The silver lining, if any, to a disaster like Hurricane Harvey is that it brings out the best in so many of us, eager to rush in and help out in anyway possible. And certainly we’ve seen plenty of acts of heroism and generosity over the past few days in the Houston area.
Over that same period of time I’ve seen just as many posts on social media by friends and colleagues who can’t be on the ground there asking how else they can help and where best to make a donation.
Read MoreLate August always brings back memories of growing up two blocks from the beach in a four-by-four block town on the Jersey shore.
Read MoreBeyond the housing of books, libraries have now grown into vital community centers, places where people actually engage with each other on a personal level and share experiences, interests, problems and civic concerns. Dialogue is ever present.
Read MoreWith just a little more than two years left before the next decade begins, the United States Census is in danger, threatened by a lack of administrative direction and budget underfunding and challenged in an environment where facts are questioned and government data collection is suspect. Here's why we still need it.
Read MoreAll the world's an Order Muppet or a Chaos Muppet, and that explains everything, according to Slate's Dahlia Lithwick in this fun Sunday read.
Read MoreCovering the U.S. Supreme Court can be a nail-biting, knee-shaking beat. It's also a beat I miss.
Read MoreDespite its shaky economy, Puerto Rico still offers plenty of hidden treasures.
Read MoreArt collectors set their sights on criminal justice reform.
Read MoreSummer heat is coming, and so are the reading lists. Here are a few of my choices, particularly enticing in these disruptive times.
Read MoreWalter McMillian had already been sitting on death row for more than a year when Bryan Stevenson walked into his life. He’d landed there even before he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of an 18-year-old white woman in Monroeville, Alabama.
Read MoreI bit the bullet this morning. After months of staving off the temptation to subscribe to yet another news site, I hit the Washington Post pay wall for the last time -- reeled in again by a "breaking news" blast on my phone -- and succumbed to the "subscribe" button.
Read MoreYes, robocallers are bombarding your cell phone with unwanted telemarketing calls, now more than ever. What can you do?
Read MoreIf you're having a tough time facing a new work week, take a few minutes to watch this short New York Times video about the Timeless Torches, a dance group featuring more "experienced" performers that's become a crowd favorite at WNBA New York Liberty games. Just watching them will make you want to get up and get moving.
Read MoreAlicia Hart can tell you more about the brain than you may ever care to know. For the past six years, she has traveled from the frontal lobe around and back again, learning how information is processed, where sequencing and problem-solving occur, and how fear originates, all in an effort to see the world through the eyes of her seven-year-old autistic son, Ewan. The maternal instincts that guided through her older daughter’s formative years – the ability to anticipate fear, for example – were useless when it came to Ewan.
Read MoreSix justices of the state Supreme Court will hear argument this morning in a case that just might determine their own judicial destinies, considering in Faires v. State Board of Elections whether a new law subjecting them to an up-or-down approval vote at the end of their eight-year terms – as opposed to a contested election against a challenger – satisfies the constitutional mandate that justices in North Carolina be “elected.”
Read MoreThree state residents and several gay, lesbian and transgender advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit early yesterday morning challenging the constitutionalityof North Carolina House Bill 2, the hastily-enacted law that not only targets transgender individuals by limiting their use of public restrooms to those corresponding to their birth sex but also preempts all local nondiscrimination ordinances.
Read MoreThe city of Wilson prides itself on being North Carolina’s first gigabit city, offering businesses and residents broadband services with speeds 100 times faster than what’s offered elsewhere in the state.
Read MoreConservative lawmakers in Raleigh have sounded the alarms in recent weeks over a Charlotte city ordinance extending discrimination protections to transgender individuals, including their rights to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity — claiming a need to protect children from sexual predators.
Read MoreThree separate challenges to North Carolina’s 2011 redistricting plans are pending in state and federal courts here, and each is on a certain path to the U.S. Supreme Court. Whether they’ll get there in time for any meaningful change to occur ahead of the November elections is less clear though.
Read MoreConservatives rolled out the welcome mat for business when they took control of state government, making clear that unleashing companies from regulatory burdens ranked at the top of their agenda. “The reason I’m running for governor is to represent business,” then Charlotte mayor and longtime Duke Energy employee Pat McCrory told a group from the Council of Independent Business Owners during a 2012 campaign stop in downtown Asheville.
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