Since its founding as a missionary colony 380 years ago, this city has had many standout figures. But perhaps the greatest contemporary hero in Montreal is known for what he didn’t do. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif didn’t play football in 2020.
I grew up with four sisters, so I definitely didn’t need another watchdog following me around from the time I started eighth grade until I graduated from high school.
Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court more than four years ago, on Oct. 6, 2018. His oath followed perhaps the ugliest Supreme Court Senate confirmation process in history — and that, given the previous examples of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, is saying something…
I grew up with four sisters, so I definitely didn’t need another watchdog following me around from the time I started eighth grade until I graduated from high school.
Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court more than four years ago, on Oct. 6, 2018. His oath followed perhaps the ugliest Supreme Court Senate confirmation process in history — and that, given the previous examples of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, is saying something…
My grandfather was a blacksmith. To supply his shop with the metal, wood and other materials he needed to operate, he attended auctions. Auctions that sold all types of items.
Mass shootings turn heads and capture media headlines, but in truth they represent less than one percent of all shootings in America. Despite increasing recognition that firearm violence is an epidemic, we fail to acknowledge the disproportionate contribution of single-victim firearm injurie…
Editor’s Note: Dawn Dillard turned over her column this week to daughter Fancy Pettit, who compiled family memories of Dawn’s mom, the late Kelly Walsh.
In 2007, Bill Bradley (a former basketball star, a Rhodes Scholar, a former Senator and a Democratic candidate for president) issued a book entitled The New American Story. It is a book dealing with questions such as “Why are we still addicted to oil? Why do 47 million Americans lack health …
What I often consider a homely vegetable actually has its roots in South America. The potato was discovered at the same time the Spanish Conquistadors discovered gold. The potato later built a nation and then caused a tremendous disruption to that same country with the arrival of a single fu…
Did you know that one cup of cooked beans contains about 230 calories and one cup will provide over one-third of your daily protein needs? According to the “The Bean Cookbook” by the Northarvest Bean Growers Association, beans are high in soluble fiber, which helps your heart health and dige…
The use of DNA to arrest Bryan Kohberger for the murder of four college students in Idaho reminds me that it’s time to bring the death penalty back in a big way.
Are you retired? Get monthly Social Security checks? Have Medicare or Medicaid? Make minimum wage?
A few minutes into following my colleagues’ coverage of a mass shooting that left 10 dead and 10 wounded during a Lunar New Year dance party, I started to wonder if years of being a journalist had compromised my humanity.
For the Texas House and Senate, there is not much daylight between each chamber’s priorities in this year’s legislative session. Leaders say the focus will be on property tax relief, border security and employee raises. Preliminary budgets from both chambers were released last week, the Aust…
Western allies are finally realizing the Ukraine war won’t end until Vladimir Putin’s dreams of conquest are decisively defeated on the battlefield.
I have no particular reason to defend Alec Baldwin, but there’s something unsettling about the manslaughter charges announced this week in the wake of last year’s tragic shooting on the set of the movie “Rust.” The controversial actor was holding a prop gun that he thought was filled with bl…
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema showed up in Davos this week, where she celebrated her recently declared independence from partisanship. The most pressing problem in U.S. politics, the former Democrat from Arizona told the World Economic Forum, was “a deeply broken two-party system.”
Joe Biden’s political life always has played out against one soundtrack; it came in 12/8 time and was written by Phil Spector, an inspiration that came from his father’s tombstone. It went this way:
I slept a little later than usual on Thursday, so my routine was off and the short drive to the gym was interrupted several times by a school bus picking up kids along my usual route.
My mom and her mother saved 7 1/2 books to get us that swing set. Just three years before in 1966, my parents had saved to buy their first house. Money was tight, so, if my sister and I were going to have that new addition to the backyard, Green Stamps would be the key.
This column has written previously about the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. When confronted with more than 2 million illegal border-crossers overwhelming U.S. authorities on the border last year — and 250,000 mo…
More than 150,000 tech workers lost their jobs in 2022, according to one estimate, and an additional 23,000 have been laid off since the start of 2023.
Part of our family just returned from a 5-day trip to Brighton, Utah. If you have ever wanted to go with your family on a “winter wonderland” trip, Brighton is the place to go. To date, Brighton has gotten 405 inches of snow this season. Not a misprint; 405 inches of snow.
