Ode to the Past
As the year comes to a close, we can look back on a tumultuous and, in the long run, calamitous year. But we can hope to see a glimmering of better and more just times in America in the New Year.
Read moreBGirdner
Election Lessons
This time around, we were determined to do a better job on our election coverage. Two years ago, it was pretty pathetic.
Read moreInterviews
As I stood at the table to sign in for my ballot, an elegant, middle-aged black woman was just ahead of me. Her voice was subdued but clear, with the deeper timbre of age and experience, her diction betrayed a practice of speaking and a college education. With a sculpted face that had been beautiful and still was, she wore a tailored, perfectly pressed, deep-gray skirt and jacket of fine wool.
Read moreCrucible of Death and Violence
There was a reason why my mother would never allow anyone to speak a word of German word in our house.
Read moreLunch in Cuguen
It was a bright summer day in the tiny Breton town of Cuguen where my childhood family friends own a small country house, handed down through the family. The air was crisp and light, with an almost sensual quality, infused with the scent of flowers and the sweetness of thick grass and forest.
Read moreFrench Tradition
Visiting a Breton family brings back a memory of family tradition. Fresh bread from the boulangerie starts the day and a simple but delicious dinner winds it up, all accompanied by conversation and a glass of wine, around the kitchen table.
Read moreOld Stones
In Moëlen-sur-Mer, I pushed open a wooden door opening onto a narrow walkway that lead to a stone house from the 16th or 17th century. High on a stone wall that abutted a small, very green backyard, lay an enormous cat, its dark gray and white colors very much like a Cheshire cat. It was staring straight at me. At my feet arrived a small dog whose name I later learned was Merlin.
Read moreSummer Idyll
The imagery of the Tour de France takes the mind entirely away from court hearings and legal battles and transports you from your couch onto a slow, day-by-day voyage through a country that has nurtured and kept a balance between small farmers and a lush earth.
Read moreHigh School and the First Amendment
The student government candidate created a video depicting himself as James Bond rescuing a fellow classmate from two Muslim students who were forcing the classmate into a video game competition. Was that “inappropriate.”
Read moreChoosing Terrain
As powerful as the images of border families were, immigration is a trap for the Democrats. The leadership that has lost so many elections doesn’t see it.
Read moreIn Accordance With Reason
There is so little reason being displayed in the policy of the Trump administration. More fundamental, and more disturbing, is that the president’s large group of followers have no interest in it.
Read moreThe Shape of Prosecution
While there is little doubt that President Trump’s sometimes lawyer Michael Cohen faces indictment, the mystery remains as to what he may be indicted for.
Read moreCohen at Twitter Speed
We at Courthouse News were faced with a dilemma during our coverage of a Michael Cohen hearing in New York.
Read moreSecond Track
The law is in good measure a game of strategy. Traditionally, the players shared much in common. The judges and lawyers on all sides were versed to a greater or lesser extent in the dark art of the law and the scribes who translated to the larger audience were versed to a greater or lesser extent in the related arts of literature and writing.
Read moreNews Today
As a journalist, I am always intrigued by how people take in the news and how the publisher survives.
Read moreRivers of Prosecution
Spy trials seemed to be the special province of the federal court in Los Angeles during past decades. But the federal court in Washington D.C. is now reminiscent of the Los Angeles court in its heyday, with central billing given by the press to related prosecutions coming out of the Russia probe.
Read moreRiddle On the Left
Like a man in a dark room, the Democratic Party is bumping around and feeling its way forward. But to get through, it must first solve the riddle of the old socialist.
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