Columnists

If you receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and want to start or return to work, we can help. Ticket to Work (Ticket) is a program that supports career development for SSDI beneficiaries and SSI recipients who want to work and achieve financial independence. The Ticket program is free…

Generally, I’m a live and let live kinda guy. You wanna go smoke, drink, eat broccoli and other stuff I’d never do, hey, more power to you. It’s a free country. So I was expecting that I probably wouldn’t have too much of a problem with Amendment 2, which would legalize sports gambling in Missouri.…

There are two Little Piney Rivers in Missouri, one flowing into the Gasconade River near Arlington and the other flowing into the Big Piney west of Houston Missouri. Because of declining water levels and the drying up of Ozark springs you would never believe we once floated and fished the latter. Today that Little Piney…

Short of abandoning my life as a teacher and a small-town publisher and becoming a full-time investigative reporter, I’m not sure if I’m ever going to be satisfied that I know the truth of things in this world. My most frequent question these days: How much of what I just heard is true, and how…

It may have been years or even decades since you thought about how much you earned at your first job. Did you know that you can find out how much you made that first year? Or any year you worked and paid Social Security taxes? Your earnings history is a record of your progress toward…

Karen Fulton responded October 17 to an earlier column of mine. Her points were defended and documented but are nevertheless open to further comment as America edges toward another election. I will oblige because that’s what I do. Early in the letter Fulton stated my remarks were standard issue concerning immigration, the economy, and liberal…

Birthdays are inevitable, beautiful and very particular moments in our lives! Moments that bring precious memories back, celebrate the present times and give hope for the future. — Bsbr Arish This Saturday is my birthday and as I was preparing to write this month’s column I took a look at what I wrote about last…

A reality check is always a good thing in an election year. Let’s start with a response to Karen Fulton’s lengthy September 19 letter to the editor designed to counter a column I wrote earlier supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy for president. Fulton has her views of Trump and I have mine, and it is unlikely…

I remember meeting or knowing three of my eight great-grandparents. A fourth was alive when I was born, but I don’t remember her. Two of the three were my maternal grandfather’s parents, both of which were born in the first several years of the twentieth century. The third, my paternal grandmother’s mother, was older, and…