Top Teachers

by STAFF

In honor of National Teacher  Appreciation Day and in recognition of our own Teacher Appreciation Day this Saturday, May 11, 6 p.m. at Aksarben Village, The Reader reached out to the Learning Community school districts to get the names of teachers recognized for their hard work, dedication and effectiveness. Here is just a small sampling of the educators who help shape our children’s growth and...

The Future of Funny Books

by Tim McMahan

Last Saturday was Comic Book Day, an annual celebration of the classic illustrated story and a clever way to get people into comic shops to part with their hard-earned money, and I didn’t go.

Not because I don’t love comics. On the contrary, I grew up lost and wandering through a world populated by the superhuman superheroes that make up the Marvel Universe -- Spider-man, The X-Men, The...

If You’re Not At The Table, You’re On The Menu

by Liz Codina

“In 2008 all eyes were on the Latino vote. That year we had 19.5 million registered Latinos that were active to vote,” Miriam Peña, the executive director for the Colorado Progressive Coalition and Colorado Progressive Action, told an Omaha audience. Since then “in the 2012 all eyes were on the Latino vote because that number went up to 23.4 million eligible voters.”

On the evening of...

The Feminist Capitalist

by Robert P. Miles

Looking out at the faces of people waiting to hear me discuss Warren Buffett’s investment strategies recently, I asked myself the same, but always unanswered, question the world’s greatest investor would himself ask: Where were the women?

Buffett knows one thing other men tend to overlook — being a feminist is good for the bottom line.

As an expert on Buffett’s business strategies, I travel...

The Dog-Eared Library

by Tim McMahan

I was driving home last week listening to Fresh Air on NPR when I heard what I thought was an older woman talking about owls and diabetes. I caught just enough to wonder if there had been some sort of medical breakthrough involving feathered wildlife and Our National Blood Sugar Epidemic when the author began talking about writing dedications during book tours and I figured out it was David...

What’s so bad about peace, love and understanding?

by Kietryn Zychal

Ten years ago, Steve Thyberg had a vision. He wanted to create a celebration like Earth Day for peace and justice. Thyberg, a mental health therapist in private practice in Omaha, was a student of spiritual leaders Matthew Fox and Thomas Berry, father of the “Ecozoic Era.”

“I had been to the Earth Spirit Rising conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Berry told us that the intersection...

I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy…

by Tim McMahan

“What do you think of all that business in Boston?” I asked. “I guess they shot one of them last night.”

The young lady, an acquaintance who I don’t know very well, didn’t look up from the magazine she was flipping through. “Really?” she said, disinterested. “I haven’t been keeping up with that. It’s too depressing.”

Too depressing? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The biggest manhunt...

Wounded Knee 1973 still a battleground for some per new book

by Leo Adam Biga

Journalist and author Stew Magnuson's new book Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding finds virtually every survivor of that 71-day occupation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D. sullied in some way.

The book by this Omaha native, who did a Peace Corps stint before a freelance correspondent career, explains how what began as a symbolic stand protesting historic wrongs to native peoples...