The story of a Houston woman in labor, brought to the safety of a hospital by a human chain her neighbors formed to get her to a truck through pouring rain and rising waters, finally brought me to an insight.

The images of everyday heroism and neighborly sacrifices coming from Texas and surrounding areas in recent days reflect the real America.

Most of what we were fed on news channels before the hurricane reflected something else.

I would not be so insensitive as to say we needed this to remind us who we are. The suffering of others never is needed, and thousands of people have experienced too much of it because of hurricane Harvey. FEMA officials said the number of people needing emergency shelter could surpass 30,000, including people from about 50 counties in Texas and Louisiana. As I write this, at least 20 people are known to have died. Much of the suffering is taking place away from TV cameras, in small towns and hamlets.

Four years ago, Chris Burbank met with the Deseret News editorial board. At the time, he was police chief in Salt Lake City, and he was complaining about how police departments nationwide were becoming too militarized.

Back then, the military routinely gave surplus equipment to local police departments. Burbank said this made many local police look like invading 

In his Phoenix speech Tuesday evening, President Trump sounded a troubling note on the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying he didn’t know whether it could be salvaged.

“I think we'll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point," he said, leaving us all to wonder whether he was just using a bargaining tactic at the start of negotiations or signaling an inevitable policy direction.

Five years have passed since Jestina Clayton, a native of Sierra Leone, won a court case giving her the right to braid hair in her Utah home without undergoing 2,000 hours of mandatory cosmetology training.
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You may have thought this piece of good news, now relegated to the dustbins of narrow Google searches and distant memory, means Utah’s economy is much more friendly toward those who just want to work hard and earn a modest living. You would be wrong.

Iceland is close to completely eradicating Down syndrome births. This is not a good thing.
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As the show “CBSN: On Assignment” reported recently, this eradication has nothing to do with medical breakthroughs that cure the condition that arises from having an extra chromosome, although some of these are on the medical horizon. It has everything to do with parents deciding to abort fetuses that, tests show, may have the condition.

Where do they go when they scatter?

I strolled through the Rio Grande area of downtown Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Things were noticeably quieter than in recent weeks, when this was the 

People in the wealthiest places in America leave the chintziest tips, while people in modest places leave the most.

Time Magazine just published the results of a study from the payment company Square, which examined credit and debit card transactions at sellers nationwide. Tippers in Hawaii were the cheapest of all, followed by the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and California. These are places with among the highest incomes in the nation.

If someone just invented football, would we sanction the game?

That’s an interesting question, considering states have, over the last 20 years or so, sanctioned ultimate fighting and legalized marijuana. We seem to have a certain tolerance for risky behavior. But then neither of those things is as tightly associated with culture and school spirit (at least not openly) as is football.

It’s a question worth considering as training camps 

I can’t remember the last time I stood dumbstruck in front of my closet, trying to decide what to wear before an interview.

But then, I seldom interview someone like Judith Rasband, an internationally known authority on image consulting and management, a former Deseret News fashion columnist and the operator of the Conselle Institute of Image Management in Orem.

She can size people up in a millisecond and tell 

Hotels and motels are booked solid for Aug. 21 along the path of the first total solar eclipse to cover much of the United States in 99 years. The Guardian reports, “Never will a total solar eclipse be so heavily viewed and studied or celebrated.”

That statement may be impossible to prove, but it is undeniable that unprecedented mobility, peaceful times and a good economy are combining to allow Americans to flock to the affected areas as never before.

That doesn’t mean Americans didn’t care about the eclipse that crossed the continent on June 8, 1918. Many newspapers from coast to coast reported on the event, but not all. Those in areas not along the path of eclipse tended not to mention it.

And even in places along the direct path, the