Columns

Why people continue to trust government officials is a mystery. Often disconnected from the problems at hand, their policies also often contradict their supporters' frequently expressed beliefs. While suffering from cost overruns and increasing budget deficits, these policies handsomely reward their cronies, too...

Each year, La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau packs members and guests into its sanctuary for a unique series that focuses on popular culture through cinema while drawing poignant, transcendent lessons about life. In a year without Covid, more than 2,400 people, most of them munching on popcorn, would typically be in attendance each week for what is called "La Croix at the Movies." Its goal is explained on the La Croix website, "We believe that many biblical truths can be found in art, and one of the most prevalent art forms in our age is the movies.". ...

Vote yes on Amendment 3 and you'll be voting yes for rural Missouri and voting to keep out-of-state dark money far away from our redistricting process. You've probably been inundated with TV ads trying to convince you to vote no. That's because the opposition has amassed over $7.2 million, mostly from out-of-state dark money. ...

Joe Biden wants to take one of the great American success stories of the past several decades and drive it into the ground. He would turn his back on the stupendous wealth represented by proven reserves of oil and gas in this country. Rather than focusing on producing cheap, abundant energy -- a key ingredient to human progress through all of human history -- he'd embark on the fool's errand of trying to adjust the world's thermostat 80 years from now...

"He's too polarizing." "She's too divisive." Ever hear those descriptions of politicians or leaders, the purpose of which is to convince people that Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So is too dangerous to even consider supporting? I call nonsense on the whole thing. Who wants to support milquetoast men and women more interested in not being labeled polarizing than in being principled?...

How fitting for front page tribute to the life work and courage of Clara Lucille Daniels of Cape Girardeau. Bravo to Jeff Long and the Southeast Missourian newspaper for embracing the opportunity to honor her barrier-breaking courage. A young Clara Daniels had to summon courage when her beloved Cobb School burned and with it her plan for education. ...

I am a 69-year-old white lawyer and landowner. I have voted in 13 presidential elections. I have never seen our society more divided, more angry, more full of hate. We have always had different opinions on many issues yet calmly debated an outcome tolerable to all. The current division is generated by misinformation spread about the position of opposing politics. I am truly independent, but my choice in this election has never been easier...

A new Pope Francis documentary, "Francesco," has certainly commanded some attention. Longtime pope followers like me know to take the hubbub with a grain of salt. The press attention to Francis' papacy has been so often guided by ideology. The progressive left, so to speak, has held onto hope that he is their way to a church they are more comfortable with, one conformed to the values of the times rather than age-old tenets. ...

The Russians haven’t loomed so large as a sinister hand influencing the course of American society since the Red Scares of the 20th century. Then, it was largely the right that warned of Russian infiltration; now it is progressives who see Russians altering the course of American history through dark manipulations...

It's natural to wonder if we could do more with our lives or make a greater impact in our spheres of influence. The recent death of local dentist Dr. Mike Bennett and the renaming of the Terry W. Kitchen Central Junior High School after the late coach are two examples of individuals who made a difference in their own specific ways, leaving behind legacies worth our admiration...

The coronavirus, widespread quarantines, an unprecedented self-induced recession, and unchecked rioting, looting and protesting -- all in a presidential election year -- are radically disrupting American habits and behavior. Rents, home prices and office occupancy rates in major cities, especially on the two coasts, are dropping fast. Techies and young professionals have discovered that they can work from home without paying sky-high housing costs in order to be close to the office...

"Dude, I want you to punch Donald Trump in the face." During Amy Coney Barrett's hearing, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker quoted a man who approached him at a town hall. "Dude, that's a felony," is how Booker described his response. Good for him, fighting against our crazed political culture of anger, contempt and violence. ...

I recall several presidential elections ago, an elementary school teacher wrote a newspaper column about a mock election he held in his class. Two students were nominated by their classmates, and then they campaigned for their votes. Who won the election? One of the students presented an agenda and reasonably argued for the merits of that agenda. The other student promised ice cream for everyone who voted for her. She won...

Every year witnesses the publication of countless books. Some are interesting, and a few are inspiring. The forthcoming book by Charles Koch (business owner and philanthropist) and Brian Hooks (CEO of philanthropic community Stand Together), "Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World," is both interesting and inspiring...

We are less than two weeks from the 2020 election, and no one knows who is going to win. Polls suggest that former vice-president Joe Biden is likely to come out on top -- significantly, when it comes to the popular vote -- but we all know what happened in 2016. Against the odds, Donald Trump defied the experts and scored the victory where it mattered most: in the Electoral College...

