Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

You may have noticed some changes this past week in the Star’s variety of columnists.
In an effort to ensure more consistency in our opinion page every day and to provide more fresh views, the Niles Daily Star has brought some new syndicated columnists on board. These writers provide a variety of political and personal views in addition to our letters to the editor, editorials and cartoons.

An overview of our local and syndicated columnists:

• Monday – John Eby, managing editor of the Dowagiac Daily News, and Nat Hentoff, authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and a member of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Cato Institute, where he is a senior fellow

• Tuesday – “Tyler’s Take” by state Rep. Sharon Tyler, R-Niles, twice a month and Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review Online

• Wednesday – Katie Johnson, managing editor of the Star, Cassopolis Vigilant and Edwardsburg Argus, and “Forget Perfect” by Lisa McLeod, author and inspirational thought-leader

• Thursday – reporter Jessica Sieff; Ed Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation; and Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill

• Friday – the Rev. Dan Puckett, minister of Life Action Ministries, Daniel Kline, general manager of Time Machine Hobby, New England’s largest hobby and toy store

• Saturday – Bryan Clapper, publisher of Leader Publications; Gene Lyons, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist, National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President;” and “The Village Idiot” by Jim Mullen, author of “It Takes a Village Idiot: Complicating the Simple Life” and “Baby’s First Tattoo”

Syndicated columnists Diana West – blogger and author of “The Death of the Grown-up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization” – and Donna Brazile – political commentator on CNN, ABC and NPR; contributing columnist to Roll Call; and former campaign manager for Al Gore – will fill in when our regular columnists are on hiatus or not available that week.