Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner. ...more

December 31, 2009

Never in my (almost) 70 years on Earth have I seen confidence in our government sink to the record low levels we see today. Although there are many reasons for this sad situation, one clearly stands above all others; that is, we simply cannot believe much of the garbage we are being fed daily by our administration, our Congress and by many of their allies in the media. There has never been a better example of this than the man-made global warming advocates who, if they have their way, will cause a redistribution of wealth such as none our world has ever witnessed. ...more

December 12, 2009

Chris Brown and Rihanna, who added star power to last year's Kids' Choice Awards, were conspicuously absent at the annual event on Saturday. ...more

March 29, 2009

One local manufacturing company has laid off 75 percent of its work force. ...more

March 13, 2009

State lawmakers are looking at legislation to create stricter standards for the use of young people as confidential informants. ...more

December 30, 2008

It's a sickening sight to see our local businesses struggle and some not make it. We all can count off numerous businesses that not so long ago seemed to be doing fine, and now their buildings are empty. ...more

November 14, 2008

Steve Ezra believes in the healing power of God's grace. As the newly appointed pastor at St. James United Methodist Church, he leads a congregation whose previous pastor, Brian James, stepped down after revealing his addiction to online pornography. ...more

August 13, 2008

Phillip and Andamantia Rivers often had neighbor Andreas Pieri over for dinner while his wife was out of town. Now the couple find themselves being blamed for his death. ...more

June 13, 2008

If you're sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people's spending judgment goes out the window when they're down, especially if they're a bit self-absorbed. ...more

February 8, 2008

Most Americans feel compassionate about anyone facing foreclosure. Witnessing more than a million people staring down foreclosure due to home mortgages leaves all us wanting to save people from this sad situation. But before we spend billions in taxpayer dollars for a bailout, we need to consider how this happened in the first place. When we do that, we'll see that most of the people losing their houses never should have qualified for a home loan in the first place, and that predatory lenders are to blame for most of this mess. The Bush administration reached a deal with mortgage bankers to freeze interest rates on some sub-prime mortgages for five years. Other limitations apply, and only about 225,000 people will benefit from it. In fact, it's fair to say that if these homeowners are already in trouble, freezing interest rates won't help much – if at all. ...more

December 9, 2007