To judge by her comments moments after she was sworn in as the new CIA director, Gina Haspel has her priorities in order. Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the intelligence agency, revealed some of her plans on Monday. She wants to improve CIA personnel proficiency in foreign languages, strengthen ...
The Trump presidency is often a kind of political “Rashomon,” with partisans on either side looking at the same facts and coming to wildly different conclusions. So it’s all the more remarkable that the central controversy of our time isn’t a fight over one story with different ...
At a time when more than 400,000 children are in foster care nationwide, the city of Philadelphia is threatening to cut ties with Catholic Social Services because of the group’s policy against placing foster children in same-sex households. On the surface, one might say this is a classic ...
Once again our children have paid with their lives to teach us a lesson about school violence. It is that banning so-called “assault rifles” or even semi-automatic pistols will not stop them. It is that people kill people, and unless we learn more about what triggers homicidal behavior, ...
Donald Trump’s strategy for keeping power is to build up his coalition of America’s white working class and the nation’s ownership class. It’s a curious coalition, to say the least. But if Democrats don’t respond to it, it could protect Trump from impeachment and even re-elect him. ...
Donald Trump’s early stumbling out of the presidential gate in the judicial, legislative and diplomatic realms has already surfaced talk by wishful thinkers of invoking the constitutional route of impeachment to remove him from the Oval Office for committing “high crimes and ...
Every November, we wonder why we don’t eat turkey more often. It’s high in protein, low in calories, affordable, and can instantly turn any side dish into an entrée. But … I think we can all agree, preparing the whole bird is a labor of love we can justifiably reserve for special ...
There’s a debate raging in my head and it goes something like this: Do certain things happen accidentally or coincidentally? Let’s start with defining the two words — accidentally means occurring unexpectedly and coincidentally means something that happens by coincidence or ...
Our long national nightmare has finally ended; we can all heave a collective sigh of relief. A sigh that, depending on your point of view, may be salted with a tear or two. It has finally happened: Meghan and Harry have officially tied the knot. For the past several months, all of our ...
To the editor: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” —Nelson Mandela. A college education will help you have a brighter future all around. When you go to college you will have more opportunities and experiences while meeting new people. Also, ...
I know two Greek-American kids who brought shotguns to high school. My brother Peter and me. There were two 12-gauge shotguns. We were going hunting. I suppose that sounds crazy, after what happened at the Santa Fe High School in Texas on Friday. Another mass school shooting, another ...
In Marine Corps jargon, a “duty station” is the military base or camp where a Marine is assigned to live. Reflecting our national inclination both to romanticize what is past and to criticize what is current, Marines will regularly gripe that there is no duty station better than the one ...
For decades, North Korean leaders have been masters of using the carrot-and-stick approach to getting what they want. The key has been their ability to switch between the two with lightning speed. Last week, dictator Kim Jong Un did just that. He called off high-level talks between his regime ...
In the gin clear water of spring, it was a slow troll for the usually fast-biting walleyes on the small lake under the warm and sunny evening skies. A combination of flooded gravel pits connected to two large sloughs on its north and south end created in the wet 1990s, the water body featured a ...
Part IV For the most part women viewed life on the prairie as a pretty dismal existence. The term “washday blues” dates back to the frustrations women experienced in accomplishing everyday chores. Often there was a shortage of the homemade lye soap, which she used to scrub clothes in ...
To the editor: Do you care about what happens to our environment? This question made me realize the true effect of deforestation. I think we have to start reducing deforestation and stop destroying the environment around the world. I believe we should do this because deforestation has a ...
Court decision a victory for public information When a major crime occurs and law enforcement agencies call a press conference, news reporters attend with the goal of getting accurate information to the public in a timely manner. Good journalists do not take the responsibility lightly. ...
After Pyongyang railed this week that the U.S.-South Korean Max Thunder military drills were a rehearsal for an invasion of the North, and imperiled the Singapore summit, the Pentagon dialed them back. The B-52 exercises alongside F-22 stealth fighters were canceled. But Pyongyang had ...
After some early missteps, the new defensive team of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani is engaged in a bold and brash attempt to stand the Mueller investigation into Russian election meddling on its head. Embellishing on Trump’s repeated allegations of a “witch hunt” and a “Democratic ...
The man yelling in a video that has gone viral this week threatens employees at a New York deli that he will call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he overheard employees speaking Spanish: “If they have the balls to come here and live off of my money — I pay for their ...