Bart Smith has completed 85 percent of his goal. But when you realize the Lakewood, Wash. man's goal is to hike all 16,000 miles of the National Scenic Trail system, you comprehend the remarkable challenge he still faces.
A debate on allowing firearms in national parks splits people like the icy fissures that crease the flanks of Washington state's Mount Rainier. People such as Jim Williams and Jim McAfee, longtime National Rifle Association members, see it as a Second Amendment issue.
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.