law passed with the best of intentions earlier this year by the Tennessee General Assembly has come back to bite the public school officials it was intended to help.
by Clint CooperIn the early days of summer a little more than seven months from now, the United States Supreme Court is likely to make a legally correct but politically troublesome decision. Chances are the court will say the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an administrative amnesty former President Barack Obama repeatedly said he couldn't implement but did anyway, is against the law.
by Clint CooperThe stereotypical historical view of any plan coming out of a chamber of commerce is a business-heavy, top-down, our-way-is-best blueprint.
by Clint CooperThe campaign of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who is floundering in the polls and laying off campaign staff in New Hampshire and South Carolina while narrowing his focus to Iowa and Nevada, decided perhaps the race card is what it needed.
by Clint CooperOne week from today a group of Hamilton County Schools teachers will hold a town hall gathering on teacher pay and public education funding.
by Clint CooperAn August raid of 680 illegal immigrants at seven poultry processing plants across Mississippi brought the usual caterwauling in support of a group of people who, at a minimum broke the law in being in the United States.
by Clint CooperDEMS, DON'T TRUST THE POLLS: Since political polls can be made to say whatever you want them to, we put little stock in them these days. Perhaps Democrats should too. Only three of the last seven Democratic presidential nominees were ahead in national polls in November or December before the primary contests began.
by Clint CooperNine months after Kansas City became one of the last major cities in the United States to name a street after civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to remove the name.
by Clint CooperOne minute a member of the World Series champion Washington Nationals. The next minute the most hated man in America.
by Clint CooperFrom late August through early October, before President Donald Trump's call with the Ukrainian president became public, the message from leftist pundits was: "The recession is coming, the recession is coming."
by Clint CooperDemocratic presidential candidate Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke wants America to go way beyond a woman's right to choose.
by Clint CooperForty years ago tomorrow, militant Islamists seized the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, and began the start of what President Donald Trump has categorized generally as "endless wars."
by Clint CooperThe Chattanooga City Council pulled hard on the reins of proposed steep slope development legislation in its strategic planning meeting Tuesday, and we think that's a wise choice.
by Clint CooperWe said recently House Democrats wouldn't be able to help themselves, and they proved it Thursday by approving an impeachment process for President Donald Trump.
by Clint CooperOne look at Chattanooga's 2019 Community Survey might provide the impetus for a winning campaign for a candidate in the city's mayoral race slightly more than 16 months from now.
by Clint CooperTennessee state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, recently suggested in an opinion piece in the national conservative website The Patriot Post that the political left is at least somewhat to blame for rising rates of youth suicide and mental health problems among younger working Americans.
by Clint CooperThe 2016 Democratic nominee has put forth yet another reason she might have lost the previous election to President Donald Trump.
by Clint Cooper