Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1490 - 1514 of 1862
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 11/14/12: Wednesday was quiet compared to the big drops suffered in the previous few sessions, as Chicago futures lost two cents and soft white remained unchanged. Basically it’s been the negative momentum from Friday’s bearish supply-and-demand report, combined with general financial market turmoil that is doing all the damage. Expect things to remain unsettled while exports remain poor. 11/16/12: It wasn’t a very pretty end to the week as export sales...
Thank God. I mean that most sincerely, and it’s an appropriate sentiment to be sandwiched between Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving. I’m actually grateful more often than that, usually every day, but I am compelled to share my joy that the blankety-blank elections are over. No more phone calls from Mitt, Newt, state or national parties. No more hiding from the incessant political talk shows on TV. Or at least that’s what I thought. I appear to be something of an innocent in thes...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 11/8/12: There’s another monthly supply-and-demand report out tomorrow, and it seems like it will be hard to be anything but bearish. Wheat and corn exports have been coming in far below what we need on a weekly basis to meet the USDA’s projections as buyers seem to be sourcing from everyone but the U.S. for the time being. World wheat prices have risen during the week, which has given a boost to prices here. However, we’ll need increased demand to make...
If you think the government is penalizing – or is it taxing? – people for not buying health insurance is bad, at least there are health insurance companies actually selling coverage. By contrast, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined oil refiners $6.8 million last year for not incorporating cellulosic ethanol in gasoline – even though the product doesn’t exist. That’s right. As bizarre as it sounds, the New York Times reports that oil refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol ...
Thanksgiving is much more than a big meal with family and friends. It’s a time to reflect on, and be thankful for, all of the good things you have. Even with all of the uncertainty and turmoil in the world, you have so much to be thankful for. It’s important to be grateful, not just on Thanksgiving, but each and every day. Rather than lamenting what you feel is lacking in your life, begin each new day by developing an attitude of gratitude. Take inventory of your blessings and you will be surprised at just how much you hav...
I guess it’s time for an update on my health quest. I’d really rather not. I’d rather not partly because of the many unrealistic expectations I place on myself. Every day. Instead of celebrating the 23 pounds I’ve lost, I feel as though I owe everyone else in the world an explanation as to why it hasn’t been 40. Or more. The “smart” part of me knows that’s just dumb. The “dumb” part of me feels guilty for not being more successful. That’s the part that seems to have the upper hand most of the time. The part where all those...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 10/31/12: Egypt bought Romanian, French and (surprise!) Russian wheat on their overnight tender as the U.S. was skunked again. However our wheat wasn’t nearly as far out of the ballpark as it used to be. Chicago wheat futures rallied on the day but gave back half of their gains by the close. Still no pattern-breaking news. The U.S. winter wheat crop starts out its life in slightly worse condition than last year’s did, which was on the low end of his...
To the victor go the spoils! A hard, poorly fought battle is finally over! I think most of us would have preferred to have heard more positive comments and ideas about how we are going to climb out of this bottomless pit. However, President Obama ran ads on the east coast that we were not worthy of hearing and Mr. Romney and Ryan decided to drop down to that level of campaigning. What ever happened to “planks” that the parties built their platforms on during the conventions? The treasurey announced on 10-31-12 that we wil...
Some say it’s the most complicated machine we’ve ever built. We rely on it not just each day, but each moment of each day. It reaches into our homes, factories, offices and stores. And at times it’s surprisingly fragile and subject to massive failure. I’m talking about the electrical grid. We’ve recently seen it tested by Superstorm Sandy. And I’ve been reading up on it in several sources, including an interesting book appropriately called The Grid by Phillip F. Schewe. I t...
Northwest MedStar, internationally recognized by the Association of Air Medical Services as the 2012 Program of the Year for their outstanding performance in safety, quality and leadership, is adding a ground ambulance to its Palouse base at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport beginning in November. The ambulance will be used to support the ongoing air operations of Northwest MedStar and will not replace existing emergency ground services in the area. “We are pleased to hear news of Northwest MedStar adding a ground a...
I know this will come as a huge surprise to most of you. I have a character flaw. “Only one?” (I can hear you, you know.) Only one that I’m willing to talk about today. We’ll save the others for another time. Or other times, as it will probably take several. This particular character flaw became apparent (again) Sunday night, as we were participating in our annual pumpkin-carving party at a friend’s house. (We started this tradition years ago and have maintained it through s...
Byron Behne watches the international grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 10/25/12: Wheat prices fell Thursday as traders took profits off the previous day’s rally on confirmation of the Ukraine banning exports in mid-November. Export sales of wheat for last week totaled 21 million bushels, which was decent and most likely due to that business to the unknown destination done at the end of the week. New crop white wheat prices are at the strongest basis levels that I've ever seen for this time of year, with P...
