Missouri lawmakers took an important step forward for working-class and impoverished residents this year by enacting Senate Bill 82. This new law will help more Missourians escape from an entrapping safety-net system and experience the dignity and opportunity of work...

It's been more than 20 years since the United States granted "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) trade status to China. It was a decision that has cost America millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs -- including 934 jobs in the Cape Girardeau area alone. Now, as Congress looks to finally change course, Rep. Jason Smith could provide an important voice in Congress. That's because he sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee that will consider whether to repeal China's MFN status...

If there is one overriding theme of the Biden years, it is the systematic degradation of American freedom, pushing the lives and freedom of private citizens aside as government expands and takes over. This is done under the rubric of the left that "government knows best."...

The Biden administration is setting a booby trap in case a Republican wins the presidency in 2024. On Friday, the White House unveiled a proposed rule that would make it even harder than in the past for an incoming Republican president to wrestle control of the left-leaning federal bureaucracy and actually implement the conservative policies promised to voters...

ORLANDO There are recent American college graduates teaching in Iraq, due to an exchange program between the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil and the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. But just the other day, a Nigerian seminarian was burned alive as his rectory was attacked. This kind of thing is a common occurrence in Nigeria...

On Sept. 12, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) announced that after spending months of following the facts, the U.S. House of Representatives will formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This is the natural next step the House needs to take to continue an investigation into how Joe Biden abused public office for his family's financial gain...

As I sit here writing this letter to the editor of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, I'm deeply troubled by the fact that gun violence continues to happen in the community of Cape Girardeau. As a survivor of domestic and firearms violence, I am disheartened with this occurrence. This continues to tear apart families friends and communities in which we live in. We must do our part to ensure that we end this pandemic of senseless gun violence...

In modern America, mobsters and gangsters often use codewords and phrases, colloquially called dog whistles, when they order their underlings to commit serious crimes. Their goal is to distance themselves from the responsibility for the actual crime. For example, a mob boss could say in court, "When I told Mr. X to take out the garbage, I meant just that. That was not an order to kill anyone."...

Come on Cape PD! Even when I'm mowing, which puts me close to the street, you come speeding down Gordonville Road! No emergency, no lights or sirens. The speed limit is 30 mph. We need you to be the example, NOT showing others that it is OK to ignore our laws!...

We all know that the world went through a lot of changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some changes were big, some were small. Many continue to debate whether those changes were good or bad. One thing I believe we can all agree on though, is that improved medical access is always a good change. That's why I wanted to make pharmacists temporary permissions to administer vaccines without all the red tape, granted in 2020 by the Trump administration, a permanent option under Missouri law...

There is a street in Cape Girardeau most weekends where people gather, Fredrick Street and Jefferson. They gather to drink alcohol, gamble and some do drugs of their choice. There's even prostitution. The police know this is happening but rarely bother them unless there is a problem. ...

Recently Mike Pence gave a speech at Saint Anselm College that, depending on your view of the man, was either courageous or desperate -- or both. Titled "Populism vs. Conservatism: Republicans' Time for Choosing," the speech was an homage to his hero, Ronald Reagan, who in 1964 gave a nationally televised address, "A Time for Choosing," on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Sen. ...

John Fetterman's Senate legacy is now set -- he's the guy who made it possible to dress like a slob. What the Missouri Compromise was to Henry Clay, what the Second Reply to Hayne was to Daniel Webster, what the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was to Lyndon Johnson, Carhartt sweatshirts and baggy shorts will be to John Fetterman...

There are many organizations in Southeast Missouri and across the state doing good work, helping whomever they can, however they can. Not many, though, trace their lineage to post-Civil War America. Lutheran Family and Children's Services of Missouri, which marked its Cape Girardeau location's 50th anniversary Sept. ...

Thank God for Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. I wish every major television and radio network in the country had covered what the smart and colorful Republican did in the Senate this week. As part of a hearing looking into the alleged threat to freedom posed by parents who want to have sexually explicit gay and trans books removed from their school libraries, Kennedy bravely quoted some choice excerpts from two of the books...

When the progressive woke revolution took over traditional America, matters soon reached the level of the ridiculous. Take the following examples of woke craziness and hypocrisy, perhaps last best witnessed during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. The Biden administration from its outset wished to neuter immigration law. It sought to alter radically the demography of the U.S. by stopping the border wall and allowing into the United States anyone who could walk across the southern border...

Calling Lindenwood a SEMO football "rival" is a sad propaganda attempt by people trying to create a tornado from passing gas. The squirrels eating the lines at Jackson Schools is oddly familiar. The pesky critters routinely ate our DSL lines and the AT&T repairman would never believe me when I would ask them to please check for squirrel damage. New company and buried lines took care of that problem...

Did you know projects such as Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center, Discovery Playhouse, Shipyard Music Festival, Cape Catfish and many others got their start or aligned with project ideas from Leadership Cape? The seven-month leadership development program hosted by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce features team projects each year, and many of the amenities we enjoy in Cape Girardeau were once ideas pitched by leaders in this program...

Today's hyperpartisan and frequently negative news cycle ignores one significant and uplifting story: the precipitous decline of global inequality. It's a subject that deserves our attention, for it reveals the power of markets, trade and human ingenuity to lift up societies...

I've had a lot of questions over the past couple of weeks regarding the new texting while driving law that went into effect on August 28. Senate Bill 398, which includes the "Siddens Bening Hands Free Law," went into effect and became law after being passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor. ...

