If you are not a Catholic I don’t think you can completely understand how important the pope’s visit to America was.

I am not Catholic and actually am Lutheran. Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church and formed our church so it seems funny that I would write about this historic visit.

Every once in a while, a bill that is being debated in Jefferson City catches my eye – no matter on which side I agree.

One of those bills was given House approval last week. It is legislation that would create an extra incentive for students to attend classes and get good grades. That incentive would be a driver’s license.

Being in the newspaper industry for more than 30 years, I have seen changes that not only affect the actual composition of the paper, but also the decisions that are made on an everyday basis.

In 1994 Carthage had a Comprehensive Plan for growth and development done by Planning Works LLC, a firm out of Kansas City.

A major issue hitting the American public right now is the airlines canceling flights due to regular inspections.

Several weeks ago I told you Saturday Night Idol was coming to town and I told you what the preliminary plans were. The plans are now "etched in stone" and it’s almost time for the first Saturday night event, so let me tell you what the rules are.

After reading countless stories about gangs, juvenile delinquencies, underage drinking, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, etc., one tends to have a pretty negative attitude about the youth of our country.

Campaign pressure, subject to over-correction and over-indulgence, have led presidential candidates to deal with many major issues of vital importance to the future of the nation as if each one is a stand-alone matter to be solved on its own terms alone.

Carthage, the new New City, started all over again as a pioneering experience in the immediate wake of the Civil War, which had left it primarily a deserted wasteland. The deed was done with a primarily new populace with different purposes and different sources than those of the 1830s and 1840s who had founded the settlement as a boating and milling center with a developing agricultural focus.

Greetings from Tulsa!

As an outspoken person the political arena has never been a place I’d like to be.

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that my favorite sport is baseball, America’s national pastime.

 The line distinguishing and setting apart right and wrong, legality and illegality, left and right, long and short, well-groomed and sloppy, treasure and garbage, honesty and dishonesty, etc., has become seriously blurred and cries out for attention.

 Carthage Woolen Mill, a dominant pioneer industry and a contributor to the cause of civilization on the frontier, disappeared in the early part of the 20th Century with few to mourn its passage or chronicle its memory.

It is with great regret that I must inform the readers I will no longer be reporting for The Press as of April 5.