Bonnie Raitt Supports A Free Press, Journalism

by Kevin Burton    I love Bonnie Raitt more this week than I did before, and that’s saying something.    Raitt announced Monday that proceeds from her Sept. 23 concert in Carmel By The Sea, California, will go to support investigative journalism and protect a free press.    “Special guest Roy Rogers will support the …

Boom, Boom: Fireworks Store Erupts In Flames

by Kevin Burton    You hear this phrase a lot: “don’t judge.”    Well in this case, go ahead. Be my guest. Judge, and jump in with both feet, or both wagging index fingers, if you want to. I don’t care.    On our first regional beep baseball trip, to Indianapolis in late May, I …

There Is Wrong, And There’s Dead Wrong

by Kevin Burton   Say to me LeBron James is the best basketball player ever. Wrong. Tell me mayonnaise in any form is anything other than an affront to the senses (all of them). Wrong.    Tell me dogs are more loving than cats and I’ll tell you that you’re measuring love in terms of …

Cleaning Tips From Experts Better Than I

by Kevin Burton    Those of you who have turned to Page 7 for cleaning tips have been disappointed for the first (almost) three years. Sorry.    It’s not that I lack expertise in this area.  I know cleaning. Just ask my wife. It’s safe to say she is amazed at my eagerness to clean, …

Racist Oklahoma Officials Caught On Tape

by Corky Siemaszko NBC News    (McCurtain County is in the Southeast corner of Oklahoma, bordering Texas and Arkansas.)      The governor of Oklahoma has called for the resignations of the sheriff and other top officials in a rural county after they were recorded talking about “beating, killing and burying” a father/son team of local …

Russian Reporter Jailed For Telling The Truth

   Maria Ponomarenko has my respect, my admiration and full attention.     Last March the Russian Air Force bombed a Ukrainian theatre in the town of Mariupol, with 1,200 civilians inside. The Russian defense ministry denied the attack. Ponomarenko, a 44-year-old Russian journalist, told the truth about it in a social media post.  This is …

Thursdays With Mom: Golden Memories

by Kevin Burton    I took custody of the gold yesterday.  Didn’t make me any richer, not in the monetary sense anyway.     The transaction took place at my mother’s apartment at an assisted living facility twelve miles north of where I live.  I go there to visit her just about every Thursday.  We are …

News At My (And On My) Fingertips

by Kevin Burton    On the next-to-last night of our Upper Midwest vacation we found ourselves watching the clothes go round.    We were in Norfolk, Nebraska, boyhood hometown of Johnny Carson, when we gathered our quarters and the Tide Pods Jeannette had bought for the occasion, and took advantage of the Hampton Inn’s coin …

Stumbling Into Success Through Humility

by Kevin Burton    This is not a story about soccer, but that’s where it starts.    One time, I think it was while I was a reporter with the Muscatine Journal, I was assigned to do a soccer story.  I still don’t know much about soccer, but back then I knew next to nothing.  …

Blind Rock Climber Has Life In Focus

by Kevin Burton    After seeing one too many stories about blindness that was full of stereotypes and stupidity, I started a conversation.      I wrote about how my time as a newsman who happens to be legally blind made me sensitive to misconceptions about blindness that seep into society through the pages of …