Opinion

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Joe Biden will not go gently into that good night.

The lame duck president seems to be doing as much damage as he can before Donald Trump is sworn in Jan. 20.

To learn the true character of someone, see how they act when they know there are no repercussions for their actions. There are sayings designed just for this scenario, like “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

My sister took me to task. “You know I was not being mean about your dress, don’t you?”

She meant the dress that she had said made me look like a car wash — the part of the car wash where the flappy things slap the car dry. My dress looked a lot like that, especially if I spun around. I thought this was hilarious and mentioned it in a column.

“Of course I knew you weren’t being mean!” I told her.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

In 1897, the “New York” Sun ran a column explaining to 8-year-old Virginia that there indeed was a Santa Claus.

The famous column indicated that Santa Claus exists “certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist.”

It was a powerful and memorable moment in journalism where a writer was able to explain how hopes and dreams, although not always apparent, are still real.

GUEST COLUMN, Richard Stout, retired FBI agent

As a retired FBI special agent, I worked to protect my family and the American people in a fair and apolitical way. I understood that the public perception of the agency directly impacted the success of our mission. Moreso, I took to heart the core of that public perception: trust in us by our fellow citizens.

After the Parkland shooting, where my daughter survived and I responded as a first responder, I was deeply disheartened by the FBI’s mishandling of critical leads that could have prevented the tragedy. One failure stemmed from an agent and their supervisor in the Jackson, Mississippi, FBI Office, while another involved a call-in tip that was mishandled by a contract call taker and their supervisor. The contract employee was fired, the Jackson agent was allowed to retire, yet both supervisors remained in their positions.