Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1662 - 1686 of 1862
As I was meeting with Town Marshal Mike Wren early Tuesday afternoon to review the week’s incident reports, a residential burglary was taking place on North Division Street. In broad daylight. At least two and possibly three people in a small gray extended-cab pickup pulled up to a residence. A neighbor saw two people removing items from the house. He didn’t call 9-1-1. He didn’t get a license number. He didn’t get a close enough look at the vehicle to provide make or model....
This is to anyone that has ever dropped a dog or a cat off on a country road or is thinking of doing it assuming a farmer will care for or find a home for your unwanted pet!! What makes you think it is easier for a farmer to find a home for your pet versus you? It is a form of animal cruelty in my eyes! Just this week we find yet another unwanted dog on our property and we are going to have to find it a home. We already have two rescue dogs (we just lost our third rescue this last week to cancer) and it takes a lot of work...
I am writing to comment on the poetry that appears in The Odessa Record written by Arley Bischoff. I am a cousin of his wife, Myrna, and really enjoy his poetry. I am very fond of poetry myself, so keep up the good work, Arley. Although I have been gone from Odessa for 46 years, I still enjoy reading the paper thoroughly each week. Many of the names are unfamiliar to me, but I still have fond memories of those that I still know today and enjoy keeping in contact through The Odessa Record. An avid reader and subscriber, Rhea...
If you are tired of squabbling with your growing youngsters about getting buckled into their booster seats, be glad you don’t live in California, where new 2012 laws have extended the height and weight limits to keep children in their booster seats longer. The new California Booster Seat Law, effective January 1, 2012, prohibits parents, guardians or drivers from transporting on a highway in a motor vehicle any child under 8 years old and at least 4'9" in height without securi...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 1/18/12: Grain futures fell on Wednesday as some of the driest areas of Argentina look like they’ll get a drink in the coming days. This is most definitely a weather market, however white wheat has been able to hold up pretty well in the face of a sinking futures market. Portland prices are now about 30 cents per bushel higher than Chicago March futures, which hasn’t happened in quite awhile. Strong feed wheat demand combined with a second tender in a wee...
It was a magical Monday this week. It was 3 degrees in Irbydale when I got up. Brrr! The car didn’t want to start, and once it did, it complained. Ten minutes of warming up barely made it better. Going up the Irby hill, all I could think about was that the thermometer in the car said that it had made it all the way up to 8. Then I crested the hill and entered fairyland instead of the cold gray desert. Every sagebrush, grass and weed was wearing diamonds. Big ones. I don’t thi...
Little kids are amenable to learning new habits - generally much more so than those of us who are set in our ways because this isn't our first rodeo. That's why it's sometimes more effective to teach children health science information rather than to do outreach aimed directly at their parents. That's part of the background to the Global Soap Project. It's a project that rests on some simple science long ago worked out by biologists and medical researchers. The basic fact is...
We have a top-rate medical facility in the Odessa Clinic and Hospital. At 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5, I had an appointment with Mark King, PA-C, at the clinic to evaluate my shortness of breath. With testing at the hospital and evaluation by Mark, I was diagnosed with a critical heart condition. Working as a team, Mark, the hospital ER and the Odessa Fire Department combined forces with the Heart Institute and Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane to get me to the Cardiac Critical Care unit by 2 p.m. In Spokane, I received...
According to the Seattle Times, "Next time the cashier says 'paper or plastic', think outside the bags. Think about ocean pollution, giant landfills and global warming," Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols says. Then think to the near future when you might have to either pull out a reusable tote or pay 20 cents a bag. Nickels and City Council President Richard Conlin proposed a 20-cent "green fee" on all disposable bags to encourage customers to carry their groceries home in their own...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 1/11/12: The USDA stocks report will be out in the morning and then it's all over but the crying. Actually there's really no way of knowing whether the report will be good or bad just that it will probably be a big market mover one way or the other. The trade is mostly expecting small cuts to corn and wheat stocks but we'll have to wait and see what the government thinks about that. Should the report be benign the focus will quickly return to the weather...
Most people recognize Martin Luther King, Jr., as a civil rights leader who fought for equal rights for black Americans. Many, however, are not as aware of his fight for economic justice for the working poor. When King went to Memphis, TN, on 3 April 1968 – one day before his assassination – he focused on protesting the economic injustices against black garbage collectors, who received significantly lower wages than whites. [To put this in context, the minimum wage was $1.25. I know because during the summer of 1968 I worked...
