Patricia Hill Burnett has led an extraordinary life. She was Miss Michigan in 1942 and first runner-up to Miss America that year. She also played the female lead for five years in The Lone Ranger and Green Hornet radio shows. In 1969, Patricia demonstrated her commitment to the women’s movement by founding the first chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Michigan,...

“The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves us to do our best to see that the standard of the average...

USA TODAY – May 10, 2008 – Manny Burriss went 3-for-4 with a two-run triple Friday versus the Phillies. John McCarthy teaches kids the skills they need both on and off the field – focus, persistence, generosity, and humor. He’s more interested in teamwork than batting averages, and more concerned with effort than talent. Ultimately, he wants them to understand...

Steve Allen wrote 52 books, acted on stage, films, and TV, created and hosted The Tonight Show as well as more than 1,000 episodes of Steve Allen Shows and in his spare time, composed more than 9,000 songs! In the last several years of his life, he traveled around the country speaking to groups about the importance of ethics and morality. Although I received...

There’s a moment near the end of the 1999 movie The Insider where Jeff Wigand is watching his whistle-blowing interview on 60 Minutes with his two daughters.  During the interview, one of his daughters looks over at him and slowly smiles. Between 1995 and 1996, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand lost his job, his house, his wife and for a time, his...

Dick Capen’s career is a unique blend of newspaper publishing and diplomacy. After leaving as publisher and chairman of The Miami Herald, Capen served as the United States Ambassador to Spain and Assistant Secretary of Defense. Known for his commitment to personal values and a positive approach to life, he is a nationally recognized columnist, author, and speaker on contemporary...

There’s a new TV commercial making the rounds.  It shows a large group of fire fighters assembled in a room that looks much like the House of Representatives. The House speaker is a fireman, and the man at the podium is a fire chief.  The speaker gavels the group to order and the chief speaks. “Alright, firefighters settle down,” the...

Matt Sanchez left Santa Barbara only twice – once when he joined the Marines, the other, when he went to prison. In 1987, as the leader of the Eastside Hoods, Matt called the heads of the area’s other twelve gangs together. After several shootings, he wanted to put an end to the violence. The peace treaty lasted for five years....

Former WorldCom auditor Cynthia Cooper continues a conversation about the ethical downfall of the telecom giant in her new book, “Extraordinary Circumstances.” What caused employees at WorldCom to become complicit with the fraud? “Most people don’t wake up and say – I want to become a criminal today. Instead, they venture down a slippery slope one step at a time....

The day Cynthia Cooper’s life changed she was sitting in a hair salon wrapped in tin-foil when she received an angry call from her boss, WorldCom’s Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan As head of internal audit for the telecom giant, Cooper had asked the company’s external auditor, Arthur Andersen about a questionable accounting maneuver.  Sullivan was incensed that she was...