Columns | The Daily Courier

Zweifel: Journalism matters because democracy matters

An in-depth newspaper investigation revealed that a state-operated home for aged military veterans was providing sub-standard care and that taxpayer money that was to go to improve the home was spent elsewhere. The result was the replacement of the state’s veterans secretary and numerous corrections at the home.

Guzzardi: Anatomy of a flip-flopper’s re-election campaign

According to the latest Gallup poll, the congressional approval rate is currently just 19 percent, with 76 percent disapproving. Congress’ miserable showing surprises no one. After Election Day, campaign promises abruptly vanish, and are replaced by an agenda that voters would never have supported.

Beverly: Arizona water law destroys rivers

Arizona water laws fundamentally threaten the upper Verde River.

Friday Catchall: Cellphone ban, voting and lighting? Yes, yes and yes!

Call me whatever you want (ha!), just don’t do it while you’re driving!

Stossel: Seriously mentally ill

They live on the street, often foraging through Dumpsters. Some threaten us. Occasionally, they assault people.

Purcell: Jokes abound, but political divide no laughing matter

With all the vitriol in our politics - with all the disagreement that is tearing our country apart - we could all use some levity about now.

Williams: What’s so classic about classical music?

I don’t understand why some people persist in liking classical music. I’m not one of them.

Cantlon: Out-of-control banks at center of 2008 crash

Would you like a very simple, clear explanation of what led to the financial crash of 2008? I have one I can link you to.

Micek: Kavanaugh wasn’t on trial. He was interviewing to work for us

Remember that time you got due process in a job interview? Me neither.

Reagan: Assaulting Kavanaugh

It was a long, embarrassing day of drama, tears and ugly partisan bickering. But by the end of last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, I came to the conclusion that both Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford had told the truth.

Tyree: Antibiotics versus appendectomies: May the best treatment win

I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one in newspapers. (So, relax, Rex Morgan, M.D. But look out, big-nosed kid who likes to fly his Sopwith Camel in search of the Red Baron. You’ve got competition.)

Guzzardi: Doubters challenge report about illegal immigration

“The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States: Estimates based on demographic modeling with data from 1990 to 2016,” a new study published in the peer-reviewed science journal, PLOS ONE, found that the illegal immigration population in the United States has been, for years, dramatically underestimated.

Wiederaenders: Flake is no flake, shows his mettle

Politics are the time when men and women demonstrate their mettle for their fellow citizens, community, state or nation.

Barnes: Words from the 17th century

Let’s take a short break from all the vexing rhetoric centered in Washington and hearken for a few minutes to the following which was found in old Saint Paul’s Church in Baltimore.

Jensen: Kavanaugh hearing: hypocrisy on both sides

Hurricane Florence tearing up the south Atlantic coast is nothing compared to the hypocrisies tearing up our country over Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Brett Kavanaugh tried to pull off her clothes at an alcohol-fueled house party when they were teenage minors.

Manieri: So much for ‘getting it right’

We’re officially off the rails.

Friday Catchall: Put down the cellphone — no lying!

It is a strange thing: people expressing their opinions about government issues that can affect their communities — but they do not attend the hearings.

Stossel: Leaving the left

Watching this video upset me. Students and even faculty members won’t let Dave Rubin speak. They constantly interrupt, shouting “hate speech!” and “black lives matter!”

Purcell: Spendthrift idioms define congress

“Republicans like to talk about fiscal discipline, but when they have control of Congress they spend like drunken sailors!”

Williams: My friends have wrinkles

What happened? I remember classmates and I in early elementary school bouncing around the playground during recess.

Williams: A mother’s loss

In the spring of that year, 19-year-old Tommy went to war. It was his choice to join the army, even though he knew he’d be sent into an armed conflict overseas.

Pierce: Shining a light on Prop 127

There are a lot of claims being made about Proposition 127, a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution to require that utilities get at least 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Micek: Trump Jr. rallies the MAGA faithful in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump Jr. had a pretty simple message for the Republican faithful who filled a hotel ballroom here on the final night of summer 2018.

Guzzardi: Fed chair calls slow wage growth ‘a puzzle’

In its new study, “Tapping the Skills of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States,” the Migration Policy Institute stated that, according to economists, by the end of this decade, the nation will have a 5 million shortage of job-qualified persons with post-secondary educations.

Guzzardi: Qualified Americans shut out by influx of foreign doctors

Last month, the American Medical Association issued a press release that urged U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process more H-1B visas, thereby allowing more nonresident physicians to come to the United States to practice medicine.