News becomes old very quickly these days. Headlines that could last for weeks now disappear in days in the digital world. News stays new. Occasionally though some important ones fall through the cracks and get lost. Below we take a look at four of the biggest breaking stories in...
CULLMAN - St. Bernard Preparatory School’s production of “Cinderella” was held recently and their talented students and staff presented the story like no other. “Cinderella”, a Rodgers & Hammerstein Production, is a timeless classic enjoyed by many for generations. The junior version of the timeless tale, performed by the...
It’s become known as the greatest mistake on the Internet of all time. It is the largest security breach online ever . . . and it was a total accident. The Heartbleed Bug, as it’s become known, was first reported and named by Codenomicon on April 1, 2014. The...
It’s a date most of us in Alabama know by heart now. Three years ago, a generational super storm ripped through the heart of the South, spawning 211 tornados over the course of 24 hours. Sixty-three of them were in Alabama. Of those four were EF5s, meaning they caused...
A Follow-Up on Fort Hood
Last week a horrible event repeated itself. A lone gunman attacked the army base of Fort Hood, killing three and injuring 16 others. This was less than five years after Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and injured another 32. Both events involved...
March marked the 150th month of the war in Afghanistan. Since October 7, 2001, U.S. troops have been deployed there. Their primary task had been to eliminate Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorism, specifically the bases used to train and harbor those implicit in the September 11th attacks...
The Cleaning Agent That Has Superpowers
With the many uses and capabilities of vinegar, it’s astonishing that there hasn’t been an infomercial about this amazing product. I can see the video reel now: “It cleans, it shines, it disinfects, it deodorizes, it protects. But wait, there’s more! It’s naturally derived...
Almost 90 percent of Americans agree the 113th Congress has failed miserably at their jobs. Some blame Republicans. Others blame Democrats. Still others blame the President. A few blame everyone. No matter who is to blame, the root of the problem remains. Problems demand solutions. Occasionally they demand atypical...
Obamacare or the “Affordable Care Act” continues to be highly debated four years after being signed into law. Conservatives present it as the poster child of liberal big government overreach. Liberals defend it as the reason they see for government to exist, to protect those with less, and to...
Just as we are sweeping up the leftover tinsel and bits of wrapping paper that have gone astray from our Christmas celebration, we are getting ready for New Year’s Eve. It seems like the same thoughts enter my brain every year at this time. How did yet another year...
I am writing and raging. Raging because I am tired, oh so tired, of my activism being repressed or limited by bureaucratic minutia and ridiculous protocol. I am even more upset at the ways bureaucracy stifles my students who, because they are informed and outraged, want to act and...
The announcement that the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was to be awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) took many by surprise. The consensus choice seemed to be the young female education activist, Malala Yousafzai. The selection of OPCW, however, fits the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s...
By Peter G. Cohen
Considering the recent poor relations between Russia and the U.S., their cooperation on Syria seems miraculous and is worthy of the support and encouragement of our people. The fact that both parties have need of a nonviolent solution to the issue of chemical weapons in Syria...
The apparent employment of chemical weapons in Syria should remind us that, while weapons of mass destruction exist, there is a serious danger that they will be used.
That danger is highlighted by an article in the September/October 2013 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Written by two...
Dear President Obama,
I supported you in both elections, with my vote and financial giving. When you were elected, I was overjoyed that the US had a leader in the White House who was bright, articulate and honest. After the Bush years, many of us were very discouraged about our...
Our Congressional Representatives and Senators were called back last week and briefed before the fall session starts. They will have to decide whether to support Obama’s call for a military attack on Syria. I shudder when I think about this whole process. I remember that just before the invasion...
We now have a huge war machine that dwarfs President Eisenhower’s warning about the undue influence of the military-industrial complex. In an Aug. 29, 2013 editorial for Common Dreams, Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network says, “We’ve become a killer nation. We have to have endless war, like a...
While bullying between school children has rightly received much attention in recent years, other types of school-based bullying are rarely discussed. Bullying of students by their teachers remains a significant problem and is every bit as dangerous as peer-to-peer bullying.
Teacher-on-student bullying takes many forms, ranging from physical to verbal...
There is a glaring hole in the choices being considered by the United States and the international community in response to the Syrian chemical weapons attack that left 1,400 dead. The only two options that are being seriously debated are action in the form of military engagement and inaction....
Submitted by Mitch Reid, program director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance
The Roman orator Quintilian once said, “Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.” Last week’s decision by the State of Florida to escalate the water war over Georgia’s use of water...
Crowds of people gathered together on Saturday, August 10, 2013, in Cullman County to pray for their community schools and colleges. The reasons are crystal clear. At school after school, in crowds so large there was standing-room only, parents, grandparents, neighbors and children closed their eyes and bowed their...