Life was so much simpler when I was in school. History texts focused on presenting facts – and back then, a fact was a fact was a fact.
Today, though, there are some who think the …

Two contradictory tidbits from a CNet story this morning about an Federal Communications Commission report on expanding broadband Internet access to more parts of the country:

A third of adults who don’t have broadband at home …

We have a raging health-care crisis that we cannot solve.
Unemployment has “dropped” to 9.7 percent, but that’s a trick. The real number is much higher because we no longer count people who are so discouraged …

I get that some parents are a total pain in the rear. I’m sure I am at times, though I try hard not to be.
And I know that a sarcastic diatribe can be cathartic.
Unless, of …

It’s amusing, in a “fiddling while Rome burns” sort of way, to see how public officials flock to the freebies like hogs to slop – and then fail to report the corporate largess that’s showered …

Here’s how it works at Wal-Mart: A security guard spots someone she suspects of shop-lifting. She stops the person, calls the police and an investigation takes place.
Here’s how it would work if Wal-Mart were the …

Pity the poor ginormous telecom that’s forced to scrape for every nickel and dime it can find in order to stay afloat. Eventually, those costs have to be passed along to the consumer, you know.
I’m …

Merry Susan Hyatt is a 61-year-old substitute teacher in Redding, Calif., who’s also taught in Southern California. In all those years she seldom encountered students who weren’t Christian. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a …

It’s the type of meaningless legislation that usually draws scant attention beyond the members of the team being honored or the local luminary being recognized.
Except this time, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II’s resolution backing the designation …

I understand Republicans a little less every day.
Government-funded public health insurance: Bad. It’ll blow up the budget.
The stimulus bill and its middle-class tax cuts: Evil.  No need to fritter away money unless we’re throwing it …

Recent studies show that texting behind the wheel is more dangerous than driving drunk. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia already ban texting while driving. Federal employees can’t do it, and there already was …

You have a nasty habit of speeding. You know your break-neck tendencies put others’ lives in danger, but you do it anyway.
But then along comes a proposal that would pay you to not speed. Sounds …

Give Massachusetts Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein credit for persistence.
For three years now, she’s been a staunch defender of fluff – Marshmallow Fluff, that is. Apparently, it’s no joking matter in Massachusetts.
She led the opposition back in …

I’m not going to pick on Joe Wilson.
The South Carolina congressman  earned the honors of poster boy of the week for Foot in Mouth Disease after his impolitc political outburst Wednesday during the president’s health …

It must be tough these days in paradise, what with the economy being what it is and the hit that’s caused in Hawaii’s tourism industry.
And the natural human reaction when things are spinning out of …

Remember the big toy recall of two summers ago,when everything from Thomas trains to Dora campers disappeared from retailers’ shelves as plaything after plaything was recalled for violating lead standards?
Remember Congress’ uncharacteristic haste in the …

Note to Tennessee Rep. Steven Cohen: Kobe Bryant comes along only once in a generation. Except when LeBron James comes along seven years later. But by and large, the average teen-ager  isn’t ready to leap …

In this era of texting-happy teens, it was only a matter of when, not if, someone would take a tumble while messaging on a walk – apparently there are no laws against that yet.
So it’s …

It’s the most obvious promotion on Earth for business in a capital city, so of course Sacramento businesses quickly decided to offer state workers discounts on their “furlough Fridays” – their mandatory unpaid time off …

It’s probably a stretch to call pizza dancing an art form, though at least one national chain holds a competition to recognize the company’s best at twirling the board.
It’s also a stretch to call people …

Good news for conspiracy theorists: The government might not need its fleet of black helicopters for much longer. Isn’t it nice to see possibilities for economizing in this budget climate?
If a study under way at …

She’s been banned from giving a speech at graduation, banished from grad night at Disney, suspended for two days and lost a summer tutoring job she was counting on to help pay for college.
Aurora Ponce …

Credit reports, criminal history, references and past employment: All valid information for a potential employer, though credit reports aren’t relevant in all instances.
Anything the employer can turn up online about an applicant: Fair game. It’s …

The images from Iran caught Big Guy’s eye as I caught up on the news this evening.
“What are the people doing, Mommy,” he asked, partly out of a desire to delay sleep but mostly due …

It’s a situation so outrageous that even those who don’t like the American Civil Liberties Union are singing its praises.
A federal prosecutor in Nevada wants a judge to force the Las Vegas Review-Journal to turn …

It seems there are two development paces for digital textbooks in California:
There’s doomed-to-fail-fast for public schools that wants to kick off by this fall, and there’s pokey procrastination for colleges that wants to wait until …

Isn’t this just what we need in this economy: Legislation that would put a common over-the-counter medication back behind the counter to keep it out of the hands of those who abuse it.
Technically speaking pseudoephedrine …

Is this what you really wanted, Californians, when you stayed home in droves two weeks ago from a special election?
Did you really intend to send the message that massive and debilitating budget cuts are the …

You just gotta love California, though I suspect the state’s predicament is more amusing to residents of the other 49 than it is to those of us who live here.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature …

New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has been ahead of the curve on a number of issues, sponsoring legislation that probably drew chuckles when he introduced it.
Seven years ago, he was responsible for the nation’s first …

Until Boots moved in and sent all my beautiful high school treasures to the Salvation Army, I still had a souvenir from my prom. It was a wine glass – for red, not white, though …

How on earth does it become right in anyone’s mind to indict a 60-year-old with a spotless professional reputation on possession of child pornography simply for doing his job?
Who can justify an employer abandoning a …

Here’s a move that makes so much sense it’s stunning that more agencies aren’t considering it.
According to the Arizona Republic, health care professionals in that state are expanding their system of asthma alerts to include …

News flash: Little boys tend to look up to their fathers. And little boys whose fathers are in the military tend to find everything about the armed forces fascinating. The uniforms, the rituals, the gear,the …

There’s no denying that Nevada Northern Railway’s Engine No. 40 is a beauty.
Built in 1910, it pulled passenger cars 150 miles or so between Ely and Cobre, Nevada – in the central part of the …

Anyone who’s spent longer than 3.6 seconds on the Internet has heard the horror stories:

America is no longer the great nation it once was because of all those illegals taking jobs and sucking up benefits.
If …

From the state that could not resist wading into the evolution debate again comes a plan headed straight for the Legislative Micromanagement Hall of Fame.
Texas State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, concerned about reports of problems with …

The obvious punch line to Sen. Benjamin Cardin’s bill that would make it easier for newspapers to become nonprofit organizations is that many companies have mastered the “nonprofit” part.
The reasons are partly economic, partly corporate.
The …