When culture-war battles reach a fevered pitch as they have in this year’s legislative session, a dynamic is created that makes rational decisions difficult. Legislation passed under such circumstances can result in, frankly, a mess.…

I love sugar and, as a kid, I had a lot of cavities. Once, when I was in junior high, my dentist, the late Harvey Levinson, looked at me sternly and announced: “If you keep…

The day the Ukrainian Parliament declared independence on Aug. 24, 1991, I witnessed the historical moment from the gallery with my wife and a group of Western expatriates. Below us, amid rapturous applause, a huge…

Voter suppression bills are once again making their way through the state legislature.  The justification — or lack thereof as the case may be —  for these bills lies with the unsubstantiated claims of voter…

I share this statement at every presentation and every meeting I have with partners across the state because here’s what I know: The difference between telling someone from our area this statistic as opposed to…

The Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, led by the redoubtable Theodore Kuchar, played one of the last concerts of a 40-date tour across the United States. The century-old ensemble had stopped by Radio City…

When it comes to expanding Medicaid, Kansas is quickly becoming one of the last states that continues to lose money and lives because of its refusal to change. Kansas is surrounded by states that have…

The Walnut Valley Festival is on the ropes and it’s up to us to save it.  I talked this week to Bart Redford, executive director of the Walnut Valley Association, and here’s how he puts…

When I immigrated to the U.S. from Moscow in the mid-1990s, the first thing I learned was that people in the Soviet diaspora didn’t care where you came from. The fact that I’d spent half…

As we end the first year of war in Ukraine, no one can doubt who the big winner is — and who the loser. In this 21st-century version of David and Goliath, Kyiv’s defiance of…