We need to go back to the dawn of human history to get some idea of the nature of evil and sin. It is an ancient story. It is part of our history. All humans have roots back in this ancient time. When evil came into human history, it brought division, destruction, dissatisfaction, difference…
The Pineywoods CEU program will be held Friday, Jan. 27 in Hallsville at the Gold Hall. This is an annual program hosted by Harrison, Gregg, Upshur, Cass and Marion counties. This program allows participants with Texas Department of Agriculture Pesticide license to obtain five continuing edu…
DNA evidence has now shown with greater than 99.9998 percent probability that Bryan Kohberger was the man who murdered four University of Idaho students in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022. His capture illustrates why there will be no more serial killers. As the world gets worse in so many…
…but not all good news
The Texas legislature will soon consider a proposal to give families greater freedom to choose learning environments that align with their values and meet their children’s individual learning needs.
Soup anyone? Here is another delicious variation of potato soup. Give this recipe below a try and let me know how you enjoyed it:
Every year, the arrival of the Martin Luther King holiday calls us to pause and reflect on Dr. King’s legacy. And every year, I’m struck by the same thing: as sincere as we are in our reverence for Dr. King, we keep learning the wrong lessons not just from his life but from history writ large.
House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, told The Dallas Morning News and other media outlets that he is open to bringing resort-style casinos to Texas. But don’t expect to find slot machines in 7-Eleven stores if casino gambling is legalized.
Each new Congress represents an opportunity for our elected officials to show that they can make life better for the American people. While there are plenty of hot-button issues that sharply divide us, there are just as many issues that have overwhelming bipartisan support. One of those issu…
The half-dozen versions of the final report of the committee examining the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, aren’t the only books that are making waves in the first weeks of the new year. A surprise entry — a look at the biggest legends in American history — is attracting unusual attent…
Earlier this week, I decided I don’t want to take down our Christmas tree.
There are events that are so significant that virtually everyone can tell you where they were when they happened.
Republicans have spent two years demanding that President Joe Biden visit the U.S.-Mexico border. They wanted Biden to face the real-world consequences of his border policy and the burden it has placed on Americans not only in the border states but around the country. Now the GOP has gotten …
Our government seeks more and more control.
I have written about my love for NYC before. I was thinking about that incredible city the other day and thought about one of my trips in particular. We were shopping in Chinatown and some ladies approached us and asked us what kind of purse we liked. I said “Michael Kors,” and they said “fo…
Even though there are many who oppose prayer, there are still many occasions when prayer is made — legislative assemblies in state and nation, court assemblies, athletic events, city meetings, political rallies and other public forums. When Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed due to …
In the end, he couldn’t even get 218 votes, a simple majority. The GOP’s Kevin McCarthy gained the House speakership in the dead of night early Saturday, but the last winner of a 15-rounder who emerged this battered and bloody was Muhammad Ali, who told reporters after 1975's “Thrilla in Man…
Speaker of the House: “The gentleman from California moves that business conducted in the U.S. House of Representatives be devoid of eccentricities and zaniness.”
Streaming’s latest hit show, “McCarthy Agonistes,” has ended its five-day run, but the protracted vote for speaker of the House highlighted one unexpected yet welcome facet of the Republican Party: actual diversity — and not just of the ideological variety.
Did you know that potato soup pairs well with baked pork chops, toasted ham sandwich on whole wheat bread or grilled cheese sandwich with low fat cheese? Well give this recipe below a try:
The 2023 Texas legislative session opened Jan. 10, with property taxes, gun control and the power grid expected to be among the top issues on the agenda.
For days, the House dithered, debated, deferred, demurred and demonstrated what dysfunction means in a mature democracy that has been a model of stability and an inspiration to the world for centuries. Two years after hoodlums brought the Capitol to a standstill, the country’s elected offici…
I’ll try not to make this one of those “I know how Damar Hamlin feels, because I got hurt playing football” columns.
The first time I saw a VCR was in 1979. A buddy of mine got it from a friend who bought things he couldn’t afford.
On Dec. 30, as Washington shut down for the Christmas-New Year holidays and Republicans prepared to take over the House of Representatives, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, in their final days of power, released copies of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2015 …
Last week, Pope Benedict XVI died at the age of 95, nearly a decade after stepping down as head of the Catholic Church. His life was marked by adherence to a belief in an eternal truth above all. As he stated in a 2008 meeting with Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America, “T…
January was named for the Roman god Janus, known as the protector of gates and doorways who symbolize beginnings and endings. Janus is depicted with two faces, one looking into the past, the other with the ability to see into the future. What a fitting symbol for this first few days of the y…
In September of 1984 I was reading in Plato’s Euthyphro, a dialog on what is piety or impiety. It begins in a very interesting way. Some kind of court suit has been brought against Socrates by a young man known as Meletus. The charge is that Socrates is corrupting the young.
Qualifier: I am an independent. I have been elected to public office as an independent (city council post) and as a Democrat (justice of the peace) and announced for state senator as a Republican (forced to drop out after a medical issue).