Breaking News

Uncategorized

A monument to presidential power

Mitch McConnell seems to have found a way to allow President Donald Trump to eat his cake (Mar-a-Lago chocolate, no doubt) and keep it, too. On Thursday, the Senate majority leader announced that the president would sign compromise legislation hammered out in the wake of the 35-day government shutdown over funding for additional barriers along our southern border. In return, McConnell will support the president’s declaration of a “national emergency” that will allow the administration to use military dollars to build more fencing than Congress has appropriated for that purpose. ...

Not the right gift

Dear Annie: With Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day coming soon, I would like to make a suggestion to children who send gift cards to their mothers or fathers. For Christmas, I received almost $400 in gift cards to clothing stores. I am very thankful and appreciative of these gifts, but I do not need clothes, and had these cards been Visas or MasterCards, I could have purchased the mattress I need badly or something like that. I am on Social Security and never seem to have enough funds to buy some of the things I really need. — Loving Mother Dear Loving Mother: You might be a ...

Lost, buried, burned: Oklahoma’s rape kit scandal

If you are puzzled by the nationwide rape kit testing backlog, Oklahoma provides maddening insight on the bureaucratic forces that create intolerable inertia — and injustice. An estimated 225,000 rape kits have gone unprocessed across the country; more than 7,200 have been neglected in Oklahoma. Last month, a woman who reported an Oklahoma City sexual assault to police back in 2011 discovered that her rape kit had gathered dust on a shelf in Tulsa’s police department for seven years — after the Oklahoma County district attorney had informed her he was dropping the case because no ...

Stuff, Stuff and more stuff

Dear Annie: Can hoarding be cured? If not, I’ve reached the end of my rope. My dear wife of more than 30 years, who does not work outside the home, has filled up our attic, two rented storage spaces and one bedroom with so much useless stuff that you cannot walk into any of them. Our own bedroom has stacks of papers, books and clothes all around. And now she has started to fill yet another bedroom with stuff. She shops every day — online and on TV in the morning and then in stores in the afternoon. I don’t even want to think about how much money she has spent on all this stuff. ...

Trump can only win again if Democrats keep moving leftward

Donald Trump can’t win in 2020 but the Democrats can lose, and they seem determined to give it their best shot. Straight-line predictions are the undoing of every pundit and prognosticator. But it seems safe to say that if present trends hold, President Trump has no path to winning a majority of the popular vote. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote by more than 2.8 million ballots. He carried the Electoral College by very narrow margins: about 10,000 votes in Michigan, 22,000 in Wisconsin and 45,000 in Pennsylvania. In January, according to Morning Consult, Trump’s approval ...

Sad Valentine’s Day memories

Dear Annie: Each Valentine’s Day, I am filled with incredible sadness. Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our first baby girl. Her due date was Valentine’s Day, and we were so thrilled with love and excitement at the arrival of our baby girl. Her name was going to be Valentine. Sad to say, Valentine was born Feb. 14 as a stillbirth. It was without a doubt the most difficult day of my husband’s and my lives. We have since given birth to a beautiful boy, who has brought us joy and hope, but we will never forget our sweet Valentine. My husband and I have gone through ...