Like many scholars of democracy, I have strongly supported both the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Both are necessary (though not sufficient) to secure the most precious rights…

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has inspired a new following from the extreme right, including some members of Congress, by asking: Why take Ukraine’s side instead of Russia’s? The arguments are vast for defending the…

Alaska is a place both physically and psychically removed from the rest of America, which folks there refer to as “Outside.” Note the capital “O,” as it appears in newspapers, which reflects both standardization and…

Dear editor, Iola has an affordable housing problem.  In my opinion, it’s time for city leaders to approve making the old nursing home on North Walnut Street into affordable apartments, as recently proposed.  Many years…

On Thursday, the Kansas Senate passed a bill that will provide $1 billion or more in tax breaks for large-scale industries that plan to invest here. It’s our hope the House does the same. The…

In politics, there are many artificial divides: liberal and conservative, rural and urban, insiders and outsiders, past and future. When we are faced with problems of extreme gravity, though, we often stand united and work…

The U.S. put 8,500 troops on alert Monday with the possibility of deploying them to shore up NATO defenses in Eastern Europe, and allies are sending ships and fighter jets. The West is finally getting…

I retired this year after 23 years in the Kansas Statehouse advocating for schools. I thought I would work longer, but the Statehouse is a toxic environment. It is an unhealthy place to work for…

Kansas school board elections are two years out, but a new group isn’t waiting until then to try and support the state’s public education system, which like others across the country, has been undermined by…

It was only three months ago that surgeons successfully attached a kidney from a genetically altered pig to a human recipient. Since then, new successes continue to pile on. In December, the kidney procedure was…