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When considering to be a part of the SEMO Times, I thought long and hard about the central role of a newspaper in a tightly-knit community such as ours. Though we live in the instant-information age of the internet, we will always look to the “paper” to supplement our information intake with local news, entertainment and sports, births and deaths, marriages and anniversaries, and even weekly sales and classified ads A local newspaper’s pivotal role in our daily lives carries with it a great responsibility. Our guideposts are simple: to be fair and objective, neutral and unbiased, thorough and informative. Most of all, we are obligated to treat all parties equally, regardless of who they are, and present both sides

Broussards on Main Street in Downtown Cape at night (photo by Ken Steinhoff. © Ken Steinhoff. All Rights Reserved.) See: Jim Stone and Main Street Neon   It doesn't take much coaxing to get me to hop in the car and head to Cape Girardeau. It's such a great town with excellent shopping choices and eateries. Now that the highways out of Poplar Bluff have expanded it doesn't take much time at all to get there either. One trip stands out in my mind. My husband and I had the seemingly rare opportunity to break from our busy schedules to make the trip together. On the drive from Poplar Bluff we narrowed down our many choices of eateries to hit for

Forty-five years after American innovation sent man to the moon, the VA is still processing claims on paper. The Department of Veterans Affairs was created in 1930 and has been reluctant to accept technological and administrative advancements throughout its 84 year history. The result is a backlog that makes the process of seeing a doctor a troublesome or sometimes unnavigable task for our veterans. I am committed to assisting veterans in Southeast and South-Central Missouri who truly deserve a VA that is working for them. The failings of the antiquated VA have had real and serious consequences for far too long. Wait times of more than three months for the patriots who defend our freedoms is absolutely unacceptable. Once our

During his State of the Union speech in January, President Obama said he hoped 2014 could be "a year of action." Six months have passed since the President issued his challenge, but leaders in the Senate are still refusing to even hold a vote on common sense bills passed by the House. National news personalities like to refer to Congress as a "do-nothing" body. The truth is, Senate leaders have refused to take up 148 of the 189 bills the House has passed. These are bills that would ease burdensome regulations on small businesses and families, establish America's energy independence and stop ObamaCare.   Like you, I am concerned about federal regulations imposed by the Obama Administration. In the House

Across America, thousands of people will be traveling this summer. Some of them for vacation, some for business, and some of them for family reunions. My family is one of those families gathering this weekend in Doniphan. But attendance will be down a bit this summer, for a lot of reasons. First, Mitcheners are now scattered across the United States. They will be traveling from the East Coast, from the West Coast, and from many dots on a map in between. Travel is expensive. Almost everyone has a year where their family budget is too tight to allow for such a trip, even if the reunions are held just every other year. And then there is the problem of scheduling,