Today's News

It’s a new year. My first wife still likes me. We’ve got a brand-new president. Gas prices are down. I’ve got new running shoes. My boys are healthy. The economy is so bad that it can only go up from here...

I don’t believe I have been this excited about a new year since 1963.

Once again, local education leaders are sitting on pins and needles, awaiting word from higher up as to whether school districts will have to endure yet another painful budgetary amputation. Legislators are meeting in emergency session this week, trying to figure out what to do – or hoping someone else has some recommendations.

I remember a cold winter day when as a teenager my mother sent me to the store to get a few packages. On the way, I passed a house that I had passed hundreds of times, but on this particular day, one of the woman's dogs bit me on the leg. I saw the dog from a distance and the animal seemed to be sunning himself in the yard. It didn't bother me because I was on the sidewalk. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the dog attacked me and bit my right leg.

You know how you have this image, when you get a dog, of him standing by your side, wagging his tail and jumping at your every command? Hank wasn’t that dog.

Jesse rescued him from the animal shelter. “It will be a great Christmas present for Mom.”

“Son,” we had perused over 30 dogs in 20 different holding pens, “Let’s get one of these pretty puppies over here; that one you’re holding is about half ugly.”