I saw Rosalynn Carter angry only twice. Both occasions involved Ronald Reagan, who had crushed Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, and both reflected her passion and decency. The first concerned a free public swimming…

On Monday I had a wide-ranging conversation with Sarah Haney, the Register’s new reporter who began last week.  Our discussion was very different from that of a job interview. This time, I could ask her…

It is a surreal state, padding to the kitchen to blend a smoothie, while less than 25 miles away the ground is poised to split open and swallow a village. The wild prospect — too…

The world is entering a dangerous nuclear arms race unlike anything since the first atomic bomb, but it does not have to end in catastrophe. Treaties controlling nuclear arms — verifiable and binding, to limit…

Even in Texas, there must be a limit to how much we’ll invest in sports. Surely one of our flagship universities paying someone nearly $78 million not to coach football is it. Texas A&M University…

More than a year ago, Iola council members voted 7-0 to extend water, electric and streets in the Cedarbrook Addition and followed through last spring by committing $1.7 million to the project with the goal…

Relations between the United States and China have sunk so low that the mere fact that President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday seems like a breakthrough. Even with few…

A couple of weeks ago, a young crowd in Shanghai came out in force to celebrate Halloween. The street where I live filled with revelers dressed in a range of elaborate costumes — as the…

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between the bipartisan stopgap funding bill that passed the House Tuesday under new Speaker Mike Johnson, and the September equivalent passed under former leader Kevin McCarthy? Answer: Nothing but the…

In the time Sam Brownback was our senator, and later governor, I’ve been to dozens of his speeches. But I never saw him deliver a sermon before.  I did Friday, at the Wichita Pachyderm Club. …