Homeless people sleeping rough pose a visible challenge to all of us. The poor who camp in public places and beg in streets make themselves very visible.

The pleasure of a long weekend should not be spoiled by the realisation that this is the last one until late October, but it is reason to complain.

The city's alcohol policy is under review and the police are not alone in wanting the licensed hours reduced.

Construction cranes are not often objects of pictorial celebration but they should be.

Like most things in show business, the Olympic Games cannot rest on its laurels. Audiences change with the generations.

We seldom stop to think about the personal information we are constantly transmitting to the world from the phone in our pocket.

The Warriors have always had a following that probably ranks as the most loyal of any sport in New Zealand.

We have overtaken Australia to have the highest rate of melanoma in the world. That is not a surprise when we consider our deep blue skies.

Working parents will hardly believe it is school holidays again. The long summer vacation ended just yesterday, it seems.

Auckland is not about to shrink but it is good our other centres are beginning to catch its outflow.

The best antidote to these bullies may be genuine pity for their inability to deal with the demons of the medium.

On the face of events, those tense 22 hours this week demonstrated the restraint of armed police at its best.

Much of fear generated by the city's "intensification" plans lies in visions of three or four storey apartment blocks rising next door to suburban homes.

We have a very good ambulance service, provided largely by volunteers and partly financed by charges to those who are taken to hospital in emergencies.

Five years is not a long time. It's long enough to put something in the past but not long enough for memories to dim.

A reality show starting on TV2 this week will follow the weight-loss efforts of people who fit the unfortunate term.

The scandal of the Malaysian diplomat, first disclosed by this newspaper, gets worse at every turn.

A month seems a long time out of school. It probably seems even longer to the pupils of Auckland's St Cuthbert's College who spend a month in a remote outdoor education centre in the Bay of Plenty....

When the Christmas-New Year period ended for accident statistics on Tuesday morning, 12 more people had died on the roads.

What could be better than contemplating a new year? Not only the events schedule, but being unforesee things will make their mark on the calendar.

Just five more sleeps. Four working days. Christmas cannot come soon enough.

We don't often think about the struggle it must continue to be for those who have managed to afford a house.

Parents, we report, are being urged to read to their kids over the holidays, or ensure they keep reading, to maintain their mental development.

One of the many unfortunate consequences of Auckland's grossly over-priced housing is the barrier it presents to people moving to the city.

Richie McCaw bowed out of rugby this week with a remark that was as poignant as anything he has said or done in his long tenure of leadership.

The co-ordinated acts of murder on this scale are unprecedented and the night of Nov 13, 2015 will toll just as significantly in the years to come.

Suddenly, for Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith, life has changed.

For six months former All Black Mils Muliaina waited to answer a charge of sexual assault in a Cardiff night club after a rugby match.

Intensification is the preferred way of urban planners, housing the additional 750,000 to 1 million people.