Although we haven’t had a “…you’re no John Kennedy…” moment yet, I would say it would be tough not to argue that our local political forums for the Lee’s Summit City Council seats are off to a rough start.

There is no other defining characteristic as difficult to act out as honesty. This is because living an honest life is not merely about telling the truth on a witness stand, coming clean after being confronted by an accuser, abstaining from all but “white lies,” or deciding to be honest solely out of selfish purposes; it is about consciously and continually acting out of integrity for the sake of one’s character.

In Harrison County, Iowa, that saying couldn’t be truer.

No, this isn’t a column about recycling. I know that is disappointing to a few of you.

•  The death and funeral of a superstar, Whitney Houston: Ms. Houston had numerous involvements with drugs/alcohol that dominated much of her later life.

Political junkies love to watch the polls because, regardless of what some may think, results tend to be fairly accurate when weighing in the margins of error.

Never before has it been such cultural diversity within the workplace. Any office or business today is a melting pot of racial, intergenerational, linguistic, gender, social and economic social backgrounds, either in the composition of the workforce, the diversity of clientele served or both.

I will never forget living in Iowa in 2008, waking up one morning, driving down to U.S. 30 to head to work in Woodbine and seeing the illuminated bad news: $4.05 per gallon for unleaded.

On a sunny, but crisp, Saturday morning recently, my daughter and I jumped in the car and decided to hit Paradise Park in Lee’s Summit.

About eight years ago, I lost nearly 100 pounds over the course of 10 months.

While diversity is not only about race, race remains the most dominant and visible component of human diversity in our society.

Earlier this year, I filed Senate Bill 696, which increases fees, fines and penalties for uninsured motorists. For years, I have heard from one constituent or another who was hit by an uninsured motorist and found out how devastating it can be.

Keeping the lines of communication open between our school district and our state lawmakers is especially critical this time of year as legislators return to Jefferson City for the spring session. This year is an important one for our schools as legislators discuss issues such as the hold-harmless problem within the state education funding formula and address challenges in laws governing the transfer of students from unaccredited to accredited districts.