Guest Columns
Missouri is one of only a handful of states that prohibit early voting, leading to long lines, confusion and other obstacles at the polls. We need to protect and ensure the right of every Missourian to vote regardless of whether the person has job responsibilities, child care issues, or the country is facing a global pandemic.
With festive turkey-based feasts fast approaching, and having just re-watched a classic Thanksgiving-themed Steve Martin video, I thought it appropriate that I share a few of the things for which I am thankful. I apologize if the list is too predictable and schmaltzy, but please bear with me.
Speaking in 1910, former two-term president Theodore Roosevelt offered some practical advice that Elizabeth Warren and today’s progressive Democrats would be wise to heed. Although they probably won’t.
Tens of thousands of acres scorched by unstoppable wildfires.
CHICAGO — “I hate math!”
I’m on the fence about this, if you want the truth.
It’s long past time to improve health care access to our state’s most vulnerable populations.
It began with 25 candidates. It’s been reduced by half, yet concern persists among Democrats that the party should look beyond the still standing contenders and seek an individual capable of party unification and persuade him or her to enter the race.
My sister Kris kicked the tar out of Frankie Leper.
In its season opener “Saturday Night Live” did a fine job of skewering political figures who dominated headlines during the show’s summer hiatus. The Trump stuff was funny, but even with new Ukrainian fodder it was routine. The Democratic parodies, however, were fresh and so spot-on that the…
WASHINGTON — It’s fair to say at this juncture that America’s Quid and Ukraine’s Quo have been caught in bed together.
Autumn has arrived. I can’t think of a better time to put priorities back in order.
WASHINGTON — We don’t yet know whether President Trump delayed some military aid to Ukraine as leverage to get Ukraine’s president to reopen an investigation into Hunter Biden. But if we are concerned about U.S. officials inappropriately threatening aid to Ukraine, then there are others who …
“If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a perfect kid. And six of ’em, yecch!”
An invasion from outer space might do America some good.
A question for this moment: If the Earth’s lungs were on fire and the doctor refused to treat it, would there be cause for a third-party intervention?
Andrew Luck, the superstar quarterback who just quit professional football at the tender age of 29, has received mixed reviews from the sports world. Colts fans booed him. And any number of sports writers see his decision to get out of football to avoid more injuries as tragedy combined with…
When I served on the Missouri Public Service Commission, my overriding priority was to ensure that Missouri residents didn’t experience power outages.
Pop quiz: What did Lyndon Johnson in 1968, Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, and George H. W. Bush in 1992 have in common?
“Sometimes I worry that if I ever can retire and do get Social Security payments, they’ll be a lot less than what I’ve been promised,” I said to my CPA, Louie the Number Cruncher.
President Trump has warned China that it must respond “humanely” to the protests in Hong Kong if it wants a trade deal, for the first time suggesting that the United States would impose costs on Beijing if it launched a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on the city. It’s about time. China is …
Our sixth-generation, family-owned company has been headquartered in Missouri for more than a century. We supply steel for bridges, buildings and pipelines. Our work has given us a close-up view of the challenges facing U.S. manufacturers due to subsidized imports. Lately, the only good news…
Amidst the latest bloodshed — the worst of it triggered by a white racist domestic terrorist whose El Paso manifesto echoes Trump’s racist rhetoric — I bet you’re jonesing for some good news. I’m happy to share what I have. Admittedly it isn’t much, but at this point we should probably be gr…
These “debates” are to serious policy discussions as a kazoo is to an orchestra. You can say a kazoo is an instrument, and you can say that these truncated thoughts are proposals, but you’ll invite smirks.
Is it safe for me and my wife to return from our vacation in Eastern Europe?
Missouri Western State University is a special place where students can learn, grow and acquire the tools necessary to succeed. As its new leader, now is a perfect time to talk about the university’s impact and the value of a four-year college degree.
