Sammy Sosa grew up without a father in the back of a converted public hospital in San Pedro de Macoris, a dusty seaside town in the Dominican Republic. His father, Juan Montero, died when Sosa was 5.

Fans love Sosa for his exuberance, for the kisses he blows to his mother, wife and four children. He is Slammin' Sammy, a fairy-tale figure rising from poverty in the Dominican Republic to the 55th floor above Chicago's Lake Shore Drive.

I'm a small-town kid who grew up with a cornfield in the back yard and dreaming of serving my country in public office.

I'm pretty much a documents reporter. I'm a public records geek.

My mother is, my father certainly was. They were kind of the local intelligentsia in the town where I grew up.

The scientific effort to inform the public about landslide risks often runs head-on into powerful economic interests.