To the Editor: Living on the west coast the voters have a problem of feeling rejected or unimportant as the electoral process doesn’t count the individual votes and so far too many of us stay at home and don’t vote. I can remember driving home from work and hearing the radio telling me that the national press has determined by exit polls that we have a new president. We need to try harder to break our old habits and vote, because there are other races that are important. Many of these races are important and I believe tha...
Last week an independent voter shared with me a concern that some people fear that socialism (business run by government) will ruin America. So let us first examine two definitions – one for capitalism, and one for socialism – as these seem to be the foundation for the concerns being voiced today. In very broad strokes, capitalism is based on private business dominating the economy for the purpose of generating wealth for the owners or stockholders by extracting it from working people who are paid only a small fraction of...
Vacation was a word rarely used in my house growing up. Like most parents in Eastern Washington during the 1900s, my mom and dad instilled the values of hard work from sunup to sundown. And when I co-wrote the script for the film “The Basket,” I showed the hardships endured by those generations before us to keep the family farm alive. Back then, as it is now, it often took the whole community to come together through back-breaking work, cooperation and even some help from the local banker to keep the business going and foo...
Originally published online on October 10 on a Seattle NPR affiliate website The job of the Washington State Auditor is to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government. But the Democratic candidate for that position, State Representative Troy Kelley, has come under scrutiny for his private business dealings. This includes wiring millions of dollars around to an account that was eventually linked to a bank in Belize. That was key evidence in a lawsuit against Kelley. On the morning of Monday, August 2, 2010 Troy Kelley sat...
I just returned from several days in Portland, where the weather was wonderful – two days of glorious fall sun and color, and two days of precious, beautiful rain. I loved it. It was interesting. And you know they say that “may you live in interesting times” is an ancient Chinese curse. Mind you, there is apparently no proof that the supposed curse originated in China. I just can’t help wondering what the story is behind each and every vignette I observe when I’m out and a...
Does the word “dictator” scare you as much as it scares me?! To put us on the same page let’s get the dictionary definition of dictator: One who assumes absolute control without the free consent of the people. Does that remind you of the narcissist who slithered into the White House under the radar? If I’m not mistaken he swore under oath at his inauguration to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States! He must have had his fingers crossed behind his back because it seems he thinks the Constitution is just so...
Our national debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to $16 trillion in 4 years. Each taxpayer owes more than $140,000 as their share of the debt. Not a person in any nation of the Euro zone owes as much as we do. Our national debt increased more in the last 4 years than it did in the previous 17 years. Thirty-two cents of every dollar our government spends is borrowed. We spent $479 billion on interest this year and that figure would have been larger except a lot of our debt is borrowed at low interest. Last year our credit...
Byron Behne watches the international grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 10/19/12: The wheat market got some bullish news on Friday, as the Ukraine is looking to possibly ban exports in the middle of November. There was also a fairly large sale of U.S. wheat to an unknown destination which included 4.3 million bushels of HRW, 1.8 million DNS and 2.13 million of soft white. This sounds like China and comes after they bought a significant amount of Canadian wheat earlier in the week. At the end of the day the gains...
As the heads of various governments arrived in New York prior to the opening of the United Nations general assembly there were some who were surprised. Several of these people requested one on one talks with President Obama prior to the general assembly and they had to be appeased with Mrs. Clinton. President Obama had a previous commitment to have banal conversation with the five ladies from The View. Both Mr. Romney and President Obama have made the rounds of TV programs. However, I see putting bold faced banality ahead of...
I know most of you already think I’m a little over the edge. You’d be right. And now I’ve gone completely off the map of good decision making. I have a puppy. OH MY GOSH HE’S THE CUTEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!! That’s why I have a puppy. This was possibly one of the most impulsive things I’ve ever done. I saw a flyer on the door of the drugstore advertising puppies for sale, and I walked into my husband’s office and picked up the phone.Well, not immediately. I did talk to the h...
When we go to vote (but let’s vote where it will make a difference) please do not keep voting for the same person that holds the House seat now held by Cathy McMorris Rodgers. I do not understand how she keeps her seat. Cathy no longer represents us here. She has pledged her votes to Grover Norquist. I don’t know about you, but I did not vote for him; no one did! He is for big corporations. He held up the farm bill and Cathy supported that because to pass the farm bill and help farmers in this area would make the Pre...
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don’t w...
Not too long ago I rewrote my will. There’s nothing like such a project to remind me of my mortality. But imagine not just your own individual death, but the finality of the death of all the members of your species. You’ve likely heard of the mass extinction that removed the non-avian (non-bird) dinosaurs from the face of the Earth some 65 million years ago. There have been other periods, too, of enormous “die offs” in Earth history. And even apart from times of mass extinct...
