I had just arrived home last week with a New York (not St. Louis) style pizza and some wings, and I sat home to watch the NFL Draft.

All through winter, we dreamed of the day we could go barefoot again. We wedged double-socked feet into rigid snow boots; our toes wriggled like worms on fishhooks. Scrunched together, covered with layers of protection, they grew soft and white. Tender.

I am not a news writer, to be frank.

I watched my daughter from various windows in the house, trailing her progress as she tried to pick every dandelion that dotted the grass. Her body bent in half over each selection, pudgy legs locked into place, and her curly hair bounced against her cheeks on the way down.

In 2015, the then Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Bill Shuster (R-PA) led negotiations with members of both parties in the House, Senate and White House on a 5-year, $300 billion infrastructure package. That bill, called the FAST Act, received overwhelming …

I’m not going to lie to you. I never have.

John is fixing something in the house. I am hiding in my office. I just heard some tapping, and what is being fixed requires no tapping. 

I am trying to focus. It’s as if an old 1990s computer is trying to boot to life and you’re looking at that blinking icon. It’s as if I stick in a floppy disk and cross my fingers, praying to the computer gods that my first edition of Organ Trail would light up and cast a radioactive green h…

Missouri schools closed last April in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and keep teachers, students and their families safe in the early days of the pandemic and the unknowns it posed. While learning from home was an acceptable alternative while we figured out how to navigate Covid-1…

In previous columns, I’ve written about the good and bad in Lincoln County. 

My shoes made a slower, older echo as they climbed the walkway in front of the buildings on East Springfield. The elementary school complex was almost unrecognizable to me—additions and upgrades covered the original structures like layers of clothing.

Luke 24:6-7: “He is not here; he has risen!”

I’m still a novice at covering news, but I’ve covered a few elections in the five or so years I’ve spent as a news reporter.

Hear that wind? Not too loud—just a pleasant puff of air that slides across your ears like a whisper. Like pursed lips blowing syllables of fresh thoughts that tickle and excite.

The American Dream and the various cultures we have here are a huge part of what makes this country great. We are a nation of people whose families were at all one point or another, immigrants looking to come to the United States for a better life and opportunities. We are a mixing bowl of c…

When you’ve been in my line of work as long as I’ve been, you get to meet a few people, including some you remember watching as a child.

I have plenty to worry about. One of my ears sticks out farther than the other. I get my kids’ names mixed up with long-dead relatives. If gas gets any more expensive, I will be working just so I can drive to work.

On Tuesday, the House passed the first notable bipartisan piece of legislation of the year, and I was proud to be a part of it. Together, my colleagues, Congresswoman Young Kim, Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux, the Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, and I negotiated a bill …

“The enemy of good…is perfect.”

On Easter Sunday I always wore a new dress to church.  My shoes didn’t tie like everyday sneakers.  They were secured with a single strap across the top of my lace-cuffed socks and buckled on the outside edge of each shoe.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to tour the old Lincoln County Jail for a story I did about the Lincoln County Historical Society.

John is fixing something in the house. I am hiding in my office. I just heard some tapping, and what is being fixed requires no tapping. 

As the oldest military force in our nation’s history, the National Guard dates back to the pre-Revolutionary War militias in the colonies. This year actually marks its 385th birthday. The National Guard seal features a Minuteman as a tribute to how quickly and effectively the National Guard …

“Missouri is St. Louis and Kansas City. The rest is Arkansas.”