Welcome to Sunshine Week, an annual opportunity to celebrate the public’s right to know and promote the need for government transparency. Sadly, there’s not much transparency to celebrate these days when it comes to resolving…

March 1 was Remembrance Day, a national holiday in the Marshall Islands. On the morning of that date in 1954, the United States carried out Castle Bravo, the first-ever trial of a deliverable hydrogen bomb,…

It’s amazing how long a passing slight sometimes takes to hit its target. Most times, they glance off. This one, however, took root. A friend and I were discussing all things Iola earlier this week.…

Dear Caitlin Clark, Recently, I was lucky enough to see you play in person. I brought my 5-year-old daughter to Williams Arena in Minneapolis, where I live now with my wife and two girls. You…

Many historians liken the current societal tumult in the nation to what was happening across the country in the 1850s. Sectional tensions tore at the nation’s fabric. The country was turning painfully toward images of…

Have you ever been on a long road trip with a group of disagreeing passengers? It can be dysfunctional, unpleasant, and definitely jeopardize the journey. Where to go, how fast or how safe to drive,…

Like the vast majority of people, we didn’t grow up in a democracy. To be sure, we were born in the Heartland of America and have lived here our entire lives, but we were also…

The U.S. health care system has struggled for decades with the tension between providing incentives for pharmaceutical innovation and keeping breakthroughs affordable for those who would most benefit from them. Even as countries around the…

On Valentine’s Day, as fans celebrated the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, shots rang out near Union Station. In the span of minutes, 39 people — many of them children — were wounded. And…

Sen. Tammy Duckworth shows why personal experience is the best teacher.  Duckworth is a former Iraq War veteran, during which she flew Blackhawk helicopters for the Illinois National Guard. In 2004, Duckworth’s helicopter was hit…