Indian Country Today • 28th February 2018

Indian Trail Trees: Hang a Left at Your Ancestral Roots

In 2002, a group of retired men began hiking together once a week in the Appalachian Mountains and started finding old, scenic trails they claimed nobody knew about.

Southland Golf Magazine • 20th February 2018

Confessions of a Virgin Swinger (OK, OK. It's really a golf story!)

Golf, from a distance, has always bored me. I used to drive by courses and see players tooling around in carts and leaning on clubs in their fancy pants and think, "I wonder what REAL athletes are doing today?"

OC Family Magazine • 23rd February 2018

AWARD WINNER! The 'Other' Woman

Houston, we have a problem. Her name is Carolyn. Carolyn is my ex-husband’s girlfriend. They live together with her two pre-teens and most likely, they’ll marry. I’m OK with that part. You know what they say: “One woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure.”

Spectrum Magazine • 18th February 2018

Living Biracial

Every kid, every day, whatever it takes. That's Rainey Briggs' motto. Thirty-seven-year-old Briggs ... is the only African American male elementary school principal in the Madison area.

3rd May 2020

Grandma's Teapot

A very old silver teapot sits like a trinket on a table in my hallway, surrounded by pictures and other tchotchkes. Like many things that are old, it goes unnoticed. Not one person who has ever walked by that table has ever commented on the tarnished antique. Nor, shame on me, have I ever made them aware of it.

OC Family Magazine • 21st February 2018

Sun-Kissed: Summer Ends and So Does My Daughter's Childhood

This summer, my daughter was kissed by the sun, by nature herself. Kisses of a different kind await my newly minted teenager in the summers ahead. Probably while I'm at work ... and not watching.

California Bountiful • 18th February 2018

Winged Wonders: Bats are Superheroes to Farmers

Bats get a bad rap. We're supposed to fear them. Shriek and run from them. And as legend suggests--never, EVER, let them near our necks.

11th June 2019

Our Founding 'Feathers'

History was never my favorite subject in school. When you’re young and your future is spread out in front of you like dazzling jewels, the last thing you want to focus on is the past. Who can keep all those dates and bloody wars straight, anyway? So imagine my surprise when I discovered in my daughter’s last year in high school how fascinated I was by U.S. history.

23rd February 2018

AWARD WINNER! Sorry Situation

Last week, my oldest daughter dropped a bombshell. She did not want to spend the night at her dad’s anymore because she doesn’t sleep well there. “It’s dark and cold” and her sister snores. To my great surprise, I was overcome with compassion for my ex.

California Bountiful • 18th February 2018

Feeding the Human Spirit

To launch a successful business is one thing; to resurrect the human spirit in the process is what Plates Cafe & Catering in Sacramento is all about.

OC Family Magazine • 3rd May 2020

Husbands Come and Go. But Dogs are Forever.

Then I had to face the truth. The REAL reason I didn’t want a cat was Higgins – my beloved Cocker Spaniel who died last year. Higgins had been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The ex and I got him when we were dating. I was smitten from Day One. (With Higgins, that is.) He crawled out from the bottom of a puppy pile, this tiny fur ball with red, floppy ears, and stood in the middle of a milk bowl for a quick lap with his tiny tongue. SOLD!

California Bountiful • 19th February 2018

Fired Up About Avocados

For many years, the avocado was the forbidden fruit. Its rich taste and creamy texture fooled everyone into thinking that it was a fatty food, one for the calorie-conscious to avoid at all costs ...

Wisconsin Center for Education Research • 20th February 2018

STEMMing the Tide of Bias

Brett Woods knows all too well what racial bias feels like. “When I was in graduate school, it was made clear to me that the only reason I was there was because I was fulfilling an affirmative-action requirement,” recalls Woods, who is African-American.

Wisconsin School News • 1st June 2021

We are listening!

A few years back, Jack Jorgensen and his colleagues were driving back to Madison from the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance (WiRSA) Conference in Stevens Point when they had an epiphany.

Indian Country Media Network • 24th January 2017

Celiac Disease: A fluke diagnosis that changed my life

After years of visits to countless doctors, and a barrage of blood tests to figure out why I was feeling so sluggish and wasn’t able to lose a single pound no matter how hard I tried, I received a diagnosis from a young doctor filling in for my general practitioner that would change my eating life forever. “You have Celiac Disease,” he said.

Wisconsin Center for Education Research • 8th June 2021

Re-Making the World of Education

Pancake-making robots. A mechanical horse. A life-sized mousetrap. No, these aren’t highlights from the latest episode of “Shark Tank.” But they are real-life inventions of a burgeoning community of artists, do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs known as “makers”...

Wisconsin Center for Education Research • 8th June 2021

MSAN Gives Voice to Minority Students

Guery Ulunque has come a long way since he first landed in the United States from Bolivia with his father and sister in 2008. The now-18-year-old senior at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va., recalls his struggles.

OC Family Magazine • 20th February 2018

Single Parents are Everyday Heroes

I know what you're thinking: "A story about single parenting? Boy, this will be depressing." After all, statistics don't lie. In Orange County, roughly 15,000 marriages end in divorce every year ... and nearly 22 percent of households are run by single parents.

OC Metro Magazine • 13th March 2018

40 Under 40 Business Star Joe Manzella

Joe Manzella loves cats, double-cut pork chops, great quotes and college football. “It’s Arizona State! Don’t say ‘Arizona,’ I’ll have a heart attack.” (One guess where he went to college.) But Manzella’s real passion is running restaurants. “I love the buzz of this business,” says the 37-year-old, somewhat-feisty proprietor of two thriving, award-winning Orange County restaurants.

23rd August 2018

Celiac Patients: Do You Have Nutrient Deficiencies?

You finally have a diagnosis: celiac disease. You've endured a battery of tests. Made a commitment to eating gluten-free for life. And are on the road to feeling better. Now what? How often should you see a doctor for follow-up nutritional testing? And which tests are most important?