For people who supposedly revere the Founding Fathers, some Christian conservatives seem to have no problem ignoring one of their most abiding principles: the separation of church and state. Now the chief of schools in Oklahoma is demanding that all public schools teach the Bible from grades 5 through 12, saying it is necessary for an understanding of the country’s history. It is more of an attempt to ignore much of that history.

Americans of all political persuasions should celebrate the release of their countrymen and women from Russian prison cells. While the price was steep, the United States has an obligation to move heaven and earth to bring home its citizens who are unjustly detained in hostile foreign lands.

President Joe Biden is treating the Constitution as a mere suggestion in calling for sweeping changes to the United States Supreme Court. For the most part, what he is proposing can only be done by amending the founding document, a process that is extraordinarily difficult, and in this instance, unnecessary.

Ten years ago, in an opinion article for the Los Angeles Times, Rick Steves advised readers to swallow their fears of terrorism and disease, “just get on the plane” and go see the world. And who am I to disagree with a beloved travel writer and fellow Norwegian American?

Months if not years in the making, a bipartisan bill in Washington seeks to speed up permitting for new energy infrastructure, which far too often today gets bogged down if not killed by exhausting regulatory processes and lawsuits. Here’s hoping the imperfect but worthy legislation isn’t bogged down or killed by the forces protecting the status quo, which far too often today carry the day in Congress.

STVR bills ‘should be soundly defeated’

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should have saved herself from being roasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes Monday by justifiably angry members of the House Oversight Committee livid over the failures of the Secret Service to prevent the shooting of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally 11 days ago. She should have resigned rather than sit there and make the situation worse. Instead, she quit yesterday.

Now that Vice President Harris is heir-apparent for the Democratic presidential nomination (chosen by party elites without a democratic process from her party’s voters), the next step we’ll see from the left is whipping out the women’s card.

Gender shouldn’t matter when choosing a president — but after nearly 250 years of American democracy and zero women presidents, it clearly has. Now, if we want to save democracy, something has to change.

Community First Hawaii’s “Know Your Numbers” (KYN) Blood Pressure Awareness Campaign continues to make significant strides to end high blood pressure on Hawaii Island.

President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in a recent op-ed that there’s “no rational reason” why Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs — almost three times more than their peers overseas, according to a recent analysis.

So far, the U.S. has gotten off relatively easy when it comes to bird flu. Humans have, at least. Although the virus has propagated across the nation — infecting countless farmed animals, spreading to wildlife and killing them, sickening farm workers, affecting egg prices and contaminating cow’s milk — it hasn’t yet been fatal for humans in this country.