Patt Morrison

President Obama may be attempting to beat Republicans to the chase when it comes to streamlining government. Earlier this morning the President requested the authority to consolidate redundant government agencies, starting with merging the Small Business Administration, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Agency. Karen G. Mills, administrator for the Small Business Administration, would be elevated to the cabinet.

Many people love the crunchy sweet taste of Girl Scout cookies, but not everyone loves the inclusion of a transgender child into the actual Girl Scouts organization. Last fall, the Girl Scouts of the USA admitted then 7-year-old Bobby Montoya, a child born a boy, but who identifies as a girl, to a troop in Colorado.

The Earth really is a tiny grain of sand on a cosmic beach, according to a new survey that indicates 100 billion planets exist in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

In 1965, at the request of local citizens’ groups after what has come to be known as the Watts Riots, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., traveled to Los Angeles to inspect the situation and attempt to ease tensions. Stunned by what he saw, King wrote that not only had federal, state, and city governments failed to do their due diligence for Los Angeles’ African-American community, but that the Southern civil rights movement was also culpable, due to its failure to provide the kind of organizational support necessary to help Northern communities.

Colony collapse – the sudden deaths of entire honeybee colonies – has caught the attention and imagination of many. It’s not a gradual extinction, but a sudden and sharp disappearance, or silencing.

In a modern era inundated with multi-million dollar entertainment extravaganzas filled with 3-D special effects that were unimaginable a few decades ago, who would have guessed that a silent black and white film would be not only successful, but a critically acclaimed hit? Even the makers of “The Artist” probably could not have predicted how well-received the film would be, but nonetheless the picture has won over audiences and critics alike.