The notion that if we want action on a specific issue it requires a Minister of the Crown to have personally experienced it has been

Curtains. Not a very sexy topic. Nor is moisture management; but both are essential for warm, healthy, environmentally-friendly homes

I was so excited to read John Maslin's piece on Pensioner Housing, earlier in the week, until I actually read it. No offence to the

Don't be so eager to leave, says former Youth MP Timothy Rowe I LOVE Whanganui - the river where I used to train, the schools that

Ah, the sweet smell of success. Whanganui could create a tourist attraction by turning Virginia Lake into a treatment pond.

By Paul Brooks There is little realism in a format designed to titillate the voyeuristic ... What is it about television bosses and

By Mark Dawson ACCIDENTS will happen ... no matter what. So it becomes a question of how much we want to invest in limiting the

MY lawn is so wet, it's ridiculous. I live on top of a hill with a gully behind and a sloping section. You'd expect the water to

MISTAKES are inevitable but learning from mistakes is what makes their next possible iteration avoidable. Years ago I bought an old

OBSERVATION and knowledge of reality are topics that raise all sorts of prickly philosophical questions, chief among them the one

Time is always my enemy ... I have so much to do and such little time to do it in. Right now I am around about half way through

"School Bans Clapping." Had I read that headline a year ago my blood would have boiled. PC or not, today I just laugh at such stories

MONDAY Donald Trump: Hello, Cleveland! Thank you all for coming here today for the most ably organised Republican convention in

I once read the editor of a gossip magazine brightly assert that knowing what celebrities are up to creates a relationship with them

Two bigots walk into a bar. They front up at the counter and order drinks. They had never met before but after an exchange about the

Venerable Whanganui councillor Sue Westwood is likely to step down at the October local body elections after many years sterling service. In

By John Maslin UNITED States presidential wannabe Donald Trump's wife may have taken things too far with a speech at this week's

By Mark Dawson WHILE a number of families have -- much to our collective shame -- struggled to put a roof over their heads, there

By Jay Kuten THE funerals for the five slain Dallas police officers were barely over when we learned of the shooting deaths of another

By David Aislabie THE post-war New Zealand I grew up in was the envy of the world -- an egalitarian paradise and a great place to

The Happiness Journey - by Scott Lee DID YOU know that the number one reason for married couples getting divorced in the United States

By Mark Dawson, Editor NOMINATIONS opened on Friday for the 2016 local body elections which will be held in October, and the runners

MY NAME is Gypsy Wright, a life time member of the Mongrel Mob. When passing through Marton 40 years ago I liked the people so I

IT'S hard in today's connected, catalogued world to go off grid and be intrepid. Unless you're prepared to go to some fairly extreme

What do New Zealand's dominant agricultural model and my Dad's driving have in common? Fonterra was recently given the go-ahead to

I WAS in to get a new pair of spectacles the other day. They were for long vision so I did ask whether it would enable me to see

LET'S get straight on to business: Saving the world. Many of us realise the world is going to hell in a handcart. Climate-changing

By Dr Nelson Lebo AS Donald Trump feebly attempts to "pivot to the centre" it appears that Europe may be pivoting right. Brexit was

"AMERICA grieves, tense and wary" reads the headline of the New York Times. This time it is the police, themselves, officers sworn

AS A single man I didn't seem to feel the cold. I had a little heater that I would plug in for an hour or two on the coldest nights