WASHINGTON — Here we go again. President Trump appeared to renew his threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement if Democrats do not pass his new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. His threats may worry pro-trade Republicans, but they are music to the ears of anti-NAF…
WASHINGTON — Thirty months after setting the goal of sending a mission 239,000 miles to the moon, and returning safely, President John Kennedy cited a story the Irish author Frank O’Connor told about his boyhood. Facing the challenge of a high wall, O’Connor and his playmates tossed their ca…
Some people never break the posted speed limit, they gingerly seal it in bubble wrap.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who, like nearly everyone, is running for president, presides over the largest and most media-centric city in America.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s detractors are trying to play down the significance of the U.S.-Mexico immigration deal, saying it is largely comprised of actions that Mexico already had agreed to many months ago.
Fifty years ago this summer, Charles Manson went on a killing spree that shocked the nation and was the ghoulish “gold standard” for heinous crimes. While some killers have been more prolific (like the Rev. Jim Jones) and some have been more photogenic (like Ted Bundy), and some have been mo…
WASHINGTON — The American people are sending a pretty clear message to Washington: They are sick and tired of the investigations into President Trump and don’t want Democrats in Congress to impeach him. But the Democrats aren’t listening.
Like most people, I didn’t think much about my Social Security number — until I got a bizarre call from a total stranger.
The Democrats running the House of Representatives have gone insane — and they prove it every day.
During World War II, of the 500-plus MLB players who served, only two young Americans were killed.
PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — A new United Nations report projecting the extinction of one-eighth of all animal and plant species should rattle the cages of any remaining skeptics regarding climate change and the central role humans have played in Earth’s accelerating destruction.
WASHINGTON — A man who worked in a boxer’s corner in a 1962 match against Cassius Clay, as he still was known, explained why the referee stopped the fight in the fourth round: “Things just went sour gradually all at once.” It can be like that when government dabbles in protectionism.
I hope to be just like my mother one day.
WASHINGTON — If Shakespeare had titled Attorney General William Barr’s appearance on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he would have called it “Much Ado About Nothing.”
With heartbreak, we have watched our friends and neighbors across the states of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska suffer from the impacts of historic Missouri River flooding, caused by severe winter weather, which included the infamous “bomb cyclone” pattern, leaving behind record river stages, a …
The Trump administration is upping the ante in its war on undocumented immigrants with a new proposal to boot them from public housing — all in the name of helping “the most vulnerable” Americans.
My friend Jack Corrigan, one of the smartest politicos/lawyers I know, saw it right away. He called it “the key punch-pulling passage in the report.” It occurs on page two of volume two, where Robert Mueller says he and his team “determined not to apply an approach that could potentially res…
WASHINGTON — Some government foolishness has an educational value that compensates for its considerable cost.
No wonder Donald Trump was so angry.
WASHINGTON — That Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went on FOX News for a town hall Monday night was controversial among Democrats. As Sanders told hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, “Not everybody thought I should come on this show. Your network does not necessarily have great respect in my …
If you’re serious about being a Christian, Easter (like the other 364 days of the year) can be a very demanding time.
Tax season is upon us, which gives us a choice: Laugh or cry. I choose to laugh.
Joe Biden’s explanatory video in response to stories of his sometimes overly exuberant physicality was well-played. He seemed relaxed, sincere, unscripted and, above all, not supine.
The Social Welfare Board is thankful for the physician help provided to its patients.
Editorials
Anyone who watches C-SPAN or BBC America knows that the British parliamentary system is made for TV.
Missourians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic could receive a jolt today when the Missouri Department of Labor reimposes rules that require a work search in order to receive unemployment benefits. Those rules had been waived as the coronavirus drove the economy into recession and new c…
For a brief period in 1791, only two nations on earth possessed a written constitution: the United States of America and Poland.
Odds are, you’ve never heard of Jaden McNeil.
You’re going to hear a lot about face masks in the coming days.
How quickly we forget.
Six months ago, it was looking like a fun year.
By now, most St. Joseph police officers should know that they are always potentially being recorded.
In the fall of 2016, blowing embers from a two-structure fire briefly forced the evacuation of the nearby Downtown hotel, known at that time as the Radisson. Guests were given the all-clear an hour or so later.
Some accolades are merely for show, a check-the-box reflex that has all the meaning of a certificate of appreciation for sportsmanship or participation.
Debating the finer points of a “spike” versus a “surge” might be like debating whether or not a hot dog is a sandwich.
The primary election is less than six weeks away, but voters might have trouble learning about candidates in what has been a delayed and disjointed campaign season.
