journalism blog

Who could have imagined this year? Many predicted deeper division, fear and anger. Compromise and accommodation would be seen as weaknesses. We didn’t know what to expect each morning when we turned on our phones or laptops. There would be bizarre, childish, and even threatening tweets from the president. We would be jolted awake by

It was a story about a stamp that got my attention. It was written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Elizabeth Becker in The New York Times opinion column “Vietnam 67”. It was about a commemorative stamp Australia issued for Veterans Day honoring Austrailan war correspondent Kate Webb. Webb quit her newspaper job, and flew to

The stories keep coming everyday. It’s like the dam that was holding back the ugly secrets finally burst. Weinstein, Spacey, Roger Alies, Bill O’Reilly, Dustin Hoffman, Jeremy Piven, Louis CK, Steven Seagal, Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. The list of the powerful and famous, including the heads of big companies in Silicon Valley and

We had just taken out our science notes in my 8th grade class when there was a knock on the door. A student from a lower grade walked in with a note for the nun. This happened all the time. But when the nun opened the note, her face turned white. I remember her saying,

The first thing you notice is the peacefulness. The Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site sits on the banks of the Pedernales River in the hill country of Gillespie County, Texas. It’s the home of the LBJ Ranch, once known as the Texas White House during Johnson’s years as president from November, 1963

It started during the War of 1812. The United States was at war with Great Britian. Major George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, was preparing for an attack by the British. He ordered two flags from Baltimore flag maker Mary Young Pickersgill. He specified that one flag be made, “so large that

He was called “the man who saved the world”, and you probably never heard of him. I hadn’t, until I saw a story about his death on the Evening News. This morning, I read his obituary. Stanislav Petrov is someone everyone should know about because without him, the world would be a very different place.

How much of our lives do we spend on hold? We have the world of information at our fingertips if we want the news, weather, traffic reports, to buy something, pay for a purchase, or see how our friends and family are wasting their time on social media. There is a commercial for e-bay that

It started when we moved into the new house. The previous owner had bird feeders hanging outside the kitchen window. They attracted small colorful birds, and unfortunately, squirrels. I filled the feeder with birdseed, and I’d catch the squirrel hanging upside down on top of the feeder helping himself to a free meal. I changed

Our environment is under attack. We have a president who wants to turn back the clock 50 years and undo decades of work that made the planet cleaner, safer, and healthier.  He doesn’t believe in global warming. He appointed an EPA Secretary who wants to essentially destroy the department. He wants to pull out of