Lately, the hottest news topic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (where I work) is the existence of speed cameras.  These are unmanned cameras that take a picture of speeding cars.  You then get a ticket in the mail.  There are a lot of people very upset about the cameras – why? The cameras are there to [...]

“Weighing in one hundred forty six pounds,  Ellllllston Murrrrrray.” Murray climbed into the ring to moderate applause.  He could see his opponent approaching with a large entourage in tow. “And weighing in at one hundred forty seven pounds, the resigning world welterweight champion, Bruuuuuuuiser Brrrrrrrrrrown.”  The sellout crowd broke out into a deafening chant - ”Bru!  Bru!  Bru!”  Elston Murray watched [...]

This weekend marks the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One.  Yep, the final Potter book is being split into two movies (part 2 due next July) in an effort to maximize revenue. Honestly, this really isn’t the genre for me.  My favorite writers generally stay in the mystery and suspense genres (although the [...]

Last year I penned a “Things I Am Thankful For” article and I thought it would be fun to look back, see what I predicted and was thankful for then, and see if that still holds true today. Last year I said, “I am thankful for my children. Two wonderful, healthy boys who were not [...]

[Editor's note: we're always looking for reporters to give account of the news with a local flavor.  Longtime reader Poch comes to us from the Philippines and gives his thoughts on the recent victory by Manny Pacquiao.  Check out Poch's web site, Plato Press.] When my great fellow countryman Manny ‘PacMan’ Pacquiao started dipping his [...]

Much better weekend of games this week. Good thing I was not on record with picks last week as they would have been pathetic to say the least. Texas looks like they will not be bowl eligible. Wow. National Title game to no bowl game. Cam Newton still in the news although it has quieted [...]

My buddy Lazy Man took a break from thrusting his lance into Mona Vie to take aim at another product, Protandim from LifeVantage.  After a spirited (and a bit strange) debate, one of the supporters of the product took the unexpected leap to the ”the IRS is a scam” argument.  At which point, any credibility he had was completely gone.  [...]

What do you do when you hit a writing block? Well actually, I haven’t run into a writing block, I have simply not been writing during the effort to write a novel during the month of November. For this article, let’s pretend that I am sharing the problems of not knowing what to write. First [...]

After nearly five years of trusty service, my 1999 Ford Taurus began to experience a problem in the spring of 2004.  The speedometer would be accurate up to about 25 mph, but they would bounce wildly between 25 mph and 85 mph, regardless of the actual speed being driven. At first, this was an infrequent [...]

When coach Brad Green began the season with twenty players on his roster, he was not overly concerned.  He had been football coach at Mountain View High for two decades now, and dealing with the challenges of building a football team from the small student body was old hat.  There were never many bench warmers [...]