‘A sense of wonder,” was what NBC News anchor Sheinelle Jones told viewers they should work to keep. She told viewers that it was a challenge for adults to never “lose the sense of wonder.” Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas — The other morning, a friend from Washington, D.C., sent me an exasperated text with a link to the new vaccine passport requirements for our nation’s capital. Read More ⇒

When you’re right, you’re right. And you are definitely right about that quote from Martin Luther King. Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — For 25 years, Mike Plummer was relentlessly honored for his efforts to ensure every platoon of deployed Fort Drum soldiers was “adopted” by the local citizenry until each unit returned home from Belgrade, Baghdad, Bagram or anywhere else bullets and bombs had taken the place of d… Read More ⇒

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE — Eddie Fisher, a terrific singer popular back in the 1950s, came to mind the other day because he crooned, “You gotta have heart, miles and miles and miles of heart,” and I had just read about the first successful heart transplant from a pig to a man. Read More ⇒

NEW YORK — Is the Senate legislative filibuster — the ability of the minority to require 60 votes in order to pass most legislation — on its way out? Read More ⇒

In recent columns, I have mentioned how much I love to receive Christmas cards and greetings from family and friends. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas — On May 2, 2011, Lafayette Square, the park directly across from the White House, was filled with euphoric throngs of young people, celebrating something they thought might never come to pass. Read More ⇒

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — Here’s a striking conundrum: Why, in the world’s essential democracy, do we Americans tolerate such a large gap between what we want and what we actually get? Read More ⇒

DALLAS (Tribune News Service) — Each December, I speculate about what political headlines might emerge in the coming year. Read More ⇒

The last time I shared my thoughts through this column was a few days before Christmas. Read More ⇒

This is probably a minority position, but I feel very confident in saying that 2022 will be a very good year for the economy. Read More ⇒

Across the nation, civic groups, faith leaders and alarmed citizens are staging hundreds of candlelight vigils and marches in support of voting rights and contacting Congress to mark one year since the ransacking of the U.S. Capitol. Read More ⇒

For months, Sen. Joe Manchin’s refusal to sign onto President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better bill has subjected the West Virginia Democrat to substantial flak from party progressives. Read More ⇒

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE — For a quite a while, progressives were calling our country’s painful inflation mild and “transitory,” meaning it would last just a yawn or two and be gone. Read More ⇒

DALLAS (Tribune News Service) — In the pre-Trumpian era, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Paul Gosar would have been treated as right wing curiosities, fringe figures outside the mainstream of the Republican Party. Read More ⇒

NEW YORK — The Democrats should have listened to Joe Manchin. As their Build Back Better agenda assumed legislative shape, the Democratic senator from West Virginia kept telling them what he didn’t like about it. Read More ⇒

My mailing list was updated, stamps for the season purchased and cards obtained (yes, with the word “Joy” across the front!). Before we could begin to write our own cards, we received some. Read More ⇒

Most Americans know the Bill of Rights. But too few Americans know that the way we enjoy those crucial rights today is inextricably linked to the way our Constitution was transformed after the Civil War. Read More ⇒

We live in a time of division and uncertainty. Read More ⇒

People who think that Donald Trump’s influence on the Republican Party has been mostly malign are always looking for signs that it is fading. Read More ⇒

The American Library Association fully supports the right of every parent to control what their child reads and to select alternative reading or instructional materials for their child. Read More ⇒

“You’re for censorship! That’s against the First Amendment!” Read More ⇒

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — This feels familiar. Read More ⇒

The gentleman most of you know as The Clockman or The Gardener could also be described as The Beekeeper. Read More ⇒

Once again, carnage goes to school. Once again, American students are used for target practice. But conservative leaders are on the case. Recognizing the ongoing threat to our children, they know it’s time for decisive action. Read More ⇒

PHILADELPHIA (Tribune News Service) — In 1936, human rights advocates pushed for a boycott of the “Nazi Olympics,” two years after Adolf Hitler seized power and began persecuting Jews. Read More ⇒

NEW YORK — Americans are deeply disappointed in President Joe Biden’s performance on the economy. Almost two-thirds of voters say that the country is on the wrong track, almost half say the economy will worsen next year and, by a 29-point margin, more expect inflation to get worse rather tha… Read More ⇒

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — While 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley was using a semi-automatic pistol to kill four classmates at Michigan’s Oxford High School last week, I was thinking about an entirely different sort of threat to public school students: books with dirty words and un… Read More ⇒

A featured story on the CBS news program Saturday morning caught my attention. Read More ⇒

Why would they do this? Read More ⇒

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE — Maybe in retrospect, a half century from now, as historians look at all the facts, figures and long-term outcomes, we will understand the pandemic crisis, how it got started, what policies worked and whether honesty and science were sometimes set aside. Read More ⇒

NEW YORK — Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, keeps saying that his critics are “really criticizing science because I represent science.” Read More ⇒

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — Kyle Rittenhouse is 18 years old. Read More ⇒

DALLAS (Tribune News Service) — At long last, President Joe Biden has undergone a thorough physical exam, and the detailed White House report ought to end the frequent insinuations from some critics that the nation’s oldest president is not up to the job. Read More ⇒

A fascinating article in Sunday’s Watertown Daily Times described the journey of a World War I diary written on the battlefields of France. Reporter Chris Brock detailed the story of James F. Larney’s diary. Read More ⇒

FORT WORTH, Texas — Late last month, state Rep. Matt Krause wrote to an unknown number of Texas school districts, asking them to provide information about books possibly in their libraries’ possession, specifically those addressing sensitive topics such as race and sex. Read More ⇒

The first feeling is relief. Read More ⇒

If you’re worried about the direction of the nation, the state of the economy or the sharp rise of price inflation, you’re not alone. Read More ⇒

Weeks after a “red wave” slammed New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats are still reeling. To quote Democratic strategist Lanae Erickson, “If House elections had to be held on the day of the Virginia elections, we would have lost 50 seats.” Read More ⇒

The 2022 elections are still a year away, but all signs point to trouble for Democrats. The party seems likely to lose its House majority, and possibly even the Senate. Read More ⇒

NEW YORK — President Joe Biden has taken to saying that the Democrats’ Build Back Better legislation will reduce inflation. Read More ⇒

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It’s Thanksgiving season. Read More ⇒