During last Thursday's debate, Joe Biden said his goal as president would be to "transition away from the oil industry."

I don’t have the stomach for what our politics and public discourse have become.

So I focus on stink bugs.

For eight months now, the year 2020 has felt like a funhouse mirror.

It was President Richard Nixon who said in the midst of the enveloping Watergate scandal: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got."

I’ve been trying hard not to write about politics. We’re two weeks from the presidential election, and it’s almost impossible to escape. The birds outside my window are unusually chirpy, and I’m sure they’re going at it over Trump’s taxes or Biden’s Supreme Court plans.

Become an employee with full paid benefits, or remain a mostly independent gig worker? That debate’s raging in California as November’s general election approaches, and its outcome is likely to affect the entire country.

RING! RING! RING!

While some alarmists are warning we could all die from climate change in the next however many years (their predictions differ and have been consistently wrong), the national debt is a clear and present threat to the stability, even existence, of the country.

Halloween, like so much else, will be different this year from previous years, but it also offers an analogy that can be applied to the current presidential campaign.

In my attempt at a humor column loosely related to the first presidential debate, I learned a lesson. I angered two groups of people: those who thought I should have blamed Trump, and those who thought I should have blamed Biden.

Late last month, North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un issued an apology. In a letter, Kim expressed sincere regret for "disappointing" South Korea President Moon Jae-in.

If we can't poke fun at COVID-19 on Halloween, when can we?

Hispanics are 60 percent of the population of Miami-Dade County, according to the U.S. Census. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton won Hispanic votes here by a margin of about 290,000, which was not enough to win the state for her. An NBC News/Marist poll last month showed President Trump with a 50 percent to 46 percent lead over Joe Biden among Florida Hispanics in the upcoming election.

President Trump's infection with COVID-19 adds to a year no fiction writer could have contrived.

I was about to start writing about this squirrel I saw in my backyard. It was the cutest little fella, and we were just staring each other down, and then I got a text message. It was from one of my editors.

When life serves you lemons, you make lemonade.

Dedication of the official memorial to General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower occurred on Sept. 17. Relatively little media attention was devoted to this historically important event.

I had initially thought of Tuesday night's first presidential debate as the equivalent of a heavyweight boxing match, something like the classic fights between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in the 1970s.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has made himself largely unavailable to questions from reporters since before his nomination. In contrast, President Trump has made himself available numerous times per day to reporters and their often hostile and confrontational questions.

Autumn has arrived — and it couldn’t come soon enough.

Because we all could use a break from the nonstop drama, may I present the Rev. Sheila Zilinsky and her theory that LeBron James is secretly a wizard and card-carrying member of the Illuminati who conjures up demons by way of his pregame "chalk toss."

From the moment Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, was made aware of the threat of COVID-19, he acted faster than most other states and the federal government.

In my job as an education reporter, I frequently hear from parents and teachers complaining about overcrowded classrooms. These days, that usually means 25 or more students at a time. I don’t argue the point. The smaller the class size, the better, in every way.

The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives conservatives and Republicans what they claim to have wanted since judicial activism became the norm in the 1960s.

Every college has iconic spots on campus that only mean something to students and alumni.

San Francisco residents will vote on a measure in November to allow teenagers as young as 16 to vote in local elections.

There was a time in America, unknown or not experienced by people under the age of 50, when politics was a contact sport played with mostly accepted rules and the equivalent of "sportsmanship." 

I was grabbing a couple of sausage biscuits, and witnessed a couple of old codgers arguing over their coffee. One was a bit on the heavy side, with wild hair and a loud voice. The other was silver-haired, more soft-spoken, and would occasionally seem to lose his train of thought.

On hearing that President Trump sat for 18 interviews with Bob Woodward of The Washington Post my first reaction was "what the..." Why Woodward?

I made it through the summer of COVID-19 – though I’m thankful that neither I nor any of my family have contracted the novel coronavirus.

Last week, President Trump vehemently denied the details of an exposé in The Atlantic alleging his disparagement of prisoners of war and dead and disabled soldiers, calling them "suckers" and "losers," though Fox News and the Associated Press have independently confirmed it happened.

In courts of law one has a constitutional right to face one's accusers and to have them cross-examined. In the political court one has no such rights. Slander and innuendo are the norm.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports the American government will soon reach a debt level equaling its entire gross domestic product.

Data collection for the 2020 Census ends soon. This census, the 22nd in U.S. history, has faced its share of challenges and controversies.

Remember the Tina Turner hit, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” In the lyrics, love is referred to as a “second-hand emotion.” That song popped into my head as I watch what is happening to our country.

The ouster of Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. over allegations of sexual misconduct and other behavior that falls short of the university's code of conduct -- not to mention Scripture -- is another in a long list of object lessons each generation of Christians seems to have to learn anew.

An open letter to the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties: We’re giving you four years’ notice.

The two political conventions are finally over. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, one convention promoted the best of times, the other the worst of times.

American home ownership is soaring, which is good for all of us.

TV actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion-designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, recently pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters into USC.

Labeling another person has become a popular political pastime. The intent is to use a label that is impossible to disprove no matter the amount of contrary evidence.

2020 has been the Edsel of years. For those who are too young to understand that ancient reference, it has been the New Coke of years. Am I still going back too far? Okay, it’s been the Google Glass of years. There, I’ve covered every generation who may read this column. For all of us, the common thread is anger.

If you watched last week's virtual Democratic convention, you heard about an America with which you might not be familiar. Speaker after speaker portrayed America as a failing nation full of misery, poverty and angst that only they can make better.

Thanks to some stellar research by my cousin Ann Biggums Gonzalez, documents show that my maternal family has been a part of the United States since before 1805.

In a new book about her grandfather, Dwight D, Eisenhower, titled "How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions," Susan Eisenhower writes admiringly about Ike's pursuit of what she calls "the middle way."

I posed a question on social media. “What do you miss most about your life BC (Before COVID)?” I have read about a thousand replies, and I have learned so much. Your answers made me laugh, and they made me cry.

Anything that reduces tensions in the Middle East and contributes to Israel's security should be applauded. The agreement between the UAE and Israel to establish diplomatic relations in exchange for Israel's suspension of settlements and claims to sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (as Israe…

Trump’s NDAA veto threat puts a lot that our troops need at risk. For all the talk of base names, many of the actual buildings on those bases are falling apart. Reuters recently ran a series called “Ambushed at Home,” detailing the “squalid” conditions of military housing. The NDAA would address that problem. The NDAA would also enable basic safety measures on bases, like fire resistance and cleanup for environmental hazards. These are the day-to-day items that troops really need to keep themselves and their families safe.

I love Ohio. I love its four seasons, its traditions and the state's place in American history.