journalism blog

I first met Phineas and Gene fifty-five years ago. I was sixteen years old as they were. Recently I was roaming around a used bookstore. It even had boxes of books on its front porch. As I scanned the titles of hardcovers and paperbacks, there it was, a well worn paperback of “A Separate Peace”.

In the last two weeks we have watched innocent women and children bombed and murdered in their neighborhoods in Ukraine. They have jammed into trains in a desperate effort to flee to safety and the unknown. The men have stayed behind to fight the superior Russian army as it slogs its way through their country.

Adam could not look at the flashing cursor anymore. It was relentless. Just pushing and pushing him to start writing. He felt as if it was saying, “Okay big shot, your first novel was such a success, let’s see you do it again.” He was renting his friend’s beach house for a week just to

The bald eagle, our national bird, is everywhere. It’s on the great seal of the United States. It was adopted as the emblem of the country in 1787. It’s on every one dollar bill, coins, and passports. It’s up there with the flag, Liberty Bell, and Statue of Liberty as a universal symbol of American

These two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl is designed to get us all revved up for the big game. We have the Cincinnati Bengals who everyone thought would have to buy tickets to get into the game. They have the story of the Boy Wonder Joe Burrow who’s leading the Bengals out of

  Martin Collins didn’t expect to die. He was seventy-five. He was healthy and active. He still played golf once a week. He was on his knees weeding the flower bed in the back of his house with his wife of 50 years, Holly. The sun was shining. It was a warm spring day with

Harry felt like he was surrounded by old women. His daughters forced him to give up his house and move into an independent living community where there were very few men. The one-bedroom apartment felt small. Of course, when he couldn’t live by himself anymore, he could move into assisted living, and finally into the

The last week has been a time of looking back at the year that just passed. To many it wasn’t a pretty picture. We must now confront the year ahead. In its first week, we will face the one year anniversary of one of the darkest days in our history. It has been seared in

  Joe Bruno and his wife Maria were just moving into the quiet neighborhood in Santa Fe. A few days earlier, Matt Dawkins their next-door neighbor, noticed a couple of workers renovating and expanding a backyard shed. Matt thought Joe and his wife looked to be in their seventies and probably moved to New Mexico

The recent school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan has once again shown how terrifyingly normal this madness has become. A troubled kid with access to a gun goes on a rampage. Four students are killed. Eight others, including a teacher, are wounded. Like almost every school in America, there had been “active shooter”