Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1156 - 1180 of 1862
Watermelon, rhubarb pie and cupcakes were a hit at a recent potluck lunch. The rhubarb pie might be a secret recipe, but I will attempt to coax it from the maker. The Lime Cupcakes were made by me, so that recipe is easy to come by. I mentioned in my last column that there was a request for a cake recipe that had flavored gelatin added to the mix before baking and I passed the request on to you, the readers. Meanwhile the email newsletter I subscribe to from Southern Plate...
I'm quite a dinosaur. I get some of my news the old fashioned way from hardcopy newspapers, and I still pay my bills with paper checks sent through the mail. But even I own a smart phone. The ability to keep up with work-related email, as well as messages from friends and family, is one fantastic benefit of the modern cell phone. I do, indeed, value the technological revolution through which we all are living. Arron Carter and Mike Pumphrey are two research scientists at...
"What does it feel like growing up?" my six-year-old brother asks. "It feels like a crushing sense of obligation paired with the absence of monetary gain." I answered sarcastically. I highly doubt he understood what I had said, but he had a retort regardless. "And bank robbing?" There has been no bank robbing involved in my coming-of-age, but I think that this barely knee-high child was on to something; what exactly does the concept of "growing up" entail? At eighteen years old, I don't believe I've quite begun to...
As a legislator who voted for our state’s robust home-grown teacher-principal evaluation system and one of the authors of our state’s new rigorous 24-credit graduation framework, I am disappointed in the federal government’s decision to repeal our waiver. This is a tremendous moment in our nation’s history where a state that strongly supported the President in 2008 and again in 2012 soundly rejected the federal government’s demands to structure our teacher-principal evaluation system to the specific criteria establish...
On April 24, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan yanked Washington state’s waiver, making the Evergreen State the first to lose the Obama administration’s flexibility from many of the mandates of the outdated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. But, in an important twist, the state will not be returning to an accountability system that’s exactly like the one it had under NCLB, particularly when it comes to intervening in low-performing schools. Specifically, like other waiver states, Washington will still single out “prio...
Years ago I was a light smoker. Back in the day I thought nicotine did good things for my ability to think and learn. I was a serious student at the time, studying intensively seven days a week, so a powerful complement to black coffee was welcome in my life. I both sympathize and empathize with smokers around me today. But I'm awfully glad I quit long ago, and I know many other former smokers who feel the same way. Quitting is worth all the short-term distress it can entail....
Garden planting season has arrived and as I was digging out the winter accumulation of freshly sprouted weeds, I noticed that my chive plants are producing a bumper crop of tender young leaves, perfect for flavoring breads and casseroles. A favorite, Yogurt and Chive Biscuits, is an easy to prepare, savory accompaniment to any main dish. Yogurt and Chive Biscuits 2 cups biscuit baking mix 1/2 cup cold water 1/3 cup plain yogurt 1 Tbsp snipped fresh chives or 1 tsp dried...
The rally in the wheat market marches on as the two main reasons for this contra seasonal rally continue to support prices. First, the drought and now record high temperatures in the Southern Plains continue to stress the winter wheat crop there and second, the conflict in the Ukraine continues to intensify. Both stories now have the full attention of the market. Speculative funds, who not too long ago held a record short position in Chicago wheat, are now net long about 100 million bu., heading into this Friday's USDA Crop...
I once experienced a small earthquake when I was visiting the San Francisco Bay area in California. The natives thought little of the temblor but I was impressed that the ground beneath my feet could suddenly and without warning start to shake. Later, when I majored in geology in college, I learned that my native Northwest is also at risk for earthquakes, as is much of Alaska. Another part of the country with a history of large quakes is called the New Madrid Seismic Zone....
In April, small grass-fed beef producers received some great news. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced the creation of a new certification option for smaller, grass-fed beef producers. The Grass-Fed Program for Small and Very Small Producers arose out of the Grass-Fed Marketing Claim Standard within USDA’s Process Verified Program. Under the new certification process, small farm and ranch operations marketing fewer than 50 head of cattle each year will have the opportunity to label their product as consistent wit...
If there were an infinite number of lines on an infinitely expanding plane, positioned in every direction, each line would intersect with an infinite number of other lines, yet it would still never meet every line that exists on the plane. Imagine each of these lines as a human. We are met with infinite possibilities in our life, yet there are some things which we are moving parallel to. There are some people we will never meet, some things we will never do, some places we will never go. Yet, should that stop us from continui...
My household accumulates quite a number of plastic shopping bags. Most come home with me from the grocery store. I use them to line the little garbage pail that sits under the kitchen sink and the wastebasket that's in the bathroom. I also have the joy of using them to pick up poop deposited by Buster Brown, my faithful mutt from the pound. But if you don't have uses for the plastic shopping bags you bring home, what do you do with them? Researchers hope that one day -- perhap...