Last Friday, Oct. 16, marked the culmination of a process that began several months ago. It was the formal unveiling of the Terry W. Kitchen Junior High School named after Terry W. Kitchen, longtime Cape Central teacher, coach, athletic director and friend. There is not a more fitting tribute to a man who gave so much of himself to others...

Joe Biden is the most cosseted presidential candidate in memory. He's run a minimalist campaign that's avoided the press as much as possible, while the press hasn't been braying for more access and answers, but eager to avoid anything that could be discomfiting to the campaign...

I was honored to both attend and give a presentation at the Show Me Writers Conference on Saturday, organized by local authors Amanda Flinn and Sarah Geringer. I'm not typically a numbers person, but some alarming statistics grabbed me. Author Karen Sargent shared the following: The percentage of people who say they want to write a book is 81%; of those, 2% start the book; of the 2% who start, 3% complete the book; so that's 97% who do not finish the book...

Amy Coney Barrett acquitted herself very well at her confirmation hearings, which means, quite often, she refused to answer questions. Barrett is an exemplary nominee, who was knowledgeable, clear and composed throughout the three days of questioning, but not always responsive...

I won’t pretend to be surprised by this, but Senate Democrats, knowing they don’t have the power to stop Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, have turned the confirmation hearings into a campaign platform to smear President Donald Trump...

Here is a round-up of news about coronavirus in our region -- and the larger world. Statistics underline that COVID-19 is dangerous to the elderly but less of a concern to young adults. Still, younger people who become infected can carry it to those most vulnerable, so vigilance is necessary. ...

In the 21st century, hallmark American and international institutions have lost much of their prestige and respect. Politics and biases explain the lack of public confidence in organizations and institutions such as the World Health Organization, the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Pulitzer Prizes and the Academy Awards...

President Donald Trump is one of the worst negotiators I have ever seen. One day, he tells Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that the stimulus talks are over because she insisted on at least a $2 trillion deal and rejected the White House's offer of $1.6 trillion. The next day, without Pelosi lifting a finger, the president comes back with an offer of nearly $1.9 trillion. Maybe if Pelosi waits, she'll get her full $2 trillion after all...

Governments, and especially the courts, work best when good, independent, competent people, grounded in humility, serve within them. During two days of at times intense -- but not disrespectful -- questioning, Judge Amy Coney Barrett displayed the mettle, personal warmth and brilliance that have elevated her throughout her career. Regardless of what you think about the president who nominated her, she is an inspirational woman worthy of the court...

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett provide a fitting warmup act to the presidential election that will follow in a few weeks. The rancor pouring forth from this confirmation flows from the very deep divide in the nation -- conservative versus liberal -- that will decide who will be our next president and what kind of nation we will pass on to our children and grandchildren...

Amy Coney Barrett has accomplished many things in her career. Becoming an authority or a policymaker on health care isn't one of them. At Notre Dame, she was a professor at the law school, not at the Eck Institute for Global Health. She's written for the Cornell Law Review, not The New England Journal of Medicine. She's up to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court, not Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases...

The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett is why many people voted for Donald Trump in 2016. With about 300 Trump judicial appointees confirmed by the U.S. Senate in his first term, including two Supreme Court nominees, putting judges on the federal bench is one of the president's greatest accomplishments. It's also one that will have the longest impact...

The vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday has caused quite a bit of discussion of the typical who won/who lost kind. Not surprisingly, it also included another layer: people have made it a woman/man issue. I knew it would be touchy for Pence because that's a popular card folks love to play...

"Staggering friendliness." That's how one reporter described his encounter with People of Praise, the apostolic community that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and her family belong to. I've always heard wonderful things about Barrett, knowing more than a few people who teach or have studied at the University of Notre Dame, where Barrett attended school...

California's state legislature just passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, Assembly Bill 3121 to explore providing reparations to California's African American population -- 155 years after the abolition of slavery. Apparently, when California's one-party government cannot find solutions to current existential crises, it turns to divisive issues that have little to do with the safety and well-being of its 40 million citizens...

New York City is becoming an economic basket case. "'We're at war': New York City Faces a Financial Abyss," screams a New York Times headline. New York City's unemployment rate stands at 16%, double the nation's average. Yet, even in the midst of a "financial abyss," the animosity of New York's liberal elite remains undeterred in its hostility toward free enterprise and entrepreneurship, the pillars of job creation and economic recovery...

