By JACK DeVINE   Columnist   5/16/2012 10:42 AM   

Our collective attention span seems to be all over the map these days, flitting from issue to issue and rarely landing on the really important stuff. Last week, the buzz was all about gay marriage. Before that it was a student loan crisis and a suppo ...

By LEONARD PITTS   Columnist   5/15/2012 1:00 AM   

So apparently, Barack Obama is finally done evolving. That, you will recall, was the president's word for the process of reconsidering his opposition to same-sex marriage. Last week, after being publicly and inadvertently prodded by his vice presiden ...

By BILL O'REILLY     5/14/2012 1:21 AM   

Quick question: What is the most enduring American pop group of all time? Has to be The Beach Boys, right? They are currently on their 50th anniversary tour across the country, if you can believe it. I saw the Boys the other night, and they can still ...

By DR. BETH EVERITT   Aiken County School Superintendent   5/11/2012 11:58 AM   

National Teacher Appreciation Week Although every day should be Teacher Appreciation Day, the week of May 7th is set aside for the nation to thank our teachers. Perhaps May is selected because of the many culminating activities that take place during ...

By CAL THOMAS   Columnist   5/11/2012 11:58 AM   

Finding your roots By Cal Thomas Tribune Media Services "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr." is another of the Harvard professor's wonderful television series for PBS. This is "must-see TV" and a more than worthy sequel to three previous p ...

By SEN. GREG RYBERG     5/10/2012 10:49 AM   

The South Carolina General Assembly last week witnessed the worst case of disfranchisement since the passage of the Constitution of 1895 when the State Supreme Court summarily disqualified any non-incumbent candidate for office if they failed to file ...

By KATHLEEN PARKER   Columnist for the Washinton Post   5/9/2012 10:33 AM   

WASHINGTON, D.C. – News that Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and his family might be allowed to leave China for a university fellowship in the U.S. brought relief not only to Chen, but also to dissidents around the world. It also may have put ...

DR. MIKE WEAVER   Contributor   5/7/2012 12:07 AM   

"What would one year of college have done for Whitney?" These are the words spoken by Dr. Nikki Giovanni during a Diversity/Women's History Month lecture at Saint Joseph's University recently. Giovanni, a nationally renowned poet who serves as a Dist ...

By BILL O'REILLY   Columnist   5/5/2012 8:31 PM   

In just about six months, the nation will vote for a president. But if things continue the way they're going, I don't know how I'll make it. The campaign blather is unbelievable. And even worse, it's boring. Tedious. Painfully insipid. Let's start wi ...

By JACK DEVINE   Contributor   5/3/2012 9:32 PM   

Amid all the election year chatter, no word gets under my skin more than "inherit." We hear it every day, from President Obama himself, his spokespersons and the media, always in the context of rationalizing this problem or that. Be reasonable - look ...

By GAYLE LOFGREN   Executive Director for the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken County   4/30/2012 10:17 PM   

When magic happens, words fail. On Wednesday at USC Aiken, the Child Advocacy Center and our 100 Women Initiative featured a luncheon with Marilyn Van Derbur as the keynote speaker. What she did that day was more than a speech, it was more than words ...

By Rep. Joe Wilson     4/27/2012 7:09 PM   

Shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War, scientists across America began studying possible commercial uses of nuclear materials. By 1958, the first nuclear power plant was up and running outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. Today, there are 104 nu ...

By Cal THomas   Columnist   4/26/2012 4:10 PM   

"The war on terror is over," or so claims an unnamed senior State Department official, as reported by National Journal's Michael Hirsh in his recent article "The Post al-Qaida Era." Really? Well, if the war is over, I must have missed the peace treat ...

By ANTHONY DISTEFANO   Columnist   4/25/2012 10:11 AM   

The American Dream has had different meanings for different people at different times. But essentially, the American Dream means that: "Any person, no matter who we are, or where we live, has an equal opportunity to get a good education; after our ed ...

By BILL O'REILLY     4/20/2012 12:02 PM   

Take Me Out to the Ballgame The urchins were startled. "Hey, let's go outside and play some baseball," I said. Outside? Are you kidding me? Inside, the two 8-year-old boys have an Xbox, iPads and personal computers at the ready. Outside? So I dragged ...

By BONNIE ALBA   Aiken   4/19/2012 10:20 AM   

Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others. - Winston Churchill Author Suzanne Collins gave special acknowledgment to her late father Michael Collins, who "...had a deep commitment to educati ...

By SEN. VINCENT SHEHEEN   S.C State Senate District 27   4/18/2012 11:11 AM   

Every once in a while, South Carolina should be one of the first in something good. This year, we have an opportunity to be at the forefront of something positive and new in business job creation. The B-Corp. This month, I introduced in the state sen ...

By LEONARD PITTS JR.Miami Herald     4/17/2012 10:20 AM   

Titanic: the moral of a 100-year-old story There is a single shot, just seconds long, in James Cameron's newly re-released movie, Titanic, that says it all with poignant eloquence. Up to this point in the narrative, the director has emphasized the gr ...

Aiken Standard     4/12/2012 10:40 AM   

As the Aiken County Council begins to move toward a possible change in the form in which it governs, it’s important to look at the construction of the current way the council operates versus what these changes will mean for voters. Currently, t ...

CLINT WOLFE   Guest Columnist   4/12/2012 10:21 AM   

I got an email on March 29 which said simply, “Another great day at SRS.” It was from the Department of Energy Savannah River Site Office of External Affairs. The attached news release trumpeted the approval to close High Level Waste Tank ...