A New York moment: 

You see a lot of weird stuff on the sidewalks of Manhattan, from discarded pants to one-legged pigeons. One time I came across a steaming pile of potatoes, scattered on the sidewalk, a scenario that still leaves me baffled.

A New York moment: 

The other night I had a late dinner with friends, and the subway was down due to construction (as it often is these days), so I took a Lyft ride back to my apartment. As I talked with the driver, a father and husband whose family lives in a one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, he urged me to be in touch with the New York City Council to oppose proposed regulations on Lyft. 

Almost 20 years ago, when Denver International Airport was still brand new and I may have been a little too brash, I detailed in this space some of the airport’s most noticeable problems. A few Denver residents have never quite forgiven me.

Now I read that our friends in the Mile High City are getting ready to spend over a billion dollars updating and expanding the fifth-busiest airport in the United States. Yes, I said a billion dollars. For that kind of money, maybe I can sneak in a few kind words.

If there was ever a city people love to hate, it’s Los Angeles. After living in this sprawling, dusty, smoggy, freeway-gutted, billboard-asphyxiated city for nine years, I’m convinced that we Angelenos love LA as much as we hate it.

Rescue beacons are saving migrants’ lives as Arizona desert temperatures hit the summer sizzling point. A person lost on the U.S. side of the border only has to locate a pole and press the red button, and within one hour Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rides to the rescue.

Last year, the CBP’s Tucson Sector agents responded to 750 migrants who could have died if not for summoning help at a beacon.

Drug addicts are shooting up at supervised injection centers across Canada, and there’s a push to imitate them here too, The New York Times reported. A one-year pilot may open at least four sites in New York City with the full support of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Proponents say the sites make cities safer, but they delay or prevent addicts from finding the recovery and redemption they desperately need.

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill to change how federal prisons function. The law would direct correctional facilities to focus less on retribution and more on redemption of prisoners through training opportunities to prepare for a life on the outside, breaking the cycle of release and rearrest.