Columnist -- Opinion columns run three times a week, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and focus on state and local issues.

DOB 10/1/1938 in Buffalo, N.Y. Married to Yoshiko Yogi, a native of Japan, since 1958; three children and seven grandchildren. Grew up in the Buffalo area and in San Diego, Calif., until finishing high school in Eden, N.Y.; then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. In the Air Force, became a nuclear weapons technician in the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (formerly known as the Manhattan Project) and later became the editor of various base newspapers in Japan and Oklahoma; honorably discharged in 1965. Attended various colleges and universities, including the University of Maryland, while in the military, but no degree. Worked at various small newspapers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; worked for The Associated press (1972 to 1980) at Philadelphia and then Harrisburg; was one of several AP staffers assigned to cover the Accident at Three Mile Island, and eventually became the AP's chief reporter for TMI; became an investigative reporter at the AP; hired in 1980 as an investigative reporter for The Pottsville, Pa., Republican newspaper, winning two national awards; eventually became The Republican's acting managing editor; hired by The Morning Call in 1986 as bureau chief in Lehighton, Pa.; have been a full-time columnist at The Morning Call since 1989.

Professionally, often focus on legal and constitutional issues, and play a pronounced adversarial role when dealing with power structures; one hostile critic called me a "cantankerous libertarian," a characterization I embrace.

Personally, raced motorcycles (motocross) for three years while in my 30s; played amateur ice hockey, starting in my early 40s and continuing until I was in my mid-50s; raced bicycles, both road and track (fixed gear, no brakes), in my 40s and 50s; ski; continue to ride bicycles recreationally; now own and ride two road motorcycles, including trips to the Southwest.

Hershey might be a 'Podunk,' but it's a nice one 5/15/2012
When the family first visited Hershey in the early 1970s, there was a rich aroma of chocolate from the candy plant near the intersection of Cocoa Avenue and East Chocolate Avenue, decorated with streetlights that looked like big Hershey Kisses.

Allentown school uniforms could affect test scores for some students 5/12/2012
In one episode of the ribald old television show "Married With Children," the delightfully dimwitted Kelly Bundy is justifiably worried about a pending high school math test, although she has other assets that often serve her well.

Allentown hockey arena soap opera: Don't jump off the Titanic 5/10/2012
For normal people, the important thing here is hockey, not the revitalization of a downtown area going downhill, nor razzle-dazzle financial schemes in which only two things seem certain: Ultimately, the politically connected will do just fine while it will be the taxpayers who get it in the neck.

Plain folk vs. the Gitmo 5: coping with offensive garb 5/8/2012
Thus far, no one has had his or her head lopped off in the hotbed of culture clashes that stretches from Trexlertown into eastern Berks County.

Lehigh Valley historian sees Vietnam, Afghanistan similarities 5/6/2012
On Oct. 1, 2009, Gary Olson, head of the Political Science Department at Moravian College, said in a column in The Morning Call that the U.S. incursion into Afghanistan "has never been the 'good and necessary war' defended by President Obama."