We tend to look to the new year as a new beginning, as an opportunity for a fresh start. Aspiring for something different, something better, we devise resolutions in hopes of making ourselves healthier, more…

Three years ago more than 2,000 stormed the U.S. Capitol grounds. Their purpose was not to sightsee. I’m choosing my words carefully here.  In the time since Jan. 6, 2021, the sworn testimony of hundreds…

Here’s a New Year’s Resolution for the Kansas Legislature: no more wasting our time and money on election conspiracy theories. In September and October of 2023, Senator Mike Thompson and others hosted hearings featuring speakers peddling…

“Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” is a yes or no question found on an assortment of applications, ranging from jobs to scholarships, that most Americans answer without a second thought. Unfortunately, I’m…

Earlier this past summer, in the ACLU of Kansas’ report about the historical and social significance of the Quindaro settlement, we talked about the aspirational Kansas we fear too many residents here have forgotten. Kansas…

Come Jan. 8, the Kansas legislature will assemble to embark on its new agenda for the year. Already, numerous bills and resolutions have been pre-filed for the 2024 session, providing us with a preliminary insight…

When I was on meth, I was busy. Very busy. There was gardening to do, color-coding the closet, taking apart doorknobs, trying to put doorknobs back together and trips to Home Depot at 3 a.m.…

“If it bleeds it leads,” is a time-tested, and unfortunate, truism in the news industry. Try as we might to cast the area in a positive light, the Register’s most-read stories for 2023 involved car…

Ignore Scrooge. Reject the Grinch. Believe. There really are Christmas miracles. My own personal miracle began 44 years ago Dec. 20. Drunk as a prairie skunk, I walked through the doors of St. John’s Hospital…

I’ve missed only one Christmas with some sort of family.  Even today I can remember the pangs of loneliness while trying to steel myself with a cavalier attitude. I was 20 and attending school in…