When I first came to the United States, I did not speak a word of English. But every day I would join my third-grade classmates as we congregated around the American flag and placed our…

The police raid was apparently the largest in postwar German history. Early on Wednesday morning, some 3,000 officers from various branches of federal and regional law enforcement swept across 11 of Germany’s 16 states as…

Imagine if Philadelphia were totally blacked out for a dozen hours daily, with no water or heat and no electricity or cell phone coverage. Imagine if Philly high-rise apartment dwellers, including the elderly and moms…

I’m as guilty as anyone by assuming that if the Russians and Chinese simply overthrew their leaders, the prospect of a global conflict would be greatly reduced. Totally wrong, political scientists say. For one thing,…

The U.S. Senate took a momentous step Tuesday, passing a same-sex marriage law that offers a vital backstop for LGBTQ folks in Kansas and the nation. While the Respect for Marriage Act falls short in…

The mass shootings in Virginia and Colorado again call attention to the nation’s gun problem, but how deeply guns are embedded in everyday life can be seen from other random news reports: • When NBA…

I first shot methamphetamine when I was 17. As an abused child seeking relief from trauma and stress, I’d turned to alcohol at age 12 and had used numerous drugs to excess before sticking that…

Voters in neighboring Missouri just legalized recreational marijuana. Meanwhile, Kansas remains in the minority of states where neither medical nor recreational marijuana are allowed.   It’s a symptom of dysfunctional democracy in Kansas that legislators…

Sunday night, I sat on the couch, a cocktail in hand, watching Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes trot onto the field. Trailing the Los Angeles Chargers by four, Kansas City needed to drive 75 yards in…

When we think of the casualties of the Ukraine war, we obviously think of the human cost — the lives lost, the wounded and injured, the families displaced. But there are other, smaller casualties of…