Columns

As we enter the most intense period of the American political cycle — Ppresidential election season — it’s worth reminding ourselves that not everything is political. This may sound obvious enough, but lately the line between politics and everything else has become blurred.

The proposed Jefferson Parkway does not meet smart 21st-century sustainable transportation goals, according to the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County. “We oppose the proposed private toll road on many levels,” said League president Ann Roux. “It fails our tests for adequate public input and transparency, government accountability, and economic sustainability.”
The League’s opposition to the proposed parkway stems from its in-depth study of the toll road, and is based on its consensus-driven standards for evaluating any highway proposal.

I always make it a practice to ask my Metro State journalism students to explain what a mill levy is, because few things are more central to covering governments than understanding how taxing entities get money from the public.

After a 12-hour day spent making bone grafts in October 2009, I was in a small locker room changing out of a pair of sweat-soaked long-sleeve scrubs. The day, exhausting, had been routine until I sat down on a stainless-steel bench to check the single message on my phone left by the man who is now my editor, Doug Bell.
Since no one was around to enforce my self-congratulatory inhibitions, I jumped up and did a little dance, a moment to which I happily confess but remain glad no one else had to witness.