The conventional wisdom is that Susan Page was a fair moderator of the vice presidential debate. She wasn't, but Vice President Mike Pence won anyway. Almost all of Page's questions were loaded against the Trump-Pence agenda, and hardly any were loaded against the Biden-Harris agenda. Though her baked-in assumptions incorporated the liberal narrative, Pence managed to overcome all of it...

Regal Cinemas announced recently that it will temporarily close all 536 of its U.S. locations as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and continues to keep customers away. This move will affect approximately 40,000 employees across the country. And yet, nobody in Congress is talking about a bailout for Regal...

The Supreme Court fight of the century is, so far, a fizzle. The ratio of progressive outrage over the nomination of federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to supposed reasons that the U.S. Senate shouldn't confirm her is completely out of whack -- there's a surfeit of the former and almost none of the latter...

I was no Barack Obama fan. I won't even pretend I was. But I never wished ill to him or his family because, well, I'm a decent human being. So what's up with the folks wishing death on President Trump and first lady Melania upon hearing the news early Friday morning that they tested positive for the coronavirus?...

There wasn't much to say about the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The lowest point may have been when Trump went after Biden's son Hunter and his addiction struggles. There are legitimate questions to be asked about Hunter Biden and his international dealings, but addiction is not the issue to raise on a national stage. How many people have often hidden struggles they are too ashamed to ask for help for? Moments like that only make things worse...

“If you want to make God laugh,” Woody Allen once famously said, paraphrasing a Yiddish proverb, “tell him about your plans.” That’s not an issue for President Donald Trump, at least not on health care. He’s been promising a health care plan since he started running for president, often with superlative adjectives attached, and yet never produced one. His lack of a proposal was a stumbling block in Tuesday’s debate and plays into a broader, long-standing Republican vulnerability on health care...

Don’t fool yourself; the Democrats and the mainstream media don’t want to cancel the next two presidential debates because they are worried about Americans’ delicate sensibilities. Are you kidding me? They know that the ailing Joe Biden is hanging by a thread, and they’re scared...

It's been a hectic few months for Max Lederer, the publisher of Stars and Stripes newspaper. In February, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Congress he intended to defund the independent military newspaper. About 50% of the publication's funds come through federal subsidy, which equates to approximately $15 million a year. Wednesday, the day I spoke with Lederer for this column, was supposed to be the final day of publication based on the original timeline. Thankfully, it wasn't...

The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts -- especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations or elite universities. Yet the much-praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19...

President Donald Trump just rolled out his new "Black Economic Empowerment Platinum Plan." The plan focuses on building on his achievements since 2016 to improve the lives of Black Americans by creating more opportunity to participate in a growing economy and to achieve greater security in life and property...

As the saying goes, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Nowhere is this truth more evident than in the recent behavior of the allegedly "reformed" Export-Import Bank of the United States. Reauthorized by Congress in December 2019 with the promise that it would suddenly change its ways and focus its fire power on fighting China, this export credit agency quickly returned to its tired routine of propping up its old and favorite customers, including -- very prominently -- Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.. ...

If you haven't seen it yet, you need to visit the Cape riverfront to take in the salvage operation taking place just east of the center of the channel. It's like a rotating, free-form fountain -- connected to a crane on a barge in the Mississippi River. ...

Walking the streets of lower Manhattan for the first time in a long time, I was talking with a friend a few days ago. Over the course of 20 blocks or so, I would occasionally play with my face mask, to get a little extra air. Not take it off, not to pull it down, but pull it outward. ...

For many progressive opinion-makers, the only way to save the Supreme Court is to destroy it. They believe the best response to the Republican-held Senate confirming a Trump nominee to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court is to pack the Court if Democrats win in November. Holding out the court-packing threat, they argue, also might give Republicans second thoughts about filling the vacancy...

Much talk is swirling about the voting process during this coronavirus craziness. Specifically, jabber about mass mail-in voting has been particularly prevalent. Democrats, typically, are for it, heralding the right to vote while accusing Republicans of wanting to suppress that right. Republicans are typically opposed, stating concerns about voter fraud. I'm weighing in as a person who has seen firsthand how easy it would be to do some downright dirty deeds during an election...

For many years there has been much discussion about broadband internet service to areas of the United States. This year, it has come to the forefront because of the COVID-19 crisis. The need for school students to have internet service for remote access to school resources has become paramount...

It’s getting scary out there, people. Everywhere you turn, Trump haters are venting their wrath against Trump supporters, as if supporting President Trump is an unforgivable sin. They’re projecting and gaslighting — blaming Trump and his supporters for everything they’re doing. It’s madness, but at long last, they might have awakened the sleeping giant they’re trying to hunt down and destroy...

