I drank my coffee in the screened patio-a very common protection in Nebraska built to keep out West-Nile-fever-carrying mosquitoes-and checked overnight e-mails. The state's largest daily journal, The Omaha World Herald, no longer delivered papers to the western portion of the state, so I also intended to read articles from online news outlets. Doorbell chimes and the solid rapping of knuckles at the front entrance shattered my solitude. Because I...