Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1539 - 1563 of 1862
I am a Democrat. I believe in a person’s right to own a gun. I believe in taxes according to your income. I believe in health care for all. I believe in helping people in need. I believe in equal rights for all people. I believe in marriage between two people male or female. I believe in freedom of right to choose your own religion or a right to have no religion. I believe in a woman’s right to choose or not to choose pregnancy. I believe in a person’s right to an opinion or to change that opinion. With all beliefs and right...
Mitt Romney's economic plan would favor the wealthiest, according to a new independent analysis by the Brookings Institution and the Tax Policy Center. The average middle class family with children would see a $2,000 tax hike, while the wealthiest five percent of Americans - including Romney - would get a tax cut of $87,000. Is this the America you want? Duane Pitts Odessa...
Editor’s note: The following letter has appeared on the internet, where it has been viewed by many readers. Local resident Tom Schafer felt that it would be appropriate for readers of The Odessa Record. The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?” I replied, I had a drug problem when I was young; I was drug to church on Sunday...
I love the Olympics, and have been spending all my spare time (and quite a bit that wasn’t spare) watching them on television. But I must confess that the athletes are a mystery to me. I want to know where that drive comes from. I don’t have the drive to walk to the end of the driveway and back. I frequently am heard to say that one of my siblings is missing the “consequence” gene; that the idea that “if I do this, then that will happen” is missing. I appear to be missing tha...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 8/1/12: Prices continued their break on Wednesday, although they recovered much of their losses by the close of the futures trading session. Corn futures were off as much as 25 cents but closed only down a little over 4 cents, with new-crop December futures closing over $8 on the day. Soft white prices dipped 20 cents in the morning but gained back a dime in the afternoon based on the better close in Chicago. November soybeans closed a gap on their price...
When I was growing up, I noticed that my mother always put my sister and me first. But that meant many times she put herself last. As of August 1, 2012, moms no longer have to worry about the cost of co-pays for many lifesaving routine checkups. Now 47 million women don't have to make the choice between spending $20 for groceries or $20 for a health exam. Today we can prevent health problems before they happen and keep healthcare costs down. However, Cathy McMorris Rodgers disagrees. That's why she has voted with her Republic...
I was minding my own business in my kitchen the other day, tossing some eggshells into the small garbage pail that sits underneath the sink. Suddenly I heard a rustle coming from the plastic lining the garbage pail. Puzzled, I looked into the cupboard more carefully. In a blur of gray, a mouse dashed up and out of the pail and disappeared down the hole in the wood where the water pipes come up from the basement. He was a small little fellow, but fast as an Olympic athlete...
Before I write another word, I want to thank everyone who reads this weekly diatribe and is kind enough to comment on it. I especially want to thank the neighbor who called and offered to provide me with the nutritional product that she uses. I also want to thank the friend who braved First Avenue traffic to ask if I was all right, after a particularly depressed-sounding column. I am OK. Mostly. I want to thank the people who have offered to and actually have commuted to...
7/27/12: For all the action this week, Chicago's December corn futures only closed 2.5 cents lower than they did last week. Wheat futures weren't quite as fortunate, as Chicago's September futures lost 45 cents, and white wheat lost 30 cents. At some point, corn is going to be less subject to the weather as the critical yield-making time has mostly passed. However, another hot and dry week in the western corn belt could add some juice to next week. Soybeans are much more weather-dependant at the moment, and the weather is...
I read Eric Maier’s editorial (4-19-12 edition of The Record) and I agree with him. I think there are a few points that could be added to the list of items he stressed. All a person has to do is look at the history of Eastern Washington and we see that our railroads became a part of our lives because of the need to ship farm products. These products, when sold, brought new money into the towns. This money was spent, and the cycle of money created more jobs. This still happens today, as farmers’ needs for their farming ope...
Taken together, the microbes living in you weigh a few pounds. Just for example, a 200-pound man could be carrying up to six pounds of little organisms in and on him. And even more amazingly to me, within our bodies we have more than 10,000 different species of microbes. That’s a lot of different life forms, all co-existing with each other and with us. Those arresting facts got my attention when scientists from the government’s Human Microbiome Project recently announced som...
This week my brain has been more like “Wheel of Fortune” than a pinball machine. The wheel spins ‘round and ‘round and stops on an idea, but before I can get a firm enough grasp on it to actually squeeze a column out of it, the wheel is spinning again. A few weeks ago, I addressed some problems I was having with my sciatic nerve, which was causing quite a bit of pain, as well as numbness and weakness in my right leg. The last time I had sciatic issues, I went with traditi...
I don’t know about you, but I tire of hearing how terrible public schools are and how charter schools will solve all public-sector educational problems. Recently, I attended a celebration with family and friends. One of my friends asked if students know less now than in the past, because he had been told by several college professors that this was the case – “Students don’t know anything anymore.” I assured him that was not the case. I had read enough Gerald Bracey to know that the basic trend nationally was upward and had s...
