I would quit Facebook tomorrow if I didn’t think it would hinder my job and the relationships fostered because of it. I am just sick of it. Facebook, Twitter, Snap­chat and the like are a cancer on society. They allow us to keep up with friends from a distance and share photos and things that genuinely are positive, but with […]

As the news of the Hillsboro Wal-Mart closure became public, my phone started blowing up with messages of congratulations through text, email and phone conversation. My opposition to Wal-Mart locating in Hillsboro, its value to the community, and our refusal of advertising dollars from Wal-Mart, has a lot of people thinking we were jumping for joy in the Free Press […]

I was done with this year?s Kansas City Chiefs. I was so done that I went on a written tirade and publicly declared the team left for dead after losing a home game to the Chicago Bears. Sitting at 1-5 with another season headed for a high draft pick, I was gearing up for basketball season and hoping 2016 would […]

Anytime something terrible happens, the machine starts going again. It?s almost tragically comical at this point. You can count down the moments as if they are predetermined and orchestrated by some expert puppet master above us just pulling the strings to lifeless, thoughtless bodies. When the attacks on Paris occurred, I was late to the news. I was sitting in […]

From long road trips to a quick trip to Hutch?in?son from our home in Buhler, my parents always had music on in our vehicles while I was growing up. We would play games trying to guess the artist and song title before the others, but mostly we just enjoyed the music. We listened to a wide range of music, from […]

We had missed our detour, increased our drive by about an hour, almost ran out of gas, and hit not one but two possums. I was starting to think maybe I wasn?t meant to give a good keynote speech the next morning at the Mid-America Newspaper Conference in Lake Ozark, Mo. A few weeks ago I was asked to speak […]

I print my cell phone number in every newspaper we own, so you never know who will be on the other end and what that person needs when my phone rings each day. Often it is an issue with a paper not getting delivered. We are on the phone daily with the post office it seems?but that?s another topic for […]

Juggling business and relationships, and being a good steward of your community can be a crazy dance on most days. It would be a far tougher dance without a great partner, and that is why I was feeling pretty lucky recently on my five-year anniversary with my wonderful wife, Lindsey. I should have already been home at 6:30 p.m., but […]

? A coat of paint can go a long way in making Marion County attractive to everyone. It is amazing what a coat of paint can do to spruce up a space. Cable television shows are dedicated to the topic of such an idea and how it affects people’s home-buying experience. People notice when a space is pretty, organized and […]

Oh, the things you will learn. Sometimes, with all the hustle and bustle of life and work, I get stuck in a rut of doing the same ol? thing over and over again. Last month was anything but that for Lindsey and me, though. We got out of our routine and drove to Columbia, Mo., for the International Society of […]