Maggie and I went back to a natural Christmas tree this year after perhaps a decade of the other kind. It’s beautiful, a Noble or Fraser fir a tad taller than 7 feet. Most important, Maggie, who had her misgivings, likes it.

Who could argue against the city government waiving fees for a low-income senior housing development? Not us.

An article in Sunday’s edition shed more light on a situation in White Canyon, a small, unincorporated development east of Randolph on the west side of Tuttle Creek Lake.

The U.S. House of Representatives began its formal impeachment pageant Tuesday. The Intelligence Committee will forward its report to the Judiciary Committee, which will forward it to the whole House, which will then hold hearings on whether to impeach President Trump.

Two young women have dropped their federal lawsuit against Kansas State University, and in a limited sense that makes complete sense to us. Their case — which alleged that K-State should bear some of the blame for rapes that happened off-campus — never really added up, in legal terms.

It’s starting.

When my mother moved to Nashville nearly a decade ago, after 70-plus years in Kansas, it wasn’t because she sought proximity to Brad Paisley or sit-down lunches with Loretta Lynn. It was, in hindsight, pretty astute thinking. Mom was on her own, aging gracefully with a mild, but not debilita…

On Saturday, once you’re past the glut of Thanksgiving and the frenzy of Black Friday, we hope you’ll remember the smaller but no less important Small Business Saturday.

Please join

The traditional image of Thanksgiving — June pulling the golden-brown turkey out of the oven, Ward carving, Wally and The Beav sitting around the table with Grandma, Grandpa, cousins and aunts and uncles — is still occasionally accurate.

There’s a round of arm-wrestling going on over the cost of police work. We have a suggestion about a resolution.

The other day, a person griped that she couldn’t read a Mercury story to which there was a link on a Facebook page. This was because The Mercury’s website limits free access to our stories to three per month, and she was evidently over the limit and was being asked to subscribe.

It’s the time of year to celebrate — from veterans earlier this month, our many blessings at the end of the month, the upcoming holidays and then ringing in the new year. The tie that binds all these celebrations together? A sense of community. Whether it’s a community of family, friends, fa…

Ever since Abram was a little kid — that’s about 2 because he’ll be 5 next month — he has enjoyed playing with cell phones. Small wonder, given that every adult he know has one, and he’s seen us make and receive calls on them.

Toys for Manhattan now open for donations

This just in: Evidently I have a vendetta.

When Kansans think of aviation, names like Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech come to mind, as does the strong legacy of leadership in the aerospace industry across the state.

Tenth-annual blood drive to honor

Oliver Brown Elementary School.

We’re officially in the holiday season.

What’s happening at Northwestern University is a symptom of a disturbing trend: Some people aren’t really interested in the truth. Even those whose business ought to be the truth are wobbling.

You will not find my name on the membership rolls of the Screen Actors Guild. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has yet to acknowledge my existence, let alone nominate me for an award. Searching for me in the Internet Movie Database will prove futile, but your every-other-Sunda…

What happened this week with Aaron Estabrook, and particularly Ron Wells, is a sign of the times: You don’t really have a private life anymore. Certainly not if you’re an elected official.

Junk drawers. Everybody knows what you mean by this term, and even though we call the stuff in them “junk,” it’s so important, so crucial to our existence, we keep it anyway. Here’s my household’s current inventory of absolute necessities.

Basis for impeachment clearly exists

The Manhattan city government is contending with several questions about a new airport runway.

In case you’re interested in watching history unfold, live television in the next few days ought to be pretty interesting. There’s really one key question to think about. Back to that in a minute.

Thank you to members of the military

That big, colorful new mural visible from Third and Poyntz is a great step forward for our community.

College athletes can now make money from endorsements.

Watching the impeachment drama unfolding in our nation’s capital in recent weeks has been painful on multiple levels.

There’s not much down side to the Manhattan-Ogden school district joining the wave of lawsuits against a national e-cigarette maker.

We’ve been scolded in some corners for our coverage and commentary about the post-game ugliness at the Manhattan-Junction City football game. Most recently, we published a letter from Bruce McMillan, an architect and a longtime proponent of regional cooperation between Manhattan and Junction City.

Editor’s note: We’re re-publishing this letter because of inadvertent typing errors.

The voters have spoken. What, exactly, did they say?

Mike Pompeo, a fellow Kansan, is right in the middle of the biggest issue in the world.

Coverage of racial

The following is a paid political letter.