7/18/12: Chicago grain futures traded lower most of the morning on profit-taking, but no significant changes were made to the weather forecasts. Things reversed higher after the Ag Secretary said there would be no revision to the renewable fuel standard. For now the government is standing pat, but they could always change their mind down the road as the corn crop continues to deteriorate. 7/19/12: It’s starting to get weird out there. There was lots of action in the spreads in the grain futures markets, especially on the c...
Kim Ramm of Odessa is the third candidate running for the Lincoln County Commissioner District #1 position in the August primary. Ramm and her husband Dale Ramm are the owners of Ramm Hardware in Odessa, a franchise of the Do It Best corporation. Kim Ramm is also known locally for her political activism. She says that she has been interested and involved in politics for almost as long as she can remember. She was on the Odessa Town Council for eight years, retiring at the end...
Congress doesn’t seem to agree on how to handle the unrealistic and unpopular “no child left behind law” that came into reality in 2001. President Obama sees the 2014 date approaching and he must be assuming he will still be in office. He added eight more states and Washington D.C. to the eleven who no longer have to abide by the main tenets of the unpopular legislation. It is especially unpopular with the N.E.A. and the W.E.A.! The law requires schools to test students for math and reading annually in third through eight...
Today I’m rethinking my position on illegal immigration. Some undocumented aliens have set up housekeeping in my front yard. They’re not unattractive, until they open their mouths. They certainly don’t speak English. And they talk A LOT. LOUDLY. Their conversation always sounds urgent, unlike the measured, almost sweet cadence of their northern cousins. They’re driving me crazy. Or at least they will unless I find some way to live with them. Because, you see, I realize...
I swim laps at noon several times a week. I enjoy the water, and the gentle exercise is good for my aging joints. Like other old ladies in the pool, I’m no speed demon. Even a bucketful of performance-enhancing drugs would not make me slice through the water quickly. But like all the lap swimmers I know, slow or fast, I take an interest in Michael Phelps and the other American swimmers soon to compete in London in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Phelps is famous for the eight gold m...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 7/11/12: Holy cow what a morning! Chicago wheat futures ranged 45 cents and soft-white prices fluctuated 25 cents during the morning market hours. Chicago corn futures ranged 63 cents on the day and closed 14 cents lower, which was 44 cents off their highs. The supply-and-demand report was not bearish, as the USDA cut the national corn yield more than expected but down to where the market was figuring it was anyway. They went from their early,...
On April 29, 2007, my life was changed irrevocably. It was on this day that my husband Brian and I brought a beautiful baby boy into the world. Today, we are the proud parents of Cole Rodgers, whose influence on our lives has been immeasurable. Like any 5-year-old, his heart is full of love. He’s active. He’s inquisitive. He’s at the top of his math class. He dances to Bruce Springsteen, watches Navy games with his dad and loves to play on the iPad. Cole has an infec...
Hot enough for you? I’ve been thinking about heat lately, and not just because of the nation’s mostly torrid weather. We all can easily verify that hot air rises – when you change a light bulb near the ceiling of your living room, you find the air up there is warmer than it is near the floor. Another fact about heat rests on a simple experiment. If you rub your palms together you’ll feel some warmth. Then, if you bear down on your hands, pressing them together hard, you’ll cre...
A wonderful person passed away recently, and I feel compelled to remark upon it. Not only because this particular person is now gone, but because, with her, a bit more of a particular ethos, one that we see too little of today, died as well. I don’t remember the particular circumstances of the conversation, but something this woman said to me several years ago, when she was already in her eighties, has stuck with me. And not always in a comfortable way. She told me that she h...
What a wonderful feeling I had when I saw Anona Heimbigner's Thank-you in the Odessa Record several weeks ago! It doesn't seem like 69 years ago she so ably taught us in sixth grade to diagram sentences. I taught the same thing to my sixth-grade students my last twelve years of teaching here in Washougal. I often visualize sentences in their diagrammed form, especially when proofreading. Joyce (Napier) Goodale Washougal...
I urge your readers once again to contact their members of Congress and demand that Congress fix the problem it created in 2006 for the United States Postal Service. In 2006, Congress decreed that the USPS must fully fund current and future employees’ pension and health care costs to the tune of $5.5 billion a year. The Republican-dominated Congress required this funding to be done in 10 years to cover the costs for the next 75 years! No business pays 75 years into the future for its employees’ pension and health benefits. No...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 7/5/12: The grain markets continued their streak on Thursday as the hot weather continues. Next week is supposed to bring some relief from the heat in the corn belt, but rain is still lacking. New-crop corn traded out to a new contract high and Chicago September corn futures touched limit-up late in the day. Chicago wheat futures gained 38 cents, and white wheat gained 35. Export sales will be out in the morning. 7/6/12: Grain prices finally broke on...
