Columns

Last week I found myself on the wrong end of a post-hole digger. Well, to be fair, there’s no right end.

Every internet search, streamed video and AI-generated response depends on a data center somewhere. Driven by rapid growth in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cryptocurrency, data centers have become the backbone of the modern digital economy. But though their key role is in enabling virtual and remote experiences, data centers are physical buildings in real communities around the nation and the globe.

State Medicaid agencies are concerned that many sick and disabled enrollees will lose their coverage because the Trump administration is narrowing the definition of who is “medically frail” enough to get an exemption from new work requirements.

Well, it was Monday morning before I realized I had a column due this week. Uhoh.

Charles Amos, 53, said when he was convicted of second-degree murder and given a life sentence in 1995, he didn’t think he would amount to much, but he wanted to change. He began educating himself by reading.

Sweet, sweet summer-time is here! And with it comes one of my favorite things of the year: real food. This is the season when gardens are over-flowing, roadside stands pop up along the highway, and neighbors start showing up with sacks of tomatoes and more squash than they know what to do with.

I do not believe that I have ever been as disappointed over candidates for a public office as I have for the two GOP candidates in the U.S. Senate race.

As I write, my three-yearold son is sequestered in his room having a roaring fit. He’ll come down from it soon and the screams will turn into those cries that come when you can’t quit but have nothing left – the heaving chest, his red-eyed, tear-streaked face shaking from the toll of the tantrum.

Fresh, homegrown tomatoes are as much a symbol of summertime as pool days, ice cream and backyard barbecues. If you don’t have a lot of space for gardening, you may have resigned yourself to missing out on the refreshing flavor of a ripe, just-picked tomato you grew yourself.

500,000 a year. 44,000 a month. 10,000 a week. 1,400 a day. 60 every hour. 1 every minute. That’s how many and often men kill themselves. Recently someone in our community took his own life. It broke my heart to think that he felt like taking his life was the answer. And it broke my heart knowing that he won’t be the last.