Is there a better way of looking at the country than through the centuries-old lenses that have guided politicians for more than 200 years — or, in Colorado’s case, since 1876? Ours is a nation of 50 states. Remember those maps that used to hang in fourth-grade classrooms? Remember memorizing, or trying to remember, the [...]

One of the strangest — and for me, one of the most endearing — characteristics of our confusing time is our affection for antique forms of transportation such as trains and bicycles. In pre-bust California, the giddy voters authorized the state to issue nearly $10 billion in transportation bonds to finance a proposed high-speed rail [...]

The official celebration of the sesquicentennial of the founding of Colorado City during 1859 came and went without much fuss. Thanks to scores of neighborhood volunteers, a monument was erected, ice cream was eaten and the band played on. It was as homey and unpretentious as Colorado City itself, once the sort-of state capital, now [...]

Got $300,000 sitting around to invest in downtown real estate? Like fine old historic properties? How about the long-vacant downtown Chicago post office, once the world’s largest such facility? As the New York Times reported on Tuesday, it’ll be going up for auction on Aug. 27, and the minimum bid is $300,000. The building, constructed [...]

Who’s the smartest guy on the block? Not Bill Gates — Microsoft is the past, not the future. Not Warren Buffett — he managed to lose plenty during the world financial meltdown, even though he knew it was coming. Not Nobel laureate/New York Times columnist Paul Krugman — he writes eloquently and convincingly, but he’s [...]