Her husband was murdered in front of her eyes. Then they shot her. She went to the police, testified against the killers, and watched as they were convicted and sentenced to prison. And then the threats started, against her mother and father, her grandparents, her children. In Honduras, naming your persecutor, even one who is […]

If only Nixon could go to China, as the saying goes, then maybe only Republicans can legalize weed. Marijuana has now been legalized for medical use in many states — only Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota still prohibit use in any form. Nine states allow recreational marijuana use, and 13 others have decriminalized recreational […]

2018 has been an exceptional year so far — a year of reflection and celebration for Northeast Sight Services’ 100 years of service – and it’s not even at the halfway point. Not many organizations can say they’ve been around for a century. We’re one of the lucky ones. Imagine … in the year 1918, […]

After four years of living with mysterious circumstances surrounding Laurie Merritt’s death, family members now demand answers. They don’t mind if police and prosecutors get upset with their insistence. People who loved the 51-year-old Wilkes-Barre mail carrier will tell you law enforcement owes them and not the other way around. Four years is simply too […]

With much justification, Americans bemoan the state of our political discourse and the poor character of many our politicians. With the election of President Donald Trump came the depressing realization that decency, kindness and humility weren’t needed to reach the highest political office; these qualities might even be a hindrance. But we should not leap […]

WASHINGTON — I bought fired FBI director James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” so you don’t have to buy it. I read it so you don’t have to read it. It’s not a bad read, especially if you like to know details of what goes on behind the headlines and are […]

Two years ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan was the Republican Party’s indispensable man, uniting the party’s unruly congressional caucus behind an agenda of cutting taxes and shrinking the welfare state. Now Ryan, R-Wis., is retiring to spend more time with his teenage children. What happened? Ryan’s speakership began with strong support from rank-and-file Republicans, but […]

There are opinions, and there are facts. First, some facts. It used to be that pregnancies were divided into trimesters and the state could not regulate abortion in that first trimester, could regulate it in the second only to protect the health of the mother, and could regulate or limit it in the third to […]

I was a few months shy of my 5th birthday when I started kindergarten in 1968. At that age, I had no idea that 1968 was such a troubling, but influential, year. I was too young to know who the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. or Sen. Robert Kennedy were and what their assassinations would […]

Soon, perhaps by the time you read these words, President Trump will launch a missile strike against Syria. It may be small; it may be large. It may include French and British aircraft as well as U.S. missiles. Either way, it will enable Trump to declare victory and applaud his own resolve, probably on Twitter. […]