Breaking News

Opinion

Feeling more appreciative than ever

Columns

As we are now upon another holiday season, with the celebration of Thanksgiving just past, I am especially grateful to be able to spend this time with my mother and friends. Since baking turkey is one of my signature dishes, my friends often tease me because I go to at least three grocery stores to find the best turkey sales by the pound. However, Thanksgiving sides and desserts, such as macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie, are not in my culinary skillset, so I always end up buying them. I keep telling myself that I must get my cooking up to par to reflect my Southern heritage, and ...

The tariffs really are not helping anything at all

Columns

Ronald Reagan famously said that the most frightening words in the English language are: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” U.S. manufacturers must know exactly what the Gipper meant. Donald Trump is a whole-heartedly pro-manufacturing president, and he’s definitely here to help — with a dizzying array of tariffs. So far the evidence is that, on net, his tariff agenda is not helping, and almost certainly hurting, the manufacturing sector he’s out to rejuvenate. The September jobs report was pretty good overall, but manufacturing continues to be a ...

So, we’re thankful to whom for what?

Columns

Among my growing list of improper uses of the English language is the response I get when telling a restaurant server or anyone else “thank you.” The usual response has been for as long as I remember, “you’re welcome.” For the young, especially, it has become “no problem.” Why would thanking someone for a service or kindness performed be considered a problem? Thanksgiving, which mythically began when the Pilgrims and early settlers thanked God for his “many blessings,” despite their difficult circumstances, is now a small bump in the road on the way to the annual ...

Unimtimidated — that’s how Dick Cheney approached everything

Columns

The word that best describes how former Vice President Dick Cheney, who wielded the responsibilities he undertook in public affairs over a long career, began improbably early in life and extended into years of repudiation by his fellow partisans, is “unintimidated.” He 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 (while his wife, Lynne Cheney, earned hers.) Cheney, who died last month and was eulogized in a ceremony to which the current ...

Justice can’t be derailed

Editorials

Despite Norfolk Southern’s assertions that it would make things right in East Palestine — after a derailment back in February 2023, the company appears to continue to resist doing so. Most recently, it filed motions in federal court seeking to EXCLUDE expert testimony presented by the state of Ohio and the United States as part of ongoing litigation. The proposed $315 million federal settlement between Norfolk Southern and the U.S. Department of Justice is still pending. Among the challenged witnesses are three medical doctors who support Ohio’s effort for a long-term medical ...

The flying public continues to grow more surly

Columns

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is my new hero. Duffy is promoting a “civility” campaign that urges passengers to be polite and dress up rather than wear sweatpants and slippers when they fly. If everyone dresses better, everyone will behave better, Duffy offered. It’s an idea that could bring smiles to the friendly skies around the Thanksgiving holiday. During a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport, Duffy was wearing a suit and red tie. This was an outfit that answered the question: What would President Donald Trump wear? The good news: Duffy did ...