Local Columnists

If it were easy, everyone would be writing headlines. Unfortunately, even the pros get caught up in mayhem and mishaps that show up in print or online.

Like many of you, I suspect, I’m skeptical that we can end this plague of gun violence. We can, however, and we must take the steps most likely to limit the damage.

In addition to politicians, the religious right is responsible for pushing opposition to gun control front and center.

Schools are laboratories for learning, not armed camps. When we can no longer provide safe places for children to learn, then we need to keep our children at home.

An email from a retired MU professor prompted the first article written by the Missourian, and that article will be followed up on.

The mixed field of candidates for Columbia mayor and City Council should draw out community's true feelings about contentious issues, but it could also split the vote with the candidate with the least appeal winning the prize.

Imagine: Missouri with a healthy and well educated work force, with our K-12 and universities properly funded and being known as a state that takes care of our own. Isn't that the goal?

In America, we need to get a handle on work. If there are jobs to be done and not enough money to pay to have them done, then we need to figure out what we are going to do about it.

The unemployed need to be able to use the unemployment benefits extension to invigorate their job search as well as plan and adapt to living at a new level for a longer period of time.

Arming and disarming are but empty gestures if people grow up in an environment that indicates the way to address issues is to win and make someone or something lose.

The struggle to come in the city of Jefferson is already taking shape.

Our lawmakers in Washington and Jefferson City are putting more effort into distracting us from our real problems than solving them.

The columnist's pet peeves include ads from ambulance-chasing attorneys, TV commercials promising relief from debt, strident global-warming declarations and the behavior of bicyclists who believe they are exempt from traffic lights.

I think I went off the fiscal cliff shortly after 9/11, and I don’t think I ever got back on. The two big wars were enough to keep me struggling just to keep my feet on the ground.

On behalf of city officials, the editor of The Newtown Bee asks that the donations of physical goods be directed to local agencies in memory of those lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. A fund is set up for monetary donations.

Responding to the criticism of the NRA, J. Karl Miller’s Wednesday column is well written but might not fit the mainstream thoughts of the American public.

It is a given that all wish to find a way to end senseless killing, however, the primary target should be the active participant (the individual) rather than the inanimate object (the gun).

Legislation, whether it be to end mass murders or to save the U.S. budget, needs to be created in a clear-headed and rational manner and not with political gains in mind.

Allowing people who want to secede could help the country make up years of progress just by not having to listen to the negativism these people espouse.

The most important thing I can do is continue to ask good questions of my reporters and editors to help cover the search for solutions.