Guest Columns
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.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the Missouri River through the Master Manual, a 432-page document that lays out eight congressionally authorized purposes: flood control, river navigation, hydroelectric power, irrigation, water supply, water quality, recreation, and fish and wildlife…
Growing up in Savannah, I learned that school districts are the backbone of our community. One of the most important issues facing our community is the lack of trust between the school district and the public. Now is the time to rebuild that trust.
When the patients started trickling in during the mid-1980s, I admit that I was afraid. I took every precaution that I could when treating my AIDS patients, but of course, I still treated them — it was my duty as a doctor. The medical community didn’t yet know what caused AIDS, much less how…
It is with humility, appreciation and gratitude that I write this column of thanks. My journey as a teacher and coach has truly been a blessing. I can honestly say that I never went to work a day in my life. I was blessed to live my passion! I was able to use a game that I truly love and uti…
When I was a starstruck youth, I watched more than my fair share of televised awards programs; but in my nearly 28 years of wedded bliss, such show-biz soirees have consumed only minuscule amounts of my time.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”
The 2018 elections were a wake-up call for many in the R epublican Party about our party’s decreased support among women voters, particularly in suburban areas. Nearly all of the 40 seats that Democrats captured in order to win the U.S. House majority were in suburban districts, and a terrib…
Recently, in a News-Press Ping Poll the question was asked, “Should more resources be used to treat mental health in the St. Joseph Community?” A resounding 86 percent said, yes. They are right.
When I was a tyke, I always freaked out over the possible presence of “cat hairs and goims.” (Why a Tennessee farmboy pronounced “germs” like a hooligan in a 1930s movie set in Brooklyn, I’ll never know.)
Recently, editorialists of the News-Press authored an opinion piece entitled, “Remain cautious on Medicaid expansion.” The editorial concluded by opining that Medicaid expansion will cost too much and that all our legislators need to do is to make our state’s Medicaid system more efficient, …
The death of John McCain has led me to reflect about his similarities with a Missouri state senator.
As the mayor of Weston, Missouri, I believe in small, conservative government so my constituents can lead their lives freely in our beautiful town. The Missouri General Assembly is full of people who also claim to be small-government conservatives, but they sure like to tell us what to do.
To the residents of St. Joseph:
History will record that Eric Greitens announced the end of his governorship in the grand ceremonial office on the second floor of the Missouri Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.
Editorials
It’s been more than five years since St. Joseph and other cities pulled the plug on red-light cameras.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China should be filtering down to pork producers, but another development is easing the blow while injecting uncertainty into the industry.
Relax folks, Missouri fixed its looming vehicle tax crisis.
Andy Clements seems like a cautious type.
The St. Kolbe-Puckett Center for Healing opened one year ago as a grieving father’s response to a young man’s life cut short by overdose.
President Jimmy Carter emerged from a contested Democratic primary in 1980, at a time when unemployment exceeded 8 percent and interest on some loans topped 15 percent.
It is hard to believe that a child born on Sept. 11, 2001, is today a senior in high school.
City leaders in St. Joseph find themselves someplace they’d rather not be right now: In the cross hairs of a numbers whiz who helped uncover the labyrinth of wrongdoing within the St. Joseph School District five years ago.
The National Rifle Association expressed outrage last week at the news that Walmart would stop selling ammunition for handguns and certain types of assault-style rifles.
Nearly a century after Prohibition took effect, a divided America can at least agree on one thing.
Maybe it’s true what they say about marijuana. It seemed to bring about a case of the lazies in our state lawmakers.
In recent history, few fires left as much of an impact as the blaze that destroyed the Pioneer Building three years ago this November.
There was a time when the kind of seven-day enrollment report we saw this week would spark calls to “get this city growing again.” OK, fine. Any suggestions?
Up until now, an urge to critique the new Downtown gate design is squelched with a whisper from the 19th century: “Remember the Eiffel Tower.”
In 1602, an anonymous English author noticed some similarities between chimney sweeps and those who indulged in a new product that was making its way in the Old World.
Labor Day arrives this year with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce posing this question: Workers of the world, where are you?
