It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of the first quarter of 2020. How are your New Year’s resolutions going, if you made any? Research indicates that less than 25% of people stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8% end the year with accomplishment of their …

A reader wrote recently, “Illinois is in a downward economic spiral.” Many, in both Indiana and Illinois, believe this is true. They also believe Indiana enjoys a superior economic condition.

The news we had dreaded reached us Friday night as parents and students milled about on the gym floor after Cowan High School’s basketball game at Monroe Central.

Whether the sounds of reading emit from a click or the crinkle of a page manually turned, the words, themselves, become a part of readers’ collective consciousness.

A few years after my 1983 move to Fort Wayne, I was sitting in a restaurant on the south side of town when the dishes on all the tables rattled, as if the floor had suddenly shifted beneath us. The next day, I read that a 5-point-something earthquake had hit the seismic zone between Indiana …

I overheard a conversation during which one man — presumably a Republican and Trump fan — told a Trump critic: “You and your liberal friends are just mad because you lost the election and you don’t like Trump’s policies.”

It’s enormous, but if you have a high-paying job and spend it wisely, you’re better off than our federal government. What are they thinking? You can’t continue spending money unless it grows on trees and you own a national forest. Maybe that’s why the Feds are cutting down trees, hoping to s…

I loved the original Floyd Central Superhicks.

“Be thankful we are not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

Unless your Christian faith tradition falls close to the Roman Catholic Church, you may not know a great deal about observing the season of Lent, the days leading up to Easter or Resurrection Sunday.

The Wabash River flows cleaner today than it did through most of the 20th century, when the river and its tributaries served as a convenient sewer for homes, industries, meat processors and communities within its watershed. Some healing began when President Nixon signed the federal Clean Water Act in 1972. "Pure" still doesn't fit the Wabash in 2020, but it's healthier than decades ago.

When he was just a young teenage schoolboy, George Washington sat down and copied out 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior.” Many of these had to do with simple manners. “Cleanse not your teeth with the tablecloth, napkin, fork or knife,” reads Rule 100. Good advice at any time.

A historical moment took place on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. The occasion is not going to assure world peace, stop Republicans and Democrats from fighting, or bring about a cure for the coronavirus. But the incident will bring about a healing of sorts in the world of basketball…

Last week, after successfully dodging my doctor for well over a year, I finally went in for a follow-up. I had to go because I needed a prescription filled and the doctor wouldn’t approve it without current lab work. I really dislike lab work. It not only hurts, but your own blood ends up be…

It is a gray day amid a gray week in what has become a gray winter. Just a few days ago, the monotony of it all broke for a single Sunday, and with temperatures in the 50s and a bright sun radiant in a blue sky, I walked and walked until I could walk no more.

I was in the basement of the house with the body of a 17 year old boy who had just hung himself from his closet door. I had to lift him up so that the coroner could remove the belt from his neck. With my arms around his lifeless body I could feel the full weight of him. Upstairs his mother w…

This week there’s nothing but good news to report about Indiana. Many readers will say this is long overdue. Rightfully, they want to feel good about our state, to read about our achievements and opportunities. Enough with ugly clouds of statistics. Let’s celebrate the sunlight.

“Love is a lot like a backache; it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know that it’s there.”

Back when I was growing up during simpler times, the preachers at the Short Creek Baptist Church told me to love my neighbors, no matter if they were scoundrels or were liberal or conservative. The Bible doesn’t even mention the words, “liberal” and “conservative.” Apparently, man created th…

Recently, I viewed an article on Facebook about a family in Coffeyville, Kansas, who had to go to court and were jailed because of an outstanding medical bill. Mom had Lyme disease and the 5-year-old little boy had leukemia. Neither are anything I would want to contend with, and certainly wo…

Like most boys of my generation I was hooked on detective stories and could think of nothing more exciting than becoming a detective when I grew up. I watched Dragnet and Spin and Marty on television, read Hardy Boys stories, and saw all of the old Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathb…

Eight years ago, famed musician Peter Frampton found himself with a constellation of unusual physical symptoms including tight ankles, weak legs, and balance problems. He tried to ignore the symptoms and dismissed them as problems with getting older for four years — until he finally visited …

How about those kids today, huh?

