Opinion

The national media consider themselves essential in educating the electorate, so what happens when the electorate does not consider them a trustworthy guardian of democracy? The Associated Press and the American Press Institute just released a poll on the 2024 election and found only 14% of their sample expressed “a great deal of confidence in electionrelated information they receive from national sources.” By contrast, 46% have little or no confidence at all in the information they receive from national news organizations. About half of Americans, 53%, say they are extremely or very concerned that news organizations will report inaccuracies or misinformation during the election.

If there’s one thing that has defined my nearly decade of political reporting experience in Oklahoma, it’s been budget turmoil and shortfalls. In 2014, I hadn’t even had time to unpack before drama exploded over a $171 million budget hole and angst from state agencies told to cut their already shoestring budgets by 5%.

Dear Annie: You recently said you rarely get letters praising mothers-in-law. Well, here is one! I grew up in an abusive family with a mother who has severe borderline personality disorder and refuses to get medication or therapy.

Homelessness is a growing issue in the United States, with the number continuing to rise following the Covid pandemic. Homelessness has a ripple effect on the community. It reduces healthcare, increases crime rates, lowers workers in the workforce and uses thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Dear Annie: I grew up never allowed to have pets. I’ve been married almost 30 years to a man who allowed me to have a small inside dog, and he doesn’t mind her so much but hates the two we have outside. Both are rescues, one from his oldest son that had him tied to a tree, the other from a rescue group. Both weigh under 7 pounds. He hates them and looks for any excuse to get mad about them. One is a thief but doesn’t chew up her finds. The other digs tiny holes that a pecan can fit in, but not very many, two or three at any given time.

Within the past 48 hours, student protesters occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia University and then were forcibly removed by New York police. I knew that building well when I was an undergrad there in the 1970s.

As the philosopher and baseball player Yogi Berra once (supposedly) said, it’s deja vu all over again. Student protesters are occupying campuses of famed universities across the country. In New York, Columbia University protesters occupied administrative offices in Hamilton Hall and were cleared out by police, exactly 56 years to the day after student protesters occupied and were thrown out of that building in 1968.

Resist WHO Power Grab: Spread the Word and Support SB426 What if someone told you in 2019 that a pandemic would soon have the world in lockdown; churches, schools and locally owned shops would have to close while liquor stores and big box stores could remain open; healthy people would be required to cover their faces; “breathable” cotton masks would be deemed an appropriate barrier for a virus; medicines used without issue worldwide would be identified as “dangerous” therapeutics; while experimental MRNA technology and previously determined harmful pharmaceuticals would be used and even mandated? Would you have believed that those predictions could be true? In 2020 and the years that followed many have come to understand that “trust the science” is actually synonymous with “don’t ask questions and trust the political narrative.” With the benefit of hindsight, we must now turn our attention to the latest power grab by the World Health Organization (WHO) to claim sovereignty over our personal health autonomy. The WHO Pandemic Agreement and International Health Regulations amendments are expected to pass the World Health Assembly at the end of May, and while final drafts have not yet been released, from drafts released over the past three years we can determine that the WHO, as a body created under the United Nations (UN) and funded in part by the World Economic Forum (WEF), aims to expand on and solidify the tyranny we glimpsed during COVID.

Dear Annie: My mother, who is now 62, has always been a dominant personality, keen on having things go her way. I’m 34, an independent graphic designer, and I pride myself on being selfsufficient and creative. But every time I share aspects of my life with her -- be it career choices, romantic partners or even smaller decisions like adopting a pet -- she critiques them, often unsolicitedly, making me second- guess my decisions. Her disapproval, which is always veiled as concern, is making me not want to be around her.