Like a lot of people, for me, the goal was that the holiday season be both merry and bright. However, what I instead discovered in the run-up to the holidays was a period that was dark and smokey.

This week, world events have emphasized the importance of American readiness to keep our country safe and stand with our allies across the globe.

On Thanksgiving of all days, I stepped on my scale, and nothing happened. No numbers flashed, and I was left standing there wondering just exactly how much turkey I could get away with eating later that day before I tipped the thing past an acceptable point.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

One afternoon this summer, after getting home from work, I got a phone call. On that afternoon, in my corner of the county, a local landowner was going to release some quail into the wild, and they wanted to know if I would be interested in getting some photographs of the event.

My family has always loved to travel. Whether it was camping trips, a road trip to the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, or a drive to the Black Hills to see relatives, we could put some miles on the family car.

Years ago, on the back page of the Omaha World Herald’s living section—once a daily mainstay of the state’s largest newspaper—there was an article about a growing trend in the news media.

We’ve all had our fill of political news. So, I thought that, this week, we’d delve into a topic that’s equally as timely— pheasant hunting.

Everyone has a “wish list”—things they’d like to get done, things they’d like to see happen, things they wish would come true. But the Nebraska Republican Party recently put together the mother of all wish lists.

I am not sure were, exactly, it fell in the world of child labor laws, but back when I roamed the halls at Palmer Public Schools, there was a rite of passage for elementary- school students that was unlike any other.