Our nation needs prayer. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only cost thousands of lives, but it's left many in fear and kept others in isolation. The country has dealt with numerous examples of unrest in the streets with law enforcement facing dangerous situations...

One does not have to like everything about RBG -- though many people do – to recognize she was a brilliant lawyer and an inspiring individual. Throughout her life, because of her competence and determination, she regularly broke barriers that had been erected against her and other women.

Without common sense in government, civilization cannot continue. After the summer protests and rioting in many large cities, activists demanded a defunding, or at least radical pullbacks, of the police. So-called crime experts often concurred. So some city governments ignored public warnings and diminished their police presence despite a sharp rise in crime in many cities. Looting and arson were often ignored...

America's national debt now stands at close to $27 trillion. According to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office, by the end of 2020, federal debt held by the public is projected to equal 98% of GDP -- and in the following year, this burden will grow to 104% of GDP. ...

Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, says, "Our No. 1 goal must be to communicate the stakes of this Supreme Court fight to the American people." He continued, "nothing is off the table." Nothing? Not even violence? After the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, members of the Trump administration were being assaulted in public spaces, in restaurants...

Fifty years old? How is that possible? Was it not just yesterday that I began counting the days until I became a teenager? And here I am about to turn 50 on Sunday. It's quite a thing, how that happens. I remember turning 30 and being so depressed about being "old." Forty didn't bother me at all. ...

Regarding the column, "Lessons from Eisenhower, seen in the lives of Drury, Buhs and Shanks" by Jon K. Rust. I grew up in Bloomfield, Missouri, and was raised in the First Baptist Church. Of course, I knew Mr. and Mrs. Shanks my entire life. I was terribly sorry to hear about Connie Shanks' death. She was a sweet, sweet lady...

Industrial policy that uses tariffs and subsidies to pick economic winners is once again in vogue among intellectuals. The rationale is to prevent China from “dominating” the global market with its subsidies while boosting American jobs and manufacturing. While I believe it’s unwise to mimic China’s policies to tamp down the danger of its authoritarianism, I’m amazed at cynics who support such policies but make no effort to adopt a serious strategic plan to achieve this goal...

The fascist left regularly typifies the very qualities it professes to abhor. The only thing more pronounced than its totalitarianism is its stunning lack of self-awareness. It’s ironic that leftists think of themselves as liberals, as the term “liberal” is historically and etymologically connected to the concept of liberty. ...

There are few people who can speak as eloquently about U.S. history and, more specifically, the Constitution than former federal judge Stephen Limbaugh Sr. Limbaugh retired from his judgeship in 2008 when his son Stephen Limbaugh Jr. was sworn in as the first judge to preside over the federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau. Limbaugh Sr., now in his 90s, returned to private practice first in St. Louis and now back in his native Cape Girardeau...

The week just ended was a momentous one, and Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, a date that will be long remembered. In an historic, outdoor White House ceremony, high officials from four nations -- Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, and the U.S. -- announced a peace agreement and the establishment of full diplomatic and commercial relations between the first three. In one amazing stroke, these leaders doubled the number of Arab states that have made peace with Israel, since its founding in 1948...

In 2017, the liberal Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University found that 93% of CNN's coverage of the Trump administration was negative. The center found similarly negative Trump coverage at other major news outlets...

The attempted assassination of two Los Angeles County deputies, caught on a security video, is chilling and enraging enough. A man walks up to the parked black-and-white cruiser, and fires point-blank through the passenger window, then runs away. The stricken officers manage to stagger out of the vehicle and call for assistance. They are whisked away to the hospital for emergency surgery (and are now, thankfully, recovering)...

They represent an era in America marked by honor and humility, service and God-fearing Christianity, embodied in imperfect men and women who strove to love and serve others, build families and prosper. In the past week, several of these American heroes have been on my mind: Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose memorial opens in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17; and Charles Drury, Ray Buhs and Connie Shanks, all in their 90s, who died this month...

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman observed in a column he wrote in 1996 that "no two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other." Some have looked into how ironclad this rule is. But, in general, the point is pretty powerful...

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president recently. Of course, President Trump being President Trump, he had to say something. His response is what I'd classify as the equivalent of punching down, which, as I've written before, he doesn't need to do. I, on the other hand, have some punching to do...

