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Cuba should accept President Trump’s ‘friendly takeover’

President Donald Trump has shown Cuba's communist rulers two ways their reign over the island can end: the Maduro way or the Khamenei way. The Cuban regime is a mix of gerontocracy, nepotism and socialism. Its official face is President Miguel Diaz-Canel, but supreme authority still emanates from the 94-year-old Raul Castro, brother of the state's founding dictator, Fidel Castro. Though the long-lived Castro clan seems to prove only the good die young, no one beats the actuarial tables in the end, and Raul's days are drawing short. Cuba is overdue for a profound change, ...

Occupants of two separate crashes identified

The North Dakota Highway Patrol has identified those involved in two separate crashes, one in the Burlington area and the other near Belfield. Paul Hauser, 60, Foxholm, died of injuries received when the off-highway vehicle he was driving went off the road and rolled northwest of Burlington. The crash occurred Sunday, March 8. In the crash near Belfield, Christopher Klevenberg, 36, driver of a Chevrolet Silverado pulling an enclosed trailer, and Steven Klevenberg, 62, a passenger, both of Tioga, received injuries in a crash with a Volvo truck with flatbed trailer. The driver of the ...

Why health care is so expensive in America

America's health care system consistently ranks as the most expensive in the developed world. It's not, as some politicians claim, expensive because markets have failed. It's expensive because the market has been repeatedly blocked from succeeding. Until we're honest about that, any potential reforms will only address symptoms while ignoring the disease. The health care market is hindered in many ways, but the core structural problem is simple: The person receiving care is almost never the person actually paying for it. Roughly 90 cents of every dollar is covered by a third ...

America has her swagger back

In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared, "The east is rising, and the west is declining." It certainly looked that way during former President Joe Biden's term. In August 2021, Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban. During the chaotic pullout, a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. troops. Medieval barbarians humbled the mighty United States and took control of billions of dollars of military equipment. Russian President Vladimir Putin sure noticed. Just months later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Shortly before the attack, Biden mused that a "minor incursion" would lead ...

Taking look at search for meaning in everyday life

"Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose," a New York Times bestselling book by award-winning author and journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace, has made an instant buzz with readers this year. "Mattering" was released in January and is getting rave reviews as well as a huge endorsement from public health leader and former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy, who writes about social connection, healing and mental health, stated, "At a time when so many people are feeling invisible, 'Mattering' is an essential guide for how to restore meaning, ...

Feeling bad about dumb injury?

I hurt my knee taking a step onto a riser in a performance at my kids' elementary school the other day. I'm not sure yet how serious the injury is, but it's the kind of incident that makes you feel about 100 years old and like a complete moron. I mean, who gets hurt taking the stairs? So, after it happened, I decided to make myself feel better in a manner passed down through the centuries as a sure-fire method for dispelling shame: Find someone who did something even dumber than you did. With that, I commenced to furious googling, turning up tales of some of the most ...