Lift your voice
Anna Steed doesn’t look much older than her students, but she is a practitioner of behavioral and motivational science, an aficionado of oration, a shoulder to cry on, and the high school debate coach.
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Opinion
A lament from U.S. allies
Asa Hutchinson, Janet Daley and Gerard Baker probably have never met, but should meet. Their sensibilities, trans-Atlantic, appear quite compatible.
Read MoreA lament from U.S. alliesKids, phones, pleasures, peril
An Arkansas couple I know have a big decision to make, one that others of their generation face, or soon will face; a question confronting countless other parents — tens of millions of them, actually: When does the kid get a phone?
Read MoreKids, phones, pleasures, perilMy mother, my hero
Dear Readers: This column was originally published on May 9, 2017. It is one of my favorites and I share it again today in memory of my mom.
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In the crowd
Well before he became Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, Andy Griffith was pretty hot stuff and about to get hotter. Just off a Broadway run in the mid-1950s, he arrived in the northeast Arkansas town of Piggott to take his first movie role.
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School year enters final month
It’s the last month of the 20222023 school year! We have several individuals to recognize and many celebrations as the year comes to a close. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week.
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Asa and abortion
Anyone naive enough to believe the nation’s abortion debate would end with the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of the Roe standard of a half-century has since been alerted to the realities of America’s culture wars. The conflict, naturally enough, divides both major political parties — but to no small extent separates the candidates of one of them. The implications for Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, his presidential campaign officially launched last week, are striking.
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Tell me about it
It’s not uncommon, when I meet someone and tell them what I do for a living, for them to ask me some version of: “Is there ever anything to write about in Carroll County?” The question always makes me chuckle. The answer, of course, is yes.
Read MoreTell me about itThe sound of Spring
You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring…
Read MoreThe sound of Spring