It’s back. After over ten years, Court TV has returned to television both over the air and on cable through Katz Networks, a division of E.W. Scripps Company. I was part of a group of journalists in the summer of 1991, who took founder Steve Brill’s idea to cover trials live, and created a form of legal journalism that hadn’t been seen before. We covered criminal trials, civil trials, parole hearings, international war crimes trials, and the most famous Senate confirmation hearing in modern US history. We couldn’t have picked a better time to bring citizens inside American courtrooms so they could see how the system, that was hidden from most of us, really worked.

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It sounds ridiculous. It’s obviously redundant. I heard it again recently, this time by a network news correspondent. She’s not the only one. It says something about the state of television news writing and editing. It falls in line with our tendency to emphasis to the extreme. It’s not just television news reporters, we all do it. “Falling down”, “exactly the same”, “completely full”, “past history”, we’re all guilty. But, “armed gunmen” has taken on a deeper more terrifying meaning. It seems as if we hear it every few weeks. It makes us stop and think “Oh, no. How bad will it be this time?” “Gunman” or “gunmen” doesn’t seem to be an adequate description in this era of mass shootings. It’s infected the very way we talk about guns.

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No one wanted to go to the theater that night. General Ulysses S. Grant said no because his wife couldn’t stand Mrs. Lincoln. They made the excuse that they were going to New Jersey to visit their children. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, and even President Lincoln’s own son Robert turned down the invitation to go to Ford’s Theater on the night of April 14, 1865 to see “Our American Cousin.” Mary Lincoln had a headache and would have preferred to stay home. Lincoln said they had to go because the newspapers had reported that they would be at the theater that night, and he didn’t want to disappoint the audience. Lincoln’s bodyguard William Crook urged him to stay home. Crook didn’t accompany the president that night. A man named John Frederick Parker was going to act as presidential bodyguard. Finally, Clara Harris, daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris, and her fiancé Major Henry Rathbone agreed to accompany the president and his wife to the theater.

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Later this week will mark 17 years since that phone call woke me at 1am. It was my mother. She said, “I’m at the hospital. Your father died.” It was a shock. He was 74 years old. He had been retired for over 15 years. He rode an exercise bike every morning. Watched his weight and ate healthy. He was even under the care of a cardiologist for years. He had a minor event back in the early 1980s. He was checked out at the time, and started to see the doctor on a regular basis. All his tests and checkups were good. When I finally got to my mother’s house, two hours away, I asked the obvious question. What happened? She said they went to bed about 11pm after my father watched the Mets game. Everything was fine. About an hour later, he woke up with a pain in his back. She said he thought maybe he twisted it in his sleep. He went into the bathroom. He then said she should call an ambulance. She helped him get some pants on, and she led him downstairs to the kitchen to wait for the ambulance. He put his head down on the table, and passed out.

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Finally, someone is going to prison for one of the greatest crime sprees in history. Australian Cardinal George Pell was just sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing two 13 year old boys in a sacristy after Sunday mass in 1996. He was convicted of five counts in December. Under Australian law, the trial was conducted under what’s called a “super injunction” which essentially is a secret trial. This means there was a total news blackout on the trial. The first trial ended in a hung jury. Pell was tried again, and convicted. The conviction was only unsealed two weeks ago. Pell was one of the most powerful cardinals in the Catholic Church. In addition to being the archbishop of Melbourne, he was the pope’s chief financial officer. He is a big fish.

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Tonight we get an hour closer to spring with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time. Much has been written about the rites of spring. A season of renewal, new growth, and of course, warm weather. Nothing symbolizes the awakening of spring for those of us living  in the land of snow and ice, as spring training baseball. Yes, it’s mid 70s and sunny right now in Florida, and young men are dancing on diamonds. Last week, my wife and I had the chance to watch the ritual in one of the little gem ballparks. Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter is the spring home of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins. It’s one of only two stadiums in Florida that’s home to two major league teams. It’s also the home of four minor league teams. You can get your baseball up close and personal.

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You’re suppose to get an annual physical, especially as you get older. I hadn’t had one in two years. I had a family history question that I thought I could get answered on the phone. I called the doctor’s office, and asked if I could speak with him. The receptionist said sure. He’ll have to call you back at the end of the day. I thought it would take at least another call the next day to get him. I was a little surprised when he did call back at the end of the day. I asked him my question, assuming he would tell me to go to a specialist, but he sprung the trap. He said I hadn’t had a physical in two years, and I should come in for the physical and discuss the family history question. How could I say no?

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They call it “A Happy Place”. There are a lot of reasons. First, the weather is monotonously perfect. It’s like “Groundhog’s Day”. You wake up everyday and it’s sunny, with a bright blue sky, puffy clouds that look like big balls of cotton, temperature in the mid 80s, and a gentle breeze. The daily mean temperature is 82.6 degrees. The average low temperature is 78.6 degrees. Oh, and everyone is nice. The

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We just completed “The Year of the Woman” that ended with a record number of women being elected to the US House of Representatives. Women were energized by the #MeToo movement. Almost a hundred years ago, they were fighting for the right to vote, never mind actually holding office. The fight for the right to vote came down to one vote by one young man and his mother. Among the terrific displays of the history of our constitution at the National Constitution Center here in Philadelphia, is small plaque that tells the story of Harry Burn and his mother Febb. It tells you all you need to know about the power of one vote, and the determination to do the right thing under pressure.

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“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.” Sound familiar? How about this, “I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed…the vulgarity…of those who write for them.” No, it’s not one of our worst presidents. It’s one of our best, Thomas Jefferson. All presidents have issues with the press. These statements came when Jefferson was president and years after he left office. He was attacked by supporters of John Adams during the 1800 election for president. He was criticized for favoring France, for being an atheist, for fathering children with one of his slaves, which turned out to be true. Jefferson supporters called Adams a fool, a hypocrite, and a criminal. All of this played out in newspapers which supported each candidate. Despite Jefferson’s critcizism of the press, historians believe he was a strong supporter of a free press.

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