Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
I’m from Boston. Over the years, I lived in two apartments within a stone’s throw of Monday’s bombings. Over the years, I stood and cheered marathon runners countless times. I know every square inch of the area in all the pictures, which is hardly unusual. It’s the center of Boston. My nephew was around the corner when the explosions went off. This week’s terror hit home for me. And what to do? That is always the question. Do you stop going to sporting events? Cultural events? Outdoor rallies? I was raped around the corner from where the bombs...
I happened to be sitting in the Fox News bureau between “hits” on Tuesday morning, when the news broke about the stabbing at Lone Star College in Houston. Watching it unfold in real time, I couldn’t help but think (as I’m sure all of us did) about the Newtown, Conn., massacre and the families flying to Washington and the fear that the parents of the Texas college students must be feeling. The difference, of course, is that no one died in Texas. The perpetrator had a small knife, not a gun. In interviews being conducted by the local affilia...
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is widely considered the second most powerful court in the land because, among other things, it is the court that reviews decisions of key government agencies, from the Federal Trade Commission to the Federal Communications Commission. It is the court where key challenges to federal law are often brought and where knotty issues of executive privilege and constitutional law are decided. And among judges, it has long been the “feeder” court to the United States Supreme Court....
First, here’s the smart money (or at least my money): 6-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy joining Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. Second, narrow or broad: Most likely, narrow (much easier to get six votes), with at least four justices saying they would go further, but I’m not counting out the broad decision. Third, why now? Most important factor: political change in America. _ We like to think (and many students are taught) that the federal courts, with life tenure for judges, operate outside the pol...
Two guys are at a conference, looking bored. On stage, there’s been talk about “dongles,” which, if you aren’t aware, are devices you plug in to laptops to get connectivity. Bigger ones are supposedly more powerful. Can you guess the joke? (Hint: about whether size matters.) Actually, I thought it was kinda funny. The women sitting in front of them didn’t. These guys weren’t on the stage. No one was making her listen to them. She could’ve turned and told them to shut up. She could’ve changed seats. She could’ve had her own conversation abou...
Michael Vick was all set to do a book tour to promote himself as a new and improved role model when things got ugly. “Despite warnings of planned protests, Vick had hoped to continue with the appearances as planned, bringing his story of redemption and second chance to major markets,” his publisher, aptly named Worthy Publishing, said in a statement. “However, once the reported protests escalated into threats of violence against the retailers, Worthy Publishing, Vick and his family decided to cancel the events.” In case you’ve managed to miss t...
As I write this, it is Election Day in the nation’s second largest city. Ho hum. Worry not. It’s not as if it were the Oscars or the Golden Globes, or even the Writers Guild Award (the punch line of every joke about dumb blondes in this town is that they made the mistake of sleeping with the writer). Believe me, there are no traffic jams. Nothing has been preempted. No, this is just an election for Los Angeles mayor, school board, city council and a decision about whether to raise the sales tax to 9.5 percent. Just that. And no one is pay...
Inside the Beltway, everybody’s talking about sequestration — and not only about whether it will happen (various supposed “high-level” sources say they are not optimistic that it will be avoided) and what it will mean, but also — it being the Beltway — which side of the aisle will pay the price. The president is running a campaign to convince people that the results will be dire, that they should be avoided in favor of a sensible mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, and that the Republicans’ insistence that all of the savings come from c...
Back in 1985, after being trounced in the general election, Washington strategist Al From and a group of Democratic elected officials founded the Democratic Leadership Council. Its stated purpose was to move the Democratic Party to the middle — particularly to deal with the influence of the ideologues and caucuses (and there were many of them) who dominated the presidential nominating process. Co-founders included then Gov. Bill Clinton, Sen. Sam Nunn and Rep. Dick Gephardt, among others. It was not popular with everyone, including yours t...
Years ago, when the candidate I was working for rejected my advice, I made the mistake of going back to the headquarters and telling my loyal staff (who together had formulated the rejected proposal) that our recommendation had been declined. I did my best, I told them, but I just couldn’t make the sale. One of my closest pals, and one of the smartest politicos I’ve ever known, took me aside to tell me I had made a monstrous mistake. I thought he meant my failure to sell our plan. No, he said, that was clearly impossible. The mistake was tel...
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, every politician who has me on their email list — and there are many, on both sides of the aisle — has been filling my inbox. All of the messages begin with the requisite expression of shock and horror, the business of sending out our hearts and prayers to those who mourn. Then the gun control advocates insist that now is the time for congressional action, and the opponents caution that no legislation is going to stop people (not guns) from killing. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg remembers tha...
