My graduate course in crisis management was the 2012 Republican presidential primaries as a senior advisory and national media surrogate for Newt Gingrich.
I try to walk at least five days or more a week for close to an hour.
David Pennington, the mayor of Dalton, is making noises about challenging incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal in the 2014 Republican primary. Say what?
I was conversing with a couple of friends this week, each of whom expressed frustration and disappointment at having been wronged recently in a business transaction.
If you're a man who's been invited to a wedding, you need to heed my advice so you know what to do at these alien affairs.
With full-fledged sellers' markets underway in dozens of metropolitan areas around the country, new research has found curious statistical patterns emerging: Even in cities where listings get multiple offers within days or hours, significant numbers of homes are sitting on the market for six months, 12 months or more with no takers.
One definition given for insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Cook, author and TV personality Nathalie Dupree is long gone from these parts, having been carted away to endlessly charming Charleston by husband Jack Bass, chronicler of Southern history. Still, she retains devoted fans and many friends here since she ran "Nathalie's at Mt. Pleasant Village" and lived in Social Circle.
This week, my mother called around 10 a.m. one morning to chat for a minute and catch up. During our conversation, I realized that she was still in her bed, waiting for an aide to help into a wheelchair.
This is the story of courage. This is a story of tenacity. This is the story of Hill Daniel.
I wrote a column not too long ago bemoaning the fact that my grandchildren were growing up. Well, I have more proof.
The liberal world vision and reality are often at variance, as, for example, with equal pay for equal work.
My wife and I have been vacationing the past week in south Florida. On the first night of the eight-day trip, we took the hotel clerk's dinner recommendation and headed to the restored riverfront in historic Fort Myers.
As a kid, I hated Sunday mornings with a passion I now reserve only for unimaginable evils such as genocide and raw onions. Sunday - "the day of rest" - was far from restful for me, and I blame it on a weekly ritual, "dressing up for Sunday school."
There are many ways to describe the enormous gap between the American people and their elected politicians.
Don't look now, but I think you are beginning to have some impact on the issue of unlimited lobbying expenditures in the Legislature.
A new computer has been placed on my desk at The Covington News. Let me correct that, a new-to-me computer.
I've owned four trucks in my 52 years and each has taught me a valuable life lesson. The first truck I ever owned was also the first new automobile I'd ever owned. Up to that point, I was a used car kind of guy, mainly because I had nothing interesting in my wallet. The truck was a mistake. I paid way too much, even though I had "a friend" at the dealership. The truck door ...
Following the school shooting horror in Newtown, Conn., our nation shares a heartfelt belief that something must be done.
When I attended primary and secondary school -- during the 1940s and '50s -- one didn't hear of the kind of shooting mayhem that's become routine today. Why? It surely wasn't because of strict firearm laws. My replica of the 1902 Sears mail-order catalog shows 35 pages of firearm advertisements. People just sent in their money, and a firearm was shipped.
The 2013 legislative session started smoothly on January 14th, with the House re-electing Speaker David Ralston and Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones. Our 47 freshmen members started introducing bills with the usual excitement -- the excitement that comes from the first opportunity to act on ideas they could never do anything but talk about before. There will be some interesting committee hearings in weeks ahead.
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
On a sun-filled day in the summer of 1964, an excited boy of 4.5 dances around massive marble columns flanking the top step of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Scattered below, tourists mix and mingle on the concrete expanse between the memorial and the reflecting pool stretching to the Washington Monument in the distance.
Last week, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed cited the need to use hard and soft politics in governing the city. "We are making hard decisions again and again that allow us to show compassion," the Democrat said at a luncheon held by the Atlanta Press Club. "Because you can't help other people if you're broke yourself."
This year of 2013 has, for me, gotten off to a start worthy of a year that ends in 13. Not that I'm superstitious or anything. Here's how it began.
I have the privilege of being with a group of newspaper publishers at the Georgia Press Association's winter gathering in Atlanta this week. It is one of those times I wish my momma and daddy were still around to see the crowd their little boy is hanging out with these days. Momma would be pleased; Daddy would be surprised.
I got an email from my sister last week reminding me that it was Elvis' birthday, his 78th one to be exact. I have Elvis socks that feature his name and musical notes and a small guitar with his name on it that is a Christmas ornament bought at Graceland. But that's it. My sister has more Elvis memorabilia than anyone I know. It all started on a whim.
Nearly two years ago, U.S. News & World Report came out with a story titled "Educators Implicated in Atlanta Cheating Scandal." It reported that "for 10 years, hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals changed answers on state tests in one of the largest cheating scandals in U.S. history." More than three-quarters of the 56 Atlanta schools investigated had cheated on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, sometimes called the national report card. ...
Let's be painfully blunt: It's not possible for a man to be sick and remain manly. I'd like to claim that testosterone is the cure-all that keeps guys burly and ferocious through all kinds of challenges, but that hormone bows in defeat before the cold, the flu, or - in my case - bronchitis. I spent much of the new year fighting off a nasty infection, and that's when I learned just how far we ...
When we struggle as a nation to find common ground - or even respectful dialog - on anything, the last thing we need is exaggeration and deliberately inflammatory language in discussing the events of the day. We'll always have that from some of the general public, but I expect better from our newspapers. That's why I was disappointed with this newspaper's editorial board for their "Our Thoughts" piece in last Sunday's Covington News titled "Fooled ...