Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"You know we'll have a good time then\": Harry Chapin and his impact beyond music. Chasing the checkered flag: The allure of IndyCar racing. Desi Arnaz: Singer, husband, dad, and the man who \"invented\" TV. A day for a parade in D.C., and for anti-Trump demonstrations nationwide. America's risk in the Israel-Iran conflict. How the U.S. Army was born -- and a free nation realized. The \"magic\" of worm grunting. The dog that won over Steve Hartman's heart. GUESTS: Patrick Gaffigan

Author, lecturer, and journalist Rick Atkinson will be this year's J. Harvie Wilkinson Jr lecturer on October 21 and lead the annual Wyndham B. Blanton Scholars forum. Atkinson is on leave from The Washington Post, where he most recently served as assistant editor for investigations.

\"Throughout his multifaceted career, [Rick Atkinson] has given readers accurate and frank analysis of military history from World War II to the present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,\" said COL (IL) James N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Ret.), Founder and President of the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Foundation. \"His independent voice, tempered with respect and compassion, has earned high esteem not only from scholars, journalists, and civilians on the home front but also the members of the Armed Forces about whom he writes.\" \"This is simply thrilling,\" said Atkinson. \"I couldn't be more honored than to be selected by the Pritzker Military Library for an award that recognizes the literary aspirations of vivid military history. I'm grateful, and delighted.\"

South Charleston council is set to revise the pay scale for 186 non-uniform employees and grant 25-cent-per-hour pay increases for most workers. An ordinance given preliminary approval Thursday evening would increase the pay for entry-level, non-uniform employees by $1 an hour on average, to $9.25, in response to increases in the minimum wage, City Manager Rick Atkinson said prior to Thursday evening's council meeting. Atkinson said the city's annual cost of wages would increase 6 percent, from the current $8.7 million to $9.2 million. However, the total cost of payroll would increase just 2 percent, from $11.6 million to $11.9 million, primarily because of a reduction in the city's workers' compensation insurance premium. Going forward, the total additional annual payroll cost will be $225,000. Pay rates in the scale hadn't been increased for four or five years prior to the 2014 pay scale adjustment for police and firefighters, Atkinson said.

\"A city cannot issue debt for more than one year, so there's a municipal building commission who can issue long-term debt, [Rick Atkinson] said. \"We will lease that property back from the building commission at the rate of what it costs to pay the bonds, Atkinson said. \"When the bonds are paid off, the city will be able to buy that property back for $10. South Charleston City Attorney Michael Moore called the ordinance a \"housekeeping item, saying the current ordinance violates the new state law and that previously the city did sometimes charge for FOIA requests.

Work is expected to begin this week on a project designed to stabilize the slip zone at the end of Yeager Airport's main runway overlooking Keystone Drive and Elk Two-Mile Creek, where landslides on March 12 and 13 destroyed two homes and a church, caused flooding that damaged at least six other homes, and continues to leave five families homeless. The Charleston airport's board of directors voted unanimously on Wednesday to award an $855,000 contract to S&E Clearing & Hydroseeding of Varney in Mingo County to remove nearly 150,000 cubic yards of material from the slip zone. In the process of removing the dirt and rocks, the grade of the runway slope facing Keystone Drive would be reduced, enhancing safety from slides. \"We don't have the time or the money and the work needs to be done,[Rick Atkinson] said prior to the vote. \"Frankly, I don't think we have a choice but to enter the contract, he told board members. \"The engineers say the material will stay up there for a while, but eventually it's going to come down. My fear is that if more material comes into the diversion channel in Elk Two-Mile (dug after the March slide), there's no way to get it open again quickly. ...We could have more flooding and water backed up to Go-Mart. \"AIG's position is that we have no liability and we haven't been sued yet, so we shouldn't have to pay claims, Atkinson said. \"But we have people whose lives are still in limbo 45 days after the slide. We've said from the first day after the slide that we wanted adjusters up here to help people get on with their lives, but they haven't chosen to do so.

  \"Leucistic alligators have been described as having one enormous white spot covering the body with blue-gray eyes,\" he said. \"It looks like they're painted white. Most of them have a few random black blotches somewhere.\" \"In actuality, there isn't anything of great scientific interest about leucistic alligators; the genetics are pretty well known,\" he said. \"They're not an endangered species; they are a genetic anomaly of the American alligator. They're just impressive to see.\" \"There are no old tales or history of white alligators,\" he said. \"Some wonder, 'Is this a result of pollution or climate change or something else?' And the answer is that we don't have any idea.\"

\"You're drilling down, you're searching for granularity,\" Mr. [Rick Atkinson] said Thursday night while presenting dozens of fascinating facts about America's involvement in that six-year war to a riveted audience of 298 in the Main Library's McMaster Center. Mr. Atkinson, 61, whose latest book is the third in his Liberation Trilogy about the war that left 60 million dead, spoke for 45 minutes, then answered well-informed questions from the audience at the Authors! Authors! lecture, a series sponsored by The Blade and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. Next in the Authors! Authors! lineup will be Henry Winkler, actor and author of a series of children's books. He'll speak June 18 at 7 p.m. in the Stranahan Theater. Tickets ($10 general, $8 for students) may be purchased at any library branch or at the door.

Some of the 6 billion propaganda leaflets dropped over Germany drifted as far as Italy. Jewish soldiers in the chaos of the Bulge hammered out the \"H\" -- for \"Hebrew\" -- on their dog tags. In a German iron pit, U.S. soldiers found crates labeled \"Aachen Cathedral\" containing \"a silver bust of Charlemagne embedded with a fragment of the emperor's skull.\" These words were on a fortification in France: \"Austin White, Chicago, Ill., 1918. Austin White, Chicago, Ill., 1945. This is the last time I want to write my name here.\" In December 1944, the president's blood pressure was 260 over 150, and on an April day in 1945 American newspapers published the daily casualty list with next of kin, including this: \"Army-Navy Dead: ROOSEVELT, Franklin D., commander-in-chief; wife, Mrs. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the White House.\"