“From away.” That’s what natives of Maine call everyone else. It’s a succinct way of summarizing geographic exceptionalism. Geographic exceptionalism is everywhere, even in … more

What is it that makes people write? Many writers say that they can’t not write. Some people have to sing, some people have to dance, some people have to take apart cars. I am driven to … more

Is an extremist myth keeping U.S. policymakers from agreeing on reasonable gun safety measures that could help to reduce the seemingly endless bloodletting in America? That was the proposition laid … more

Longtime Marion County Record editor and co-publisher Joan Meyer was laid to rest last Saturday, a week after a police raid on her home that contributed to her death at age 98, an unprecedented … more

For months, Greenwood Township officials have been bludgeoning the Tower Area Ambulance Service for failing to make required transfer mileage payments to the ambulance replacement fund, a complaint … more

My Kansas hometown and my own personal world have been rocked this week by the news of a police raid on my former Kansas newspaper, the Marion County Record last Friday. Five police officers and two … more

Life is good! I begin with an update on my alcohol cessation to report I am now in the 11th week since I drank my last alcoholic beverage. I recently visited my doctor and had my blood work checked … more

Hidden within the 45 pages of the most recent federal indictment of Donald J. Trump was a surprisingly hopeful revelation. As the indictment lays out in stunning detail, the former president and his … more

Melissa Fay Greene, an Atlanta-based journalist, is a new favorite author of mine. She has written a number of books on disparate subjects, which have in common her ability to write about complex … more

Several area townships are looking for ways they can better support the Tower Area Ambulance Service, which has been struggling financially for a combination of reasons. The TAAS is certainly not … more