As a Donald Trump supporter, I don't casually dismiss the polls that consistently show he's behind. But I am cautiously optimistic he's going to win, for many reasons. Trump won in 2016 against overwhelming odds, the formidable Hillary Clinton machine and almost-unanimous predictions of his defeat...

The latest hammer of a book to fall on President Donald Trump is Bob Woodward’s soon-to-be-released “Rage,” and it’s his own words that are the issue. According to the book, the president told the veteran Washington Post journalist in March that he publicly minimized the danger of the coronavirus: “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”...

Few Cardinals baseball players have been more beloved than Lou Brock, the legendary outfielder who accumulated more than 3,000 hits and 938 stolen bases in his illustrious career. That love and admiration has been on display this week since the Hall of Famer died last weekend...

Almost daily, Greek and Turkish aircraft and ships fight mock battles over disputed oil and gas rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Since the loss of much of the Christian Balkans to the Ottomans in the 15th century, Greece and what would later become modern Turkey have been rivals, outright enemies and often at war...

As the saying goes, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." This advice applies to the hole Congress leapt into by bailing out the airline industry back in March through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Now these companies want even more taxpayer money. The federal government should refuse another bailout...

Hollywood is accommodating a new era of McCarthyism, imposed this time by Red China. It involves everything that Hollywood tells us that it hates -- censorship, pressure to conform and blacklists. Yet the studios have seamlessly absorbed China's dictates into their operations...

Positioned between Russia and the West is a nation of beautiful people, Belarus, which has felt the brunt of history. Today, with an autocratic president cracking down on innocents protesting a discredited election, Belarus is suffering again.

Even after the end of widespread shutdowns and the reopening of our economy, the COVID-19 pandemic remains a challenge. To keep workers and customers safe, businesses have adapted new guidelines from the CDC and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. ...

As the 2020 Census draws to a close, I urge each one of you reading this to respond before it's too late. This is the final month to be counted and to help guarantee Cape Girardeau receives funding for essential services that will shape the future of our community for the next 10 years...

I used to be one of those people who argued with the talking heads on television. I was a political junkie from my earliest days, so there I would be on a Saturday morning, thanking Bill Buckley on the other side of the screen for correcting his "Firing Line" guest's wayward thinking or telling Eleanor Clift on "The McLaughlin Group" that there is another way to think about things (as if she didn't know that on her own, or, well, could hear me). ...

Who would have thought anyone would be interested enough in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hair to have even one conversation -- much less several days' worth -- about a trip to a salon? And to think that no one is even discussing her hair. Instead, it's her face getting attention -- her maskless face...

There's a giant scheme afoot to disenfranchise voters in November -- it's called mail-in balloting. Mail-in voting has, like many things in our politics, taken on the aspect of tribal warfare -- if President Donald Trump is vociferously against it, Democrats must be vociferously for it, and vice versa...

Rosalina Vasquez was on her way to work Aug. 13 when a driver under the influence ran a red light, causing a multi-vehicle crash that sent the 16-year-old Vasquez to the hospital with numerous injuries. According to a story by Ben Matthews in the Southeast Missourian, the driver, Christina H. ...

Joe Biden and his handlers know that he should be out and about, weighing in daily on the issues of the campaign. In impromptu interviews, Biden should be offering alternative plans for dealing with the virus, the lockdown, the economic recovery, the violence and the looting, and racial tensions...

I have returned with some regularity over the years to compare what is going on in our country today to what was going on in the 1850s, the years preceding the Civil War. America has always been about freedom of expression. And that freedom has often led to protests and tension. Generally, we've gotten through these tough and challenging times and moved on...

I get the sense that rightward movement is occurring in the African American community. This is more than anecdotal. It's not random. It is for good reason. At least since the '60s, the Democrats have had a lock on the Black vote, which they've nurtured and protected like leftists guard their copies of "The Communist Manifesto." Their conquest was cynical in its inception and has grown more so through the years...

Here we go again. After positive cases of COVID-19 receded following the imposition of a countywide mask order in early July, cases of coronavirus are back on the rise in Cape Girardeau County. Understating the results is that university students who reside in Cape Girardeau are not counted in Cape County numbers if their official residence is elsewhere...

For nearly 40 years, the member of Congress representing Southeast Missouri's congressional district has toured area farms in the summer. It's a tradition that started under the late Bill Emerson and was carried on by Jo Ann Emerson and now Jason Smith...

As so much despair has gripped our nation during this difficult time, I decided to go into our nation's most distressed communities with a message of hope and truth. I have been working on policy issues dealing with race and poverty through my organization, UrbanCURE, for 25 years...