Bob Knight came back.

Owen Greene lives a quiet life in Southwestern Indiana. He’s learned not to challenge the opinions of his neighbors. Yet, this past week he called me with a question.

I walked out of the hospital after finishing the 13th of 30 radiation treatments the other night, and the sun was setting dark pink over Lake Ontario. After two years in Canada, I’ve become accustomed to the beautiful water views – I’ve begun to take them for granted, barely noticing what wa…

It seems that our lives are like a super bowl. Recently, millions of Americans set aside their hectic lives to attend lavish parties that would reveal the outcome of the yearly Super Bowl. After knocking heads on what’s known as a gridiron, the Chiefs ultimately won the shiny trophy, symboli…

“I blew a tire on the Alaskan trip doing 80 mph.”

INDIANAPOLIS — If any one day could encapsulate what a strange and bewildering place America has become, Feb. 4 may have been that day.

Hoosiers have the opportunity to inform state legislators whether they value the publication of public notices.

Last week, while everyone was preparing for Super Bowl Sunday, National Curmudgeon Day was observed on Jan. 29. While the origin of this holiday is unknown, the date was chosen because it is the birthday of comedian and curmudgeon W.C. Fields. Humorist Mark Peters says, “Fields elevated curm…

I have one message for y’all — the same message — no matter if your political leanings are left or right, if you are a died-in-the-wool Republican or a die-hard Democrat, if you are an Independent or couldn’t care less about politics, or if you are a nasty, ill-tempered human being.

ON THE ROAD — The smoke from the cabin’s chimney trails skyward through the falling snow.

During a time in his life when Kobe Bryant was having some troubles, he created for himself an alter-ego: Black Mamba. So, when he was at home or in some social setting, he was Kobe. But when he was on a basketball court, he was Black Mamba.

Most folks have an intuitive understanding of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They know GDP measures the current activity of the nation’s legal economy. The change in annual GDP is the definitive statement about our national economic performance.

Back during pre-modern days when my grandfather celebrated his 50th birthday, it was difficult for him to blow the candles out. Often, my grandmother helped him blow, and I wondered why a grandmother seemed to have more air in her lungs than he did. Was it because he’d been battered through …

I still have nightmares of King Duke.

Somehow, the nostalgic charm of “Sandlot” would fizzle if the kid-baseball movie put digital-imaging “smart glasses” on the pitcher, catcher and batters.

“This term for long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker”- Ken Jennings incorrect response- “What is a hoe?”

It’s sleep-over weekend for the grandchildren with us and it’s the coldest weekend this winter. The kids were promised they could choose the agenda and activities for this weekend and they want to go to the zoo then want to go for a hike. Again, the coldest weekend of the season, but a promi…

My wife Diane and I enjoy the cartoon series Tom the Dancing Bug, featuring Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children. In this comic strip they argue legal issues like “He who smelt it, dealt it” and “I’m rubber and you’re glue, everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” All of our …

Sunday night was the closing of a whirlwind week for Clark County CARES. So much was offered to the community during Drug Facts Week, when people came to listen, even more watched on Facebook. It was something to behold. Those suffering the disease of addiction participated, as did those who…

Perhaps it’s just me thinking it, but the squirrels around my place have been acting, well, a little nutty lately.

There hasn’t been anything like this since the New Deal — a policy position so popular, so appealing in every way, and so utterly untenable. It is targeted economic development or eco-devo, a collection of schemes that would make FDR blush.

As we began a fresh new century with great expectations, 2020 has not progressed as well as the advanced American citizenry had hoped. Two days after all-night parties on New Year’s Eve, Democrats impeached the only president we have. Then later when the House impeachment managers marched th…