As a pediatrician and adolescent medicine doctor, I will always support preventing more kids coming into the child welfare system, but the legislative proposal for the level of need I see is not near enough. For the last 12 years I have served youth in foster care with a team of helping prof…
During the 1984 presidential debates, incumbent Ronald Reagan, then 73, famously quipped that age wasn’t an issue in the campaign: “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” It got a laugh even from challenger Walter Mondale.
What is the justice system in the United States of America: a means to punish or a way to facilitate rehabilitation? Whatever the answer might be, the result is the same. Those found guilty serve their time and are released (unless serving life without parole). Unfortunately, it’s far more c…
We are entering the 12th month of a “special military operation” that was supposed to be over in well under 12 days. The Kremlin even told Russian officers to pack dress uniforms and medals for the intended military parades in Kyiv a few days after the shooting started.
Growing up I remember hearing the phrase “Have you no shame?” That question must have held some power back in the day. But if you asked that now, some shapers of our current political culture would respond with a resounding “No.” Hyper-partisanship has moved us into a post-shame world.
If you’ve ever watched a magician and thought, How did he do that?, the answer is usually misdirection. It’s a term of art that means directing the audience’s attention away from the mechanics of the illusion so they don’t see what’s really happening.
There’s an understandable compulsion in the media and among Democrats to emphasize the differences between Joe Biden’s classified documents scandal and Donald Trump’s.
Admittedly, I’m an old timer, but I don’t remember ever hearing about the National Rifle Association in my younger days (1960s and 1970s). It’s not because I was oblivious, although that’s a condition that has afflicted me from time to time. It’s because, back in those days, the NRA was a qu…
The phone call came the same week that my young-enough-to-be-my- daughter primary care provider called me old. The call was from a friend with her new phone number at her assisted-living address, advising me that she hated it there. Both events were extremely disturbing — the first (being ca…
Joe Biden’s White House won’t call it a crisis, but it’s not exactly nothing either. Just ask Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York’s mayor, Eric Adams.
In August, Missourians learned that student achievement declined significantly across the state from 2021 to 2022 as schools and families continued to grapple with the effects of the pandemic. New data released just before the holidays by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education …
Fifty years ago Sunday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion. The decades-long culture war this sparked has arguably been the defining debate of American politics for two generations now. Last June’s reversal of Roe v. Wade appeared at the time to b…
For several years now, I’ve been told that the old consensus of fiscal conservatism and limited government was dead. So, you might think I’m delighted by the sudden rebirth of tea party-style budget-cutting zeal on display in the GOP’s brinksmanship over the debt ceiling.
Missouri’s government is considering a sweeping new regulation of public libraries. The proposed rule would defund any library that failed to adopt various policies asserted to protect children from “inappropriate” material. Whatever one thinks about the proposed rule’s policy aims, it has a…
I agree with the eight St. Louis aldermen who voted against the absurd proposal to raise the salary for the board by 50%.
Rather than invest more in clean energy, like wind and solar, and pass savings on to customers, Ameren has a monopolistic request for a $316 million rate increase.
Attacking the wealthy is a fruitless effort. Our economy and way of life are propelled by individuals and corporations striving to succeed and grow
I know a few Karens — by which I mean, people who are actually named Karen — and what’s happening to them is grossly unfair. The culture could just as easily have designated “Susan” or “Linda” or “Carol” or any other common middle-age woman’s name to describe a certain kind of self-entitled …
For all of the misery that the pandemic brought, it was a godsend to state governments, which found themselves awash in free federal pandemic money. Now that the money is drying up, states are looking at a much tougher budget reality. But rather than raise income taxes or cut services, (whic…
Missourians continually vote against their own best interest. Looking at the results of the last election you’ll find many low income counties from one side of Missouri to the other voting for candidates that want to restrict or eliminate the very entitlement programs that they rely on. You …
It was 73 degrees on Jan. 3 in St. Louis. Two days before Christmas, we had a major ice storm and temperatures that were below zero. I had hoped that the unusually warm weather would portend the start of a time of civility, that the rage and discord we’d felt throughout the country might be …
What has happened with Fanning School in the past year illustrates why St. Louis is a failed city. Fanning School is a historic building cited for reuse by the St. Louis school district. Then-Alderman Megan Green, now the aldermanic president, joined a developer in dictating a multifamily pr…
It’s not exactly a blistering insight into how Washington works, but nothing will get you more praise and respect than being powerful and wielding that power effectively. So, it should be no surprise that Nancy Pelosi finished her tenure as speaker of the House to lavish applause. Many dubbe…
Modern conservatives have this quirky talent for taking objectively positive political words and transforming them into sneering insults. Sadly, we liberals have a talent for letting them get away with it. It’s a pattern that has repeated itself since long before “woke” became the current fa…
My son, Jack, is 2-years old. Sure, we read every night. But we do math too. More parents and caregivers can get involved in their children’s math education. It’s not as hard as you might think, and the need is pretty stark.
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Every month, the community nominates their favorite teachers and educators from the St. Louis region to be the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Teacher of the Month. January’s winner is Sarah Corzine, a second grade teacher at Wilson First and Second Education Center in the Granite City Community Uni…
🎧 The hosts talk about why some people value tidiness, while others say a home filled with cherished items shows a life filled with meaning and memories.
I want to be treated like an adult. As a senior in high school, I think I can handle the harsh realities of life. It seems that, in the past few years, politicians, teachers and administrators have disagreed with my assessment. Last school year, more than 1,600 books were banned in more than…
District of Columbia Officer Michael Fanone and the others who responded to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, held the line in more ways than one. Sometimes that line can be convoluted and complicated and sometimes it is pretty straightforward.
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s worth celebrating that this hasn’t been a good year for authoritarianism.
On this holiday weekend, what gift do you give the newsmakers who have everything?
The recent execution of Kevin Johnson by lethal injection conjures Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, “The Idiot,” where the story’s protagonist describes how he would paint a picture of a guillotine execution that he witnessed in France, which still proves apt today:
We all have been to school, however, we have many different experiences. Most adults now will never know what it’s like to be scared at school. They will never know the feeling of school going on lockdown and not knowing if it is a drill or not. Wondering for how many hours you’ll have to be…