If you want to understand why we’re not embarked on a “new Cold War” with Beijing, I suggest you watch a PBS documentary this week called "Beethoven in Beijing" — about the Philadelphia Orchestra’s unique relationship with China.

Apparently, Robert Pape was surprised.

And just like that, the effort to organize nearly 6,000 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., was defeated.

So, it seems the church is shrinking.

As we end a year of COVID-19 gloom, acquire vaccines and adjourn, squinting and stretching, into springtime, we – at least those in several Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern and Southern states – will have company: the billions of periodic cicadas known as Brood X.

“Tax Day,” the filing deadline for individual federal tax returns, is normally April 15, but it was extended this year until May 17.

Charles McMillian, a 61-year-old man who witnessed George Floyd's excruciating death, testified earlier this week that decades of experience had taught him what horror could await a Black man who is perceived as resisting arrest. That is why he was yelling at Floyd - already pinned to the ground - to "Get up, get in the car. You can't win." He broke down as he explained this on the witness stand, remembering how he told police officer Derek Chauvin that Chauvin got to go home safe to his family, and that the people Chauvin interacted with should get to, too.

Anyone with a Twitter presence gets used to setting off the occasional firestorm. If you’re sane, you just keep your distance. A conflagration I ignited Monday, however, took me by surprise and left me wanting to delve into the fury.

“This is a violent civilization – if civilization’s where I am.” – Gil Scott-Heron, “Gun”

Given today’s long overdue focus on systemic racism – and the raging culture wars that awareness has engendered – it’s reasonable to wonder what the future will be (and should be) for storied but politically offensive movies like “Gone With the Wind,” “The Searchers,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “The Jazz Singer.”

The national average for a price of a gallon of gasoline is quickly approaching $3. Some states are already there. Facebook memes and Twitter trolls have been quick to blame the change in administrations, noting that prices have jumped about 45 cents per gallon since President Joe Biden took office. But is that really the case?

He was having a bad day.

He blazed through my childhood like a sombrero-clad comet, terrorizing gringo villains in the name of us downtrodden Mexicans.

There’s nothing that ails Joe Biden’s agenda, we are supposed to believe, that ending the filibuster wouldn’t fix.

The first day of spring kicks off the unofficial national gardening holiday everywhere in the northern hemisphere. In the United States, gardeners are celebrating riotously.

A new report released by Stop AAPI Hate revealed that since March 19, 2020, there have been 3,795 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans. That figure barely scratches the surface as most hate crimes go unreported. The rash of violence is becoming a daily event.

Oh dear. Conservatives have lost their bearings again. As they say in Texas, bless their hearts. This time, it’s not over refugees, affirmative action, reparations, multiculturalism or same-sex bathrooms.

Dear Sen. Tim Scott:

The city of Spokane is moving forward with a new spirit of collaboration and policies based on data and robust input from its neighborhoods, businesses and community leaders.