Missouri Western State University’s request for emergency support should serve as a wake-up call for those who view the institution’s financial condition as an overreaction or a temporary blip.
The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass eulogized Ulysses S. Grant as a “man too broad for prejudice.”
A fresh face is voted into office with great hope of dragging St. Joseph into the modern era.
On paper, St. Joseph shares certain similarities with Camden, New Jersey.
U.S. Supreme Court justices don’t consider politics or put a finger to the winds of public opinion when ruling on constitutional questions.
Here is a harsh reality about Krug Park.
Senate Bill 600 went through plenty of changes during its march toward final passage in what proved to be an extraordinary and bizarre legislative session. But the overall intent of the Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer’s legislation never wavered: to make Missouri’s streets safer by keeping some of the…
It remains to be seen whether a public records request will yield greater insight into the financial emergency at Missouri Western State University.
St. Joseph takes a big step toward normalcy today with the elimination of all citywide social distancing and safety requirements, even as other parts of the country raise concerns about a “second wave” of the coronavirus.
Word on the street is that some of the municipal pools in our area are getting ready to reopen.
One of the phrases that gives you pause in these charged times is “any means necessary.”
If any good came of the this newspaper’s decision to publish an inappropriate cartoon, it is that it generated a discussion about race.
This week’s metropolitan-area unemployment report lays out the reality of coronavirus-related shutdowns for the local economy.
What hasn’t been hurt by the coronavirus? Maybe Amazon or the stock value of companies that make toilet paper.
At times, St. Joseph seems like a city with an inferiority complex. But the next time you want to brush this community off as the little town that couldn't, consider the interaction between St. Joseph police and those who gathered to protest treatment of blacks at the hands of law enforcemen…
A voter could find plenty of reasons to not participate in today’s election.
We’ll say this about the Ag Expo Center. You can’t blame all of its stumbles on the coronavirus.
A minimalist, or someone who doesn’t trust the government, would find plenty to like about this year’s legislative session in Missouri.
In St. Joseph, a City Charter review can be an unnerving process.
For a child, “because I said so,” is an acceptable answer. After all, mom knows best.
That looked like quite a party over the holiday weekend at Lake of the Ozarks. Footage showed revelers packed at pools and outdoor bars, sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder without masks.
Our advice to anyone — businesses, governments or individuals — is to beware of consultants.
We’ve heard it time and time again. The city of St. Joseph needs to take care of what it has and focus on core issues of infrastructure, safety and public services.
If you feel a need to unwind this holiday weekend, don’t let anyone stop you. Two months of social distancing and lockdown can be stressful and dispiriting.
On Rachel Maddow’s television news show, commentators noted a spike in positive COVID-19 cases in St. Joseph just as local officials here were “agitating to open everything up as soon as possible.”
Homelessness was never a problem confined to one particular service agency or even a single part of town. It was never going to be solved on the basis of a check from Mosaic Life Care.
St. Joseph added another arrow to its quiver with the addition of Metropolitan Community College to the educational landscape.
Americans have grown accustomed to a low-cost, abundant supply of food. Studies show that the typical U.S. household devotes a lower percentage of personal income on food than people in other countries, both developing and advanced.
Missouri lawmakers considered the removal of medical marijuana licensing caps but weren’t quite ready to pull the trigger.
Another year, another failure to pass prescription drug monitoring in the state of Missouri.
Spare us the political lecture over the unfairness of voters getting another crack at changes to legislative redistricting in the state of Missouri.
If trying times are the inspiration for great art, then St. Joseph residents are in for a treat at local theaters and galleries.
Take a look at the photo attached to this editorial. What does it say to you?
At some point, every child makes an unreasonable or ill-timed request that results in a type of conflict avoidance that’s part of every parent’s vocabulary: We’ll see.
Critics of the new Title IX guidelines contend that these changes give the accused “more rights” in sexual assault and misconduct investigations on college campuses.
St. Joseph residents probably want their city government to act more like a business, which suggests efficiency and customer-focused judgment.
The United States experienced 14 recessions since 1930, including two separate contractions known collectively as the Great Depression.
Retail sales took a big dive during shelter-in-place restrictions. That much was expected.