I've been trying to edit student papers all day, but to no avail. I keep sneaking back to the news. To see if investigators got him or them. To learn why.

I'm not finding answers.

My school, Emerson College, is but four or five blocks from the end of...

In case you haven't gotten the memo yet on growing U.S. income disparity, read this.

In the same week the New York Times wrote of looming 10 percent benefit cuts for the longterm unemployed, its Sunday Travel Section was hawking a weeklong spring break sailing trip for mom,...

Can we please stop referring to Republican "conservatism" and call the party's philosophy and actions what they truly are? I vote for "destructionism," a mix of obstructing and dismantling.

Some context. On Wednesday night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow did a nifty segment called "Chart Imitates Life." Using...

For the record, I was an ink-stained wretch, a reporter and editor. I love almost nothing more than sitting over my morning coffee, newspaper spread before me. It's not just a habit; it's how I've eaten breakfast for as long as I can remember.

But for that to happen, the...

Vice President Joe Biden hasn't yet issued his report. The Earth scattered on Newtown's graves has barely settled. But it seems just about everyone in Washington -- the press, politicians, perhaps the president -- already is backpedaling on a serious attempt to ban assault rifles.

"Weapons ban doomed...

How's this for a collective New Year's resolution: Can we agree to stop dissing each other?

To let each other change car lanes without risking an accident? To acknowledge each other with at least a nod in elevators? To stop texting and typing at meetings and in classrooms long enough...

I'd like to laugh, but these people are scary.

The National Rifle Association's solution to the Newtown massacre is put guns in the hands of armed guards at the entrances of all America's schools. This is vigilantism at its worst, not safety. It's a return to the Wild West, to...

First I read the stories of the kids. Then I read the facts: cold, hard, cruel.

The first two kids were buried Monday in Newtown. Noah Pozner, who loved tacos, and Jack Pinto, who adored the New York Giants. Both boys age 6, their funerals captured respectfully and beautifully by...

What will it take to stop the slaughter?

It's a question the president seemed to ask, but did not try to answer directly Sunday night as he spoke at an emotional memorial service for 20 children, babes really, gunned down in cold blood by a 20-year-old madman.

Certainly the...

A comprehensive analysis of the all taxes paid by Americans shows that every American income group except the poor and lower middle-class is paying substantially less than it did in the 1980's.

The big winners -- in dollars and percentages? Why the rich, of course.

Published in today's New...

After pausing to cook their turkeys, America's senators and representatives are once again teetering and tussling on the edge of that infamous fiscal cliff.

And from the blogosphere to public affairs radio shows, the news media are once again atwitter with talk of tax hikes and entitlement cuts and which...

Two decades ago, when I worked at the San Jose Mercury News in California, then-editor Jerry Ceppos sent a memo cautioning staff to limit its use of anonymous sources.

His point was one central to fair and honest journalism: Reporters, he wrote, should not quote sources who use the shield...

At first glance, it's hard to argue that this election was about much more than Barack Obama's battle to survive.

As of Wednesday night, the president had outpolled Mitt Romney by a about 2.8 million votes of 118 million votes cast for the two of them. That's...

One day to go, and all politically obsessed Americans have paper bags on standby to breathe into if their side tanks.

On Tuesday, we'll all choose between Barack Obama's substantive, if imperfect, record in tough times, and Mitt Romney's mirage of ever-shifting poses -- his not-so-magical mystery tour that I'm...

On one side is our sometimes too cool, but typically competent president, a man who once again last week displayed his ability to stay calm and centered in a crisis. On the other is his challenger, Mitt Romney, a man with an unswerving penchant for driving all over the road...

It makes sense that a candidate I've dubbed The Great Chameleon should have a cool new gimmick to win the election: dupe the press.

An interesting article in The Week suggests that the Romney campaign has been pushing a false momentum story in the news media in the...

President Obama showed a clear and confident command of foreign policy in the third and final presidential debate. Just as importantly, he showed glimpses of his end game, laying out a coherent plan for the next four years and overtly tying Mitt Romney's plans to the failed policies...

Having failed in many cases to block legitimate voting through legislation, anonymous conservatives are turning to intimidation.

NPR reports that in the last two weeks, "dozens of anonymous billboards have popped up in urban areas in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin." In white, all-caps lettering...

He's a chameleon, a guy who changes his colors with regularity to blend in with the backdrop. He's a master of flim-flam, a fellow who could sell someone oceanfront property in Arizona, and do so without a trace of remorse.

In fact, Mitt Romney at times seems close to closing...

Oh please. This isn't an Olympic ice skating event or American Idol. Don't the news media have something more valuable to write about than Joe Biden's grin?

Has the presidential race been reduced to a succession of style points and who spins them best?

Like many of...