Category: Examiner Opinion

YOUR TURN SCOTT FEDER GUEST COLUMN Some say teaching is a calling, while skeptics say people become teachers for summers off and working 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. for huge amounts of money. Being in the field for nearly 25 years and speaking from experience, those skeptics need to take a hike or, better yet, put…

By MAUREEN DAYE Correspondent Children’s author Dan Gutman encouraged youngsters at Manalapan’s Clark Mills School to stick with their writing even if the initial response is not supportive. Popular children’s author Dan Gutman encouraged youngsters at the Clark Mills School in Manalapan to stick with their writing even if the initial response to what they…

ARE WE THERE YET Lori Clinch You could search the world over, and I doubt you would find a family as hard to cook for as mine. Some members of the Clinch household aren’t bad. They will eat peppers, onions and spices with names that can’t be pronounced. Others restrict my culinary creativity to salt…

The Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey and the Backstretch Community Assistance Program will once again offer college scholarships in 2015 to the sons and daughters of New Jersey horsemen. The deadline for applications is June 15. Scholarships, valued at a total distribution of $7,500, are for qualified students who plan to attend…

Recently, certain doctors have accused Dr. (Mehmet) Oz of “quackery.” Dr. Oz responded on his television show to the criticism. I did not need Dr. Oz’s television response to put the lie to the baseless attack on one of the world’s great heart surgeons. Dr. Oz repaired my mitral valve in a complex operation. A…

GERARD TRABALKA Roosevelt Park in Edison provides a picturesque setting for an afternoon stroll.

By Jacqueline Cutler Ben McKenzie’s clear-eyed stare makes him the perfect cop, as he proved on “Southland” and continues to prove on FOX’s “Gotham,” whose first season ends Monday, May 4. “As we begin the series, he is an old-fashioned hero, a man of principle, a veteran,” McKenzie says of his character, James Gordon. “He…

YOUR TURN CASEY BARILKA GUEST COLUMN The people of New Jersey need to come to grips with a reality that will soon have a tremendous impact on the state’s economy. That reality is that if the current funding of the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) remains the same, the fund will be insolvent in…

In theaters now By Paul Hall Summer at the movies is about big-budget blockbusters and things that go boom at the box office. It’s about sequels and prequels and the biggest stars in the business. It’s also been about superheroes and this year is no exception as Avengers: Age of Ultron rolls into a multiplex…