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Erma Bombeck’s legacy isn’t just humor

Columnists

Last week’s Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, celebrated 25 years of the conference. The University of Dayton held the first workshop in 2000 as a one-time event to commemorate the Bombeck family’s gift of Erma’s papers to her alma mater. It turns out once just wasn’t enough, and now there’s no hint of stopping it. The conference sells out quickly and is known to have a long waiting list. I’ve wanted to attend the conference ever since I first began publishing essays and columns in the early 2000s. In 2012, I attended for the first time, and now I can’t ...

Iran’s other enemies

Columnists

It’s not just Israel. One of the least convincing arguments of opponents of the Iran war is that it is a conflict initiated by the Jewish state for its own benefit — the U.S. is just along for the ride. This view not only discounts the U.S. interest in defanging Iran, but neglects that there are other countries in the region besides Israel and Iran and that they, too, have a stake in the outcome of this war. If there’s anything that Iran has succeeded in doing over the first month of battle, it is further demonstrating the intolerable threat that it represents to the ...

Whining about ‘winning’

Columnists

Don’t look now, but FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Jim Acosta agree on something: President Donald Trump is “winning” his effort to reshape the media landscape in his second term. Appearing on the “Power Lines” podcast with his fellow ardent leftists Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, Acosta glumly proclaimed, “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that Donald Trump is winning in his, you know, quest to reshape the media in this country that he’s cracked the code on how to hurt the press in the U.S.” Acosta recently testified at a Democrat ...

Underrated

Editorials

Those of you who have visited New River Gorge National Park and Preserve will have trouble believing anyone would fail to see it as a top destination for hikers, climbers, lovers of the outdoors and those who seek adventure amid unparalleled natural splendor. But according to U.S. News and World Report, the park is the No. 1 most underrated travel destination for 2026. “With its majestic forested hills and deep canyons, New River Gorge is often compared to the Smokies, but with shorter peaks, a more compact footprint and much smaller crowds,” according to U.S. News. “Adrenaline ...

Artificial intelligence and Artemis II

Columnists

Our April 1st Tree Talk titled “Exploring the Woods with Wonder: Multi-Generational Ways to Share the Outdoors” was an invitation for family meditate outdoors. The slides presented by Valerie Hart included many beautiful images that inspired my childhood memories of time spent outside in a simpler world before Artificial Intelligence and the launch of missions around the moon. Ms. Hart’s presentation was accessible to people who are not familiar with scientific terminology but do enjoy time in the woods.  She invited her audience to look at natural objects and think about ...

Trump and Wallace

Columnists

At the height of the 1968 presidential campaign, Douglas Kiker, a reporter for NBC, noted that George Wallace’s third-party effort was catching fire. Kiker, a Southerner, noted that the Alabama Governor was gaining traction in the North using racism as the engine of his effort. Kiker stated, “All is as if somewhere sometime a while back George Wallace had been awakened by a white blinding vision: they all hate black people, all of them, Great God! That’s it! They’re all Southern! The whole United States is Southern”. This was September of 1968, when Wallace, whose most famous ...