Some critics suspected that the St. Joseph Board of Education would resume its old ways after winning public support for a 61-cent operating levy increase in April.
Some of us are old enough to recall a time when the dining choice on campus was limited to cold pizza and a hamburger patty swimming in murky liquid.
We’re sure all those critics of Andrew Luck’s abrupt retirement never felt the bone-rattling impact of an NFL hit.
In some communities, libraries might be considered the Siberia of news coverage, a dull-but-important snoozer on par with zoning boards and insurance commissions.
Our interconnected world allows a computer user to click away on tasks ranging from the necessary to the silly.
Esther George emerged as one of two dissenting votes last month when the Federal Open Market Committee met to assess the economy and cut short-term interest rates.
Freshmen probably aren’t thinking of income-based repayment plans while seeking out their classrooms today at Missouri Western State University. The same goes for Northwest Missouri State University students, who got a three-day head start on fall classes.
Josef Stalin once told a U.S. ambassador that the death of one man is a tragedy, but the death of millions is only a statistic.
Former St. Joseph Mayor Bill Falkner can give his colleagues in Jefferson City a unique perspective on a proposed online sales tax.
St. Joseph has long needed to pare down an unwieldy and overlapping assortment of groups and organizations that seek to promote and improve the Downtown district. Even college marketing students with no connection to St. Joseph saw that.
Drag Queen Story Hour could be seen as the liberal equivalent of the open carry movement, with the protagonists in both cases making a blunt, sometimes uncomfortable statement about a certain point of view. You may not like it, they seem to be telling us, but that’s just too bad.
On occasion, this editorial space is devoted to a recollection of lives that made an impact in fields of business, civics, sports or the arts.
Students aren’t the only fresh-faced individuals embarking with enthusiasm on a new academic year.
Two years ago, a researcher unearthed a photograph that suggested Amelia Earhart survived a crash landing and was in the custody of the Japanese after her plane disappeared.
If you could catch a glimpse of any wild animal, a bottom-feeder in the depths of a muddy river wouldn’t bring as much cachet as an eagle soaring in the sky or a wolf moving mysteriously through rugged woodlands.
Nearly 60 years ago, a government bureaucrat stepped up to the microphone and gave a speech that excoriated an emerging entertainment technology.
By the numbers, St. Joseph’s homeless population pales in comparison to other cities in Missouri.
The Kansas City Chiefs break training camp today with high hopes of ending a 49-year Super Bowl drought.
It’s not surprising to learn that St. Joseph children have elevated levels of lead in their blood, even higher than what’s found among children in Flint, Michigan.
It shouldn’t have taken this long, but Conception Abbey made the right decision to bring in independent investigators and release the names of priests who faced credible allegations of sexual abuse.
Students head to school this week with the hope and expectations that come with a clean slate and a new start. Soon, the hard work begins.
The world’s economies once attempted a competitive devaluation of currencies.
If there was a Glass-Half-Full Hall of Fame, Chance Gallagher would have a plaque.
Members of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission got a closer look at the condition of Northwest Missouri’s roads and bridges this week, during a regular meeting held in Maryville, Missouri.
The Herzog Companies could be viewed as the business equivalent of an iceberg.
Next time you’re squeezing the life out of the steering wheel while passing a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70, entertain this thought.
Everyone — gun owners and gun-control advocates, immigrants and those who seek to build a wall — witnessed a bleak and dispiriting 24-hour period last week.
They used to say what was good for GM was good for America. It was an oversimplification, to be sure, but the statement suggests it was possible to find agreement on polices that benefit a wide swath of workers and businesses.
At some point, St. Joseph’s double-decker bridge went from being an engineering marvel to an eyesore.
Family-oriented websites list the top 25 splash parks in the Kansas City area.
In establishing the right to a free public education, the Missouri Constitution deems knowledge “essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people.”
On its website, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a map showing 11 states with levels of “food insecurity” that exceed the national average.
Dumpsters parked outside St. Joseph public schools prove two points associated with modern recycling efforts.
Bob Heater used to start off a Friday evening newscast with the declaration: “It’s Friday, and a weekend!”