Columnists

Adequate infrastructure has long been vital to maintaining the rural economy and rural way of life. In the 1930s, the Rural Electrification Act and continued buildout of farm-to-market roads enabled family farms to become more efficient and allowed more young people to remain in rural areas. The equivalent need today is rural broadband. Rural broadband,…

This week, the Missouri Senate will focus on crafting their version of the state’s budget. Earlier this month, the Missouri House of Representatives sent over their version and the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin “mark-up” this week. The budget is a crucial tool that determines how our tax dollars are spent and invested. It is…

House members this week gave initial approval to legislation meant to promote fairness in competition and opportunity for female student-athletes. By a vote of 107-41, the Missouri House perfected HB 183 to establish the Save Women’s Sports Act. The bill would prohibit public school districts and charter schools from allowing students grades 6 to 12…

Nearly 60 years ago, Pete Townshend of the rock band The Who included in his song ‘My Generation’ a line that always stands out in my mind: ‘I hope I die before I get old.’ Now, I never personally felt this sentiment, at least not to any real extent. To be fair, though, I think…

Missouri represents an interesting perspective for the vote of Tennessee’s House to expel two of its members for disrupting a House session trying to highlight firearm issues. As far as I can discover, Missouri has expelled just two House members in the state’s long history. The first was in 1865 when Rep. John Sampson was…

The month of April signals both good weather and rain, and it signifies the end of the academic year. Students are getting close to graduating high school and college and sharing the excitement of being able to spend time outside with family and friends. Many religious observances take place in April. The spiritual beliefs that…

I haven’t written much about Donald Trump for quite a while, so I suppose on the occasion of his historic indictment my opportunity has revealed itself. We have never seen a former president being the subject of such an order from a grand jury, and it’s worth noting that these are uncharted for all Americans.…

“Well, I was born in a small town. And I can breathe in a small town.” — John Mellencamp I used to dream of living in one of those loft style apartments, high above New York City. I wanted to act on Broadway or announce the news on ABC or NBC, whatever network would have…

The Grain Belt Express project has caused a great deal of unease, fear and anger within our community. For the past 10 years, we have been fighting against this project, which involves an out-of-state company taking Missourians’ land for private gain. Unfortunately, this isn’t the last transmission project to come through our part of the…

I can’t tell if lately I have begun to feel nostalgic, or if I’m maybe beginning to show a bit of my age. Or maybe it’s both. But I have started to consider more frequently how much of the world that I knew growing up will be hidden from my children. I walked out of…