Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1632 - 1656 of 1962
We are living in a precarious time! We are about to elect a president who hopefully will guide us out of this financial disaster that is partially caused by too much government. According to the government accountability office the following are some of the examples. We have 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 programs to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 80 programs for economic development; 47 programs for job training and employment; 20 separate programs to help the homeless; 15 different...
Perhaps you would care to print a rebuttal to the hyperbole-laced article by Wendell Potter (Aug. 23 Record) regarding Rep. Ryan’s medicare plan? The enclosed analysis appeared on Yahoo! Finance on Aug. 23, and presents the other side of the argument. Jim Els Harrington “THE MYTHS AND REALITIES OF THE RYAN MEDICARE PLAN” By ANDREW G. BIGGS Gov. Mitt Romney's selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate has turned the 2012 presidential election into a referendum on Medicare reform. Ryan has s...
It’s commonplace to observe that we live in very partisan times. Red versus blue factions dominate our public discussions, and there often seems very little room made for agreement in the middle. It’s surely not easy to get environmental groups to agree on a policy that industry endorses. And if you add organized labor, consumer groups and the state of California to the mix, you might think agreement on one particular course of action would be impossible. But the imp...
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...
It didn’t surprise me when President Obama started talking about forgiving loans that college graduates have created to earn their degrees. But, it made me angry as it is a slap in the face of every graduate who had to work to pay for their education. He has various ways that he wants to create for borrowers to avoid repayment including declaring bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should be used as a last resort after someone has had extreme misfortune! With roughly $1 trillion in outstanding student loans, close to $900 billion is f...
The next time you have a saltshaker handy, you might want to remove a few grains. If you have a simple magnifying glass, you’ll see the salt is really tiny cubes. Salt is a mineral and each grain is a well-formed crystal that breaks into cubic shapes. Salt in your saltshaker looks like a simple solid, just another bit of sturdy matter that doesn’t flow or deform. But salt that’s under pressure is different. Salt far enough underground behaves like Silly Putty, oozing and f...
I have a dream. No, this isn’t another recitation of what occurs during my REM sleep cycles. This is a dream of what I think America could (and should) be. I know it’s a dream, and that there is absolutely no chance of it ever coming true, but I dream it nonetheless. I dream of a country where every employee is treated with respect by the company he or she works for. And vice versa. I dream of a country where every employee is not only happy to have a job, but realizes that every job has merit, whether it is washing windows o...
If Americans who are embracing Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” — and that now includes Mitt Romney — spent a few minutes reviewing a few recent research reports, they just might conclude that the Wisconsin Republican’s plan to reduce the deficit might better be renamed the “Path to the Poorhouse” because of what it would mean to the Medicare program and many senior citizens. Ryan’s proposal, which will get new scrutiny now that Romney has made him his running mate, would end the current Medicare program for every...
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...
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...