Spring just may be here. Odessa saw pretty nice weather for the annual Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Odessa Lions Club. Families who enjoy dying hard-boiled eggs and hiding for the young folks to find, were able to put out eggs without rain washing off the color. By the time you read this article most of those eggs will be eaten, but if you still have a supply on hand, Curried Deviled Eggs are a savory way to serve hard boiled eggs. Curried Deviled Eggs 12 hard cooked eggs 3...
By KIMBERLY NELSON “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” –Jim Rohn Most of us have been in front of the podium of a cheesy motivational speaker at some point. Some of them have the uncanny ability to lift our spirits, make us laugh, and push us to think about something a little bit differently. But mostly, the reaction gained is closer to that of a stern lecture than a pick-me-up. Unless you have incredible command of an audience and amazing public speaking skills, the best way to motivate is not through the masse...
The weather market has begun in earnest. Over the last month the futures have had quite a few twenty cent trading sessions. Some has been due to the continuing confrontation between Russia and the Ukraine, but most of it has been due to weather forecasts and the USDA Crop Progress Reports which have started to come out every Monday afternoon. The latest Crop Progress Report showed the overall U.S. winter wheat crop rated at 34% good to excellent and 33% poor to very poor, about the same as last week and about the same as a ye...
By DR. E. KIRSTEN PETERS While I have been dinking around for months, trying to lose five pounds, two of my friends have gotten serious about weight loss. Each of them is down 50 pounds. I'm pleased for them, of course, and truly impressed by their accomplishments. Successfully combatting overweight and obesity is one of the best things people can do for their health. It can help everything from joint pain to heart function, from Type 2 diabetes to certain aspects of mental...
$6,000. That’s over and above payments to big companies for energy and food and housing and health care and all our tech devices. It’s $6,000 no family would have to pay if we truly lived in a competitive but well-regulated, free-market economy. The $6,000 figure is an average, which means that low-income families are paying less. But it also means that families (households) making over $72,000 are paying more than $6,000 to the corporations. 1. $870 for direct subsidies and grants to companies The Cato Institute est...
It seems at times that every human and every animal in the world is trying simultaneously to be better than all the others. One more mile, one more page, one more year; all for a bit more bragging rights than someone else. Darwinism may suggest that this is a survival instinct, but must we humans embrace the principals of survival of the fittest? Personally, I don't believe it's necessary. Not that friendly competition isn't fun, but why strive for perfection when chances are that, for pretty much every kind of talent, there...
I’ve gained 5 pounds since last summer. My body mass index (BMI) is still fine, but I need to stop gaining to keep it that way. Grizzly bears put my weight gain to shame. In the late summer, they eat some 50,000 calories per day and gain more than 100 pounds. Then, when they hibernate, they fast and live on their body fat. While sleeping the winter away, they don’t pee or poop. They conserve their energy by having heart rates around 15 beats per minute. When they emerge fro...
Why does Obama want to give away control of the internet? It was financed with American dollars and it was created with our ingenuity! It has been well run under the control of the Commerce Department and Americans enjoy First Amendment protection. Other countries have been allowed our generosity. We could wind up with globalists having their way and they would decide what acceptable speech is and what is not acceptable. Would they impose internet taxes on American companies, while at the same time censoring what they...
A new batch of culinary magazine offers arrived in my mail box recently. Some are just an envelope of tantalizing advertisements, while others include sample recipes, or a sample copy of the publication. Cook’s Country magazine sent a sample issue that happens to have some handy tips to solve several cooking dilemmas recently sent my way. Several questions about cakes have come up. Why do the cake layers bake with a hump in the middle? Usually, this is caused by a batter t...
Have you ever cashed a check for a lottery that you didn’t enter? Perhaps you’ve been unexpectedly contacted by a fast-talker and pressured into releasing personal information? Maybe you’ve had a distant or unknown relative ask you for money in an emergency situation. Chances are, if any of these have happened to you, you’ve been scammed. Don’t worry, many honest, good people are scammed. To prevent yourself from falling victim—whether for the first time or again—keep an eye out for these six warning signs that will help you...
To the Editor: During the last few months, a scam to steal money by telephone has been spreading through many counties in the state of Washington. It is called the “Jury Duty Warrant Scam.” The usual approach is that the scammer will call the victim, identify him/herself as a law enforcement officer or a court clerk and advise that a court has issued a warrant for his/her arrest because the person failed to appear for jury duty. The caller then goes on to explain that in order to have the warrant lifted, the caller would nee...
When Mr. Obama granted amnesty to about 900,000 Latino immigrants (whose parents were illegals) I immediately thought of people I knew who followed the rules to become citizens. They were from Europe and they had gone through Ellis Island where they had to pass a physical and answer a lot of questions. I know of some who were rejected and sent back. The people who were approved found transportation to the homes of their sponsors where they stayed until they found work and places to live. Their sponsors were responsible for...
As a child, I learned about the “valley of the shadow of death” from the twenty-third Psalm. A similar image is conjured up by economists who talk about the “valley of death.” They mean that potentially deadly stage in the life of a business when production needs to be massively scaled up but investors aren’t willing to make that leap based only on pilot-scale results or because the economics of full-scale production are still iffy. One segment of the young biofuels industry...