Until a few days ago, Democrats were content to pretend the disorder in American cities didn't exist. Now, worried that Joe Biden is on his back foot on the issue, they readily acknowledge the rioting -- and blame it on President Donald Trump. One would think that, given the fusillade they unleashed against Trump at the convention, if Democrats truly believed that the president is responsible for Black Lives Matter activists and anarchists attacking cops and burning down buildings, they would have mentioned it at least once.. ...

The streets are burning, people are dying and some are losing hope as they watch it all unfold. Meanwhile, many who claim to have the best interests of the nation in mind say and do nothing because their lust for power is at the heart of every decision they make...

Elections, even in non-pandemic years, can bring out some of the best and the worst of America. Both parties, in their convention productions, were a mix of both. The aspirational, inspirational moments are the best -- though, of course, may promise too much about what electing one ticket to the White House could possibly do...

Donald Trump took over the Republican Party, but it’s still discernibly the Republican Party. The Republican National Convention was obviously very Trumpy. At least one member of the family had a slot every night, and it featured theatrical touches worthy of reality TV...

Democrats can try but won’t succeed at distancing themselves from the violence they have enabled on American streets. People surely know where the Democrats have stood on this, and that they’re now backpedaling only because of polling data. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg outright blamed this anarchy on President Donald Trump. ...

The following is a column I wrote for the latest edition of B Magazine, a regional magazine covering business in Southeast Missouri. The Difference Makers edition is one of my favorites. Twelve individuals and one organization were highlighted, plus there's additional business content you'll want to read. ...

It is hard to tell what the current revolutionary violence in our major cities is all about. So far, hundreds of police have been injured, dozens of people have been killed, and we have seen billions of dollars in property and collateral damage. Ostensibly, many of the summer demonstrations were in protest over the gruesome detention and death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25...

Intellectuals are supposed to speak truth to power. Unfortunately, some seem to be more interested in saying what everyone expects them to say, which only reinforces the status quo. Thankfully, a few scholars are resisting this trend, fighting for what is true rather than what is popular...

The Democratic National Convention portrayed an America suffering from every possible sort of malady -- except urban unrest. Is the country going through a terrible pandemic? Yes. A punishing recession? Absolutely. Is our democratic system itself under threat? Of course. Is the planet about to be destroyed by inaction on climate change? Check. Are systemic racism, income inequality and corporate greed blighting our national life? Most definitely...

The Democratic convention this year, odd Hollywood production that it was in these virtual times, was a bit of an exercise in denial. There were the feel-good segments about Joe Biden and his life in public office and his painful personal tragedy. There were shrill attacks on President Donald Trump, probably the easiest thing in the world to do...

Cape Girardeau lost a good man on Monday. LaRoy "Mickey" Roper died after a long and valiant battle with COVID-19. He was 77. Friends of the family have been praying for him for several weeks as he went on and off and then back on a ventilator. I grew up with the Roper family and remember him as an intense businessman in my younger years. ...

This seems like a time to remain on the subject of politics, as the Democratic National Convention took place last week, but I will pass on going that route. Though I stayed aware, I didn’t watch one second of it. I have a more pressing issue to discuss (although, honestly, I believe it may have politics at its root also), such as the ongoing response to the coronavirus and, specifically, the disservice it is doing to the elderly. ...

The Trump administration recently rescinded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, adopted in the early months of the Obama administration. The rule was an add-on to the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The act was about preventing discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing...

The number of Republicans speaking at the Democratic National Convention had progressives on edge. They shouldn’t have fretted. Even if a handful of estranged Republicans are along for the ride, the left is steadily moving the Democratic Party in its direction. Would progressives prefer winning the optics at a virtual convention, or the substance over the longer term?...

I urge those who still indulge the fiction that former President Barack Obama is a uniter and great statesman to read the transcript of his Democratic convention speech with an open mind and discerning eye. Obama proudly violated the long-practiced rule that former presidents shouldn’t attack sitting ones. But he’s Obama, exempt from the rules, and he was attacking President Donald Trump, whom the left considers fair game for any smear anytime anywhere, no matter how deceitful and malicious...

Access to high-speed broadband internet is not simply nice to have, it is a necessity in the 21st century. Investing in the expansion of rural broadband is as vital as the rural electric and telephone networks were decades ago. The coronavirus pandemic has introduced new challenges to our way of life. ...

Southeast Missouri State University will begin fall classes on Aug. 24. In anticipation, I want to share with you the work we've done to establish procedures and protocols to safeguard our students, employees and neighbors in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic...