From 2005-12 I was a high school Latin teacher in Loudoun County. One of my former students graduated this week and, as a graduation gift, I wrote him a letter summarizing what I have learned about life, most of which has been spent in spiritual development. My column this month is an ...
It is well known by audiologists that people with uncorrected hearing loss lose their ability to understand speech and do not regain it once it is gone. Results of a study recently published (Neuroimage, Jan, 2014) by Frank Lin, MD, PhD of Johns Hopkins University appears to explain why this ...
This is the fifth installment of a monthly column on spiritual development.This month I am picking up from my last column which described my transition from being a Jesuit to exploring shamanism and becoming a shamanic practitioner. Last month I described how shamanism and Christianity, or any ...
I have had a busy couple of weeks traveling in West Virginia and elsewhere. Last Saturday, I spoke on the Elk River chemical spill at a successful Earth Day Festival at Morgans Grove Park. The day before I spoke in Asheville, North Carolina at an American Bar Association conference. I was on ...
One of the bills proffered by the Governor the Governor this year was to promote easier transferability of professional licenses of members of the military and their spouses. HB 4151 passed both houses and is now the law. This initiative, which has been promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama ...
After 20 good years as a Jesuit, I came to the conclusion that the skin just did not fit anymore and so, after nine months of pondering so momentous a decision, I stepped out the door into the wide world on June 3, 1988.I quickly realized that I still felt like a spiritual person on earth to ...
The biggest news of the week was that Governor Tomblin signed the minimum wage bill. HB 4283 increased West Virginia's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 per hour over two years. There was a last-ditch effort to derail the bill. One of the most curious aspects of campaign to get the Governor to ...
The 2014 session focused on many aspects of government reform. One of the reform bills that made it into law is SB 356. This bill reforms state purchasing and specifically targets abuse of the bidding process. It gives new powers to the Secretary of Administration to rein in agencies that ...
As predicted, the Governor called us in to special session and the fracking waste bill and the haircut bill were both considered again. Both bills have been made better for the Eastern Panhandle, but both are still bad. Ultimately, despite the negotiations and work to make the bills better by ...
"How do we get there?" was the question raised last Tuesday at the conclusion of the first meeting of the Caf Society, an intergenerational dialogue held every Tuesday morning from 8:30-9:30 in the Rumsey Room of Shepherd's Student Center. Co-facilitator Mike Austin had turned to my silent self ...