columns

After five years with us at The Era , sports reporter Andy Close is returning to his hometown of Warren. Andy will start his duties as the sports edit...

WASHINGTON — Stranger things have happened in American politics, but the sudden surge of Democratic/Populist Bernie Sanders and Republican/Pompulist D...

“What chumps!” — Chief Justice John Roberts, June 29, 2015 WASHINGTON — Roberts’ intellectual complexity does not prevent him from expressing himself ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has explored overseas options in its search for lethal injection drugs no longer available in the U.S. despite a court ruli...

WASHINGTON — Late in the evening on April 13, speaking to a meeting of about 55 senators, Secretary of State John Kerry argued against passage of the ...

SAMUGARI, Peru (AP) — Just before sunrise, Raul Rua joins 15 others, including women, teens and children, for a half-hour walk to pick coca in the wor...

WASHINGTON — In 1824, in retirement 37 years after serving as the Constitutional Convention’s prime mover, James Madison, 73, noted that the 1787 “lan...

WASHINGTON — Writing a judicial opinion can be like fencing. One of the most effective ways to jab at an opponent is to use his — or her — words to ma...

WASHINGTON — First-term first ladies are often shadows to their more-important husbands, dabbling in lite fare to avoid criticism and picking safe pro...

Judge A. Joseph Antanavage, with shotgun in hand, stood before a Confederate battle flag, and looked as if he had planned to defend whatever it is tha...

WASHINGTON —It is often the fate of conservatives to be concerned about the fire code and occupancy limit at someone else’s party. Never more conspicu...

Judge A. Joseph Antanavage, with shotgun in hand, stood before a Confederate battle flag, and looked as if he had planned to defend whatever it is tha...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — By all appearances Friday morning, as thousands lined the street waiting (and wilting) for hours in 90-degree heat to enter the fun...

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts knew a torrent of conservative invective was headed his way, so perhaps praise from a left-of-center columnist...

Across Pennsylvania, the practice has long been in place of taxing property to help fund our schools. While the school property tax may have made sens...

WASHINGTON — Reducing Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si” to a white paper on global warming is, in George Weigel’s fitting analogy, “akin to readin...

WASHINGTON — Although conservatives are dismayed about the Supreme Court’s complicity in rewriting the Affordable Care Act — its ratification of the I...

WASHINGTON —Hillary Clinton’s reticence is drowning out her message, which is that she is the cure for the many ailments that afflict America during a...

WASHINGTON — Forget all the focus on the one ugly word President Obama used. Pay attention, instead, to the rest of the words in his podcast interview...

WASHINGTON — In a historic moment, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called late Monday for removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the Statehouse g...