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How to get rid of ‘Citizens United’

National Columnists

Several of you responded to my “Sunday thought” by saying that the first step out of the mess we’re in is to get rid of the Supreme Court’s bonkers Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision of 2010, which held that corporations are people – entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the rest of us. Corporate political spending was growing before Citizens United, but the decision opened the floodgates to the unlimited super PAC spending and undisclosed dark money we suffer from today. Between 2008 and 2024, reported “independent” expenditures by ...

Cheney remembered as always unintimidated

National Columnists

The word that best describes how former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wielded the responsibilities he undertook in public affairs over a long career, is “unintimidated.” Cheney, who died early this month, was unintimidated by his rise to become White House chief of staff at age 34 in 1975, after flunking out of Yale University and not finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. Still in his 30s, Cheney remained unintimidated by the travails of his patrons and his country – the forced resignation of Nixon in August 1974, the evacuation of U.S. troops from the embassy ...

Holiday drama got you down? Take tourist route

National Columnists

A friend recently told me they were dreading the holidays. I get it. Holidays can be stressful. The idea of socializing with relatives you don’t see all the time or don’t always get along with can feel a bit daunting. Whether it’s because of political disagreements, a divorce or another hardship that’s all your own, the holidays can be just plain hard. Consider this your reminder to hold space for yourself. There is no right or wrong way to do the holidays and there should be no expectations. You do not have to endure anyone else’s emotional projection or deflections. If ...

Many unsung heroes are among us

National Columnists

Steve Lipscomb was a son, a father, a husband, a Marine, a man of faith, and a coal miner. Recently, Lipscomb and his crew encountered an unknown pocket of water when a “sudden and substantial” flood sent millions of gallons into the Rolling Thunder Mine. Lipscomb lived up to his life of service, faith, family and community by ensuring his entire crew made it out safely. Officials said that as Lipscomb finished evacuating his crew, rising water filled the shaft so rapidly that he, the last man remaining, had no way out. It was the last time he was seen. After five days of ...

Do not fail to be thankful for what you have

National Columnists

In 2006, a few days before Christmas, doctors announced my wife had six months to live. She had, they said, a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs. There was really nothing that could be done. We had a one-year-old and I had been told my job was coming to an end the same day of the diagnosis. Thankfully, it was a misdiagnosis. Not only did I keep my job, but I kept my wife. Ten years later, doctors informed my wife they suspected she had a genetic form of lung cancer. Had my wife not been misdiagnosed in 2006, they would not have known about her lung cancer in 2016. My wife ...

It was Thanksgiving turkey to forget

National Columnists

I’ll start by making a few things clear: I love my father, I love cooking and I love Thanksgiving. And now that the throat-clearing is done, I can move on to the complaining. Because of all dishes in all the holidays on the calendar, there’s nothing like the Thanksgiving turkey for getting under your skin. And last year, it got under mine like the butter rub for a gourmet gobbler. My dad lives in Florida, where global warming has gone to retire, and he keeps the thermostat set to an Amazonian 85 degrees to boot. So, already cooking ourselves, my father and I were ready to ...