Public school teachers and administrators sometimes grow frustrated at demands politicians put on them. No wonder. Curriculum demands vary regularly, depending on what seems to concern the public most at a given time.But some failings in the priorities we set for schools seem obvious. One is ...

School tragedies are an all-too-common occurrence in the United States.For the past four years, educators and emergency personnel throughout Webster County have met as part of a School Community Safety Committee, dedicated to keeping students and teachers safe.Each month, the committee meets ...

In every town there are special people who contribute to the success of the community through the giving things they do. These folks - whose selfless contributions make life better for others in their hometowns - sometimes go unacknowledged. That's unfortunate because many of the people who ...

One of summer's most enjoyable events is about to begin. The Girls State Softball Tournament, which starts Monday, will be the highlight of the season for the 40 teams that made it to state-level competition. All the teams are outstanding. Making it to this final event of the season means that ...

Estimates by federal agencies that they in effect threw away nearly $100 billion last year should infuriate taxpayers. It is our hard-earned money, after all.But of even more concern should be that the figure represents reports from the very agencies that wasted the money. Analysts at the ...

Many people who work in the private sector would have no trouble answering a "what's wrong with this picture" question about a Veterans Affairs Department official's apology recently.During a recent congressional hearing, VA official James Tuchschmidt apologized for the retaliation some agency ...

So easy a child could do it. The phrase is used to describe everything from assembling toys to programming remote controls.And now, for sneaking across the border from Mexico into the United States.Border Patrol agents in Arizona and Texas have been overwhelmed by thousands of "UAC" illegal ...

A flood of thousands of Central American children who managed, sometimes alone, to sneak across the allegedly secure border between the U.S. and Mexico makes it clear the boundary is nothing more than a line on the map in many places. So yes, more needs to be done to keep illegal immigrants ...

In 2012, a group of property owners formed a team to start the initiative "Keep 15th Clean & Green."The ongoing goal of the initiative is to engage all 15th Street property owners to maintain high standards of appearance so that visitors as well as our own residents know that we welcome ...

National Labor Relations Board members have an opportunity to avoid making their agency look ridiculous, simple-minded and biased.They should take it.A regional arm of the NLRB, based in Chicago, has issued a ruling that would allow many college football players to form unions. That would wreak ...

Fifty-six people, most of them old women selling food to make money so they could eat, died when Boko Haram terrorists set off a bomb in a Nigerian marketplace recently.Boko Haram still holds at least 219 school girls the Islamic terrorists kidnapped in April. During just the past two weeks, ...

For as long as human beings have engaged in the assorted pursuits referred to collectively as agriculture, women have been key players in the success of those undertakings. Over the centuries, the specifics have varied from era to era and community to community, but women have remained central ...

There are many ways to lose freedom - conquering armies, surrendering without a fight. Unfortunately, we are currently surrendering our freedom, not to a foreign power, but to our own government.The growth, reach, and cost of big government is happening before our eyes and eroding our liberty, ...

The boarding pass typically lists two times: the time of departure and the time of boarding. For many airline passengers, the only significant one is time of departure.That's because "time of boarding" marks only the beginning of a long process of which they are at the end. The parade of ...

For most of the country, July Fourth weekend means hot dogs, fireworks and relaxing time with family. In certain neighborhoods in Chicago, it means something very different.For the second year running, Chicago saw a spate of violence over the long holiday weekend that would generate headlines ...

Dear Annie: I am a single mother of a wonderful 5-year-old son and am expecting another baby in the winter. My son's father cheated and lied and then left me for another woman. He briefly came back, and I thought he meant to stay, but it was only a one-night stand. I became pregnant, and he ...

Americans should be worried about the war in Iraq, for various reasons. One concern is that the Sunni army assaulting Iraq's Shiite-controlled government may interrupt oil shipments.It has been said the advice that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" originated in that part of the world. But ...

"Significant and chronic system failures" have occurred at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a just-concluded White House investigation.It is the word "chronic" that should worry - and anger - Americans.Outrageous treatment of many veterans in need of medical care is nothing new. ...

A woman whose plea agreement recommended probation was, instead, sentenced to prison Monday.The judgment, rendered by the 2nd Judicial District's chief judge, Kurt Wilke, appears to be the right one.Holly Ekstrom, along with Ronald Dilley, was originally charged with first-degree murder after ...

An example of what can happen when other countries become too reliant on the United States to defend them can be seen in Iraq. Clearly, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other leaders thought Americans would bail them out of their current dilemma.In January, a Sunni Muslim army from Syria ...