The memo went out from the White House that there's no evidence President Joe Biden did anything wrong regarding his son's business dealings and, sure enough, the media is repeating the line. To the contrary, we already know that Biden was complicit in an inherently corrupt enterprise that centered on selling access to him when he was a high government official...

When I was a kid, video games had two options: play with a friend on a console or try to beat the computer. The rise of the internet and smartphones has added a third option: play online with friends and strangers. It's great that gaming has become super accessible. Games are on our phones and on our computers as well as our TV consoles...

When a farmer gets up in the morning, they have a lot to think about. They are thinking about getting the kids to school on time, the mid-morning meet-up with the seed dealer and the evening FFA alumni meeting. They hit the alarm at the crack of dawn, roll out into the cold to feed cattle and simultaneously check the weather and markets while anticipating the needs for the next planting season. ...

If two days of fantastic music, good food and drink and even activities for the little ones -- all in a convenient location -- sound like a good time, Shipyard Music Festival will be the place to be next weekend. The fifth installment of the festival, presented by Century Casino of Cape Girardeau and organized by The Scout and rustmedia, will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, and crank up again at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 on the casino grounds at 777 N. Main St...

"Worse than Jimmy Carter" is an epithet Republicans often throw at Democratic presidents. It's a label, though, that Joe Biden clearly deserves on immigration, an area where -- along with inflation and the Afghan debacle -- there are echoes of the Carter years...

From day one of Joe Biden's presidency, Republicans have fought tooth and nail to advance the policies we need to secure our southern border. Yet at every step of the way, Biden and Washington Democrats have blocked our commonsense efforts to make our border secure again like it was under President Donald Trump. And the consequences of the Left's actions -- or lack thereof -- are absolutely alarming...

Joe Biden has seen the future, and it is electric cars. Lots of electric cars. Electric cars -- or else. Donald Trump has seen the future, and it is a backlash against the mandate for the mass adoption of electric cars. The former president is promising to "stop this Madness, IMMEDIATELY!"...

Some might identify them as pillars of their communities -- building, improving, expanding. Others might recognize them as behind-the-scenes organizers -- the folks who get things done without regard to who gets the credit. We call them Difference Makers...

What shameless act or felonious activity was not evidenced on Hunter Biden's laptop? Racist attitudes toward Asians? Soliciting prostitution? Felonious use of drugs? Photographed nudity and perverse sex? Admissions to illicit foreign shakedowns? Hunter all but accused his own father, President Joe Biden, of also being on the foreign take: "I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family ... Unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary."...

Malcolm Muggeridge noticed that Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity religious sisters in India radiated joy. "I have been immensely struck by the joyfulness of these Sisters, who do what an outsider might think to be almost impossibly difficult and painful tasks," the British journalist, an avowed atheist, told Mother Teresa in 1968 as he was working on a documentary and book "Something Beautiful for God." That BBC interview introduced her to the world stage...

If you like cool cars and motorcycles, there are a couple of events that should be on radar this month. The Motorcycle Cannonball is scheduled to stop Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Cape Girardeau. The public can stop by the John Boardman Pavilion on South Main Street from 4 to 6:30 p.m. ...

Innocent until proven guilty. That's a fundamental right in America, at least until now. Anti-Trump groups determined to disqualify the leading Republican candidate for president are urging state election officials across the U.S. to remove Donald Trump from the ballot, claiming he's an "insurrectionist." They're citing an arcane clause in the 14th Amendment, written after the Civil War, that disqualifies anyone who "engaged in insurrection" against the United States from holding public office...

An essay collection I've contributed to was released this month and I'm a bit nervous. It's not my first contribution to a book. It's not even my first essay in this flash nonfiction book series, but I'm anxious just the same. Let me explain. The book is called "Fast Fallen Women", and it's edited by feminist scholar and humorist Gina Barreca, Ph.D. ...

Almost a hundred years ago, the great American author Sinclair Lewis wrote a political novel called "It Can't Happen Here". The 1935 book was a warning that what was happening then in Europe — the rise of fascism and Nazism — could come to America in the form of a Hitler-type politician who gets elected and then becomes a dictator...

A good friend told me many years ago, the human is the only animal God created that could be "skinned" more than once. Since that nugget of truth was shared with me, I've witnessed this "skinning" numerous times. Why do we continue to accept misrepresentations as facts? Why do we continue to allow others to take advantage of and lie to us? Why do we allow ourselves to be "skinned" over and over again even when we know better?...

Politics is the absolute worst lens through which to look at abortion. And yet, when we talk about abortion, it's almost always about the political aspects of it. This is necessary because we must debate law and policy. But how can we make the discussion more compassionate? Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley led the way during the first Republican primary debate...

SALT Senior Information Day was a huge success! Thanks to you and your support! We were able to place 203 Cape Girardeau County senior citizens in a room with 32 not-for-profit providers of programs and services to assist seniors with their ability to improve their quality of life...

In December 1998, Rep. Bob Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, was set to succeed Rep. Newt Gingrich as speaker of the House. Gingrich had announced his resignation from Congress and the speakership in the wake of a disastrous midterm election for Republicans as well as revelations that he'd been having an affair with a House staffer who was more than two decades younger...

Every August, I visit farms, ranches and agriculture businesses across Missouri's 8th Congressional District as part of my Farm Tour. The annual tradition is an opportunity to not only showcase these families, farms and small businesses, but also to learn more about the challenges they face with the federal government, whether it's trade, federal regulations or the sky-high costs of everything from feed and fertilizer to energy and farm equipment...