Numerous studies have shown that our balance becomes impaired as we age. Numerous other studies have shown that regular exercise can help us maintain our balance, and even improve it. This week we’re going to exercise. To begin, stand up (if you can) and stretch. Reach for the stars, one arm at a time. Lean first to the left, then the right. Or vice versa. Wriggle your fingers and tilt your head one way, then the other. Great. Now, find a piece of paper and a pencil. First, d...
It was frustrating to watch the redistricting process as the New Year’s Day deadline for adopting new legislative maps approached. Now the Redistricting Commission has acted, and Lincoln joins Grant, Kittitas and a sliver of Yakima counties in a new 13th Legislative District. It would be easy to glumly complain about how the Commission must have worked up from Oregon and down from Canada, and our skinny new district running from Spokane to Snoqualmie was the leftover pieces. It would be easy to question the decision to c...
The high school juniors will soon begin gathering photographs and stories about the Old Town Hall. In an effort to preserve some of the history and artifacts associated with the Old Town Hall, the junior English class plans to scan the photos to put into a DVD or video for the school library, town library, and museum. Students will need to know the approximate date of each photograph, the occasion, the names (if known) of people in the photo. The juniors will also gather stories about dances, celebrations, and other events...
In 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan was, “It’s the economy, stupid.” In 1993, Washington employers modified the slogan to, “It’s the economy, don’t kill it,” and emblazoned it across a huge banner draped from AWB’s building near the state’s Capitol Campus, where it could be seen by elected officials driving by. But lawmakers didn’t get the message 19 years ago; they left employers holding the bag for new taxes and fees as well as added costs for unemployment insuranc...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 1/4/11: South American forecasts looked a little wetter at the start of the day and the grain markets sold off accordingly. Later in the day things started looking a little drier and the corn and bean markets recovered most of their losses with Chicago wheat finishing down 7 cents. White wheat was down seven on the day as well. Still not much else to report. 1/6/11: Parts of Argentina will be getting some rain in the next few days but the weather will...
For years, energy experts warned us that regulations and policies that reduce the supply of affordable conventional energy would result in higher prices for American families. Now it is clear the warnings were well-founded. The USA Today recently reported that electricity bills have skyrocketed. The newspaper reports that American families paid, on average, a record $1,419 a year for electricity in 2010. Demand for electricity remains high even as energy supplies shrink. In...
If you've made a New Year’s resolution to eat right and trim down, be forewarned that medical science shows your brain has it in for you and will actively promote your failure on two different fronts. That’s not good news, of course, but you should know about it so you can strengthen your resolve as best you can. Here’s the scoop. It’s relatively easy – particularly if you are significantly overweight – to lose a few pounds by reducing the number of calories you consume eac...
Happy New Year. Have we all turned over a new leaf? Or are we still trying to get a few more uses out of that old one? There are lots of pitfalls out there for those of us who are prone to believing that we can change our selves or our behavior just because of a date on the calendar. I know this, because I spend more time in the pits than I do out of them. Sometimes its easier to just stay in the pit because climbing out is so difficult. And unrewarding, because it seems...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 12/21/11: White wheat prices stalled out Wednesday but Chicago wheat futures managed to tack on 9 cents after trading lower to start the session. Some weather models are reducing the chances for rain in Argentina over the coming days which helped March corn futures move above the 30 day moving average for the first time since the middle of November. If prices can hold or move above these levels then it could generate more short covering by speculators and...
It’s that time of year again. Resolution time. I should probably just save myself time (and self-recrimination) by resolving not to make resolutions, but I don’t seem to be able to help myself. A new year just seems like the perfect time to work on perfecting myself. Now, before you get excited, I am aware that perfection is unattainable. Mostly I just want to be a better person. I would really like to be less judgemental of others, and maybe even a bit less judgemental of mys...
We hear so often that the schools are failing that we begin to believe such claims. Recently the media reported that 42% of America’s public schools are failing. The newscasters, however, did not look behind the curtain to see the larger picture. Children are more than tests and statistics. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind or NCLB) of 2002 was re-authorized, the aim was to help all pubic school students succeed. Translated, this means that by 2014 ALL public school students – 100% – m...
Washington is one of only 10 states that effectively prohibit low-income parents from choosing where their children go to school. The battle lines over alternatives such as charter public schools or school vouchers have been sharply drawn in our state. Supporters say the issue is choice; that education is the key to a child’s future and parents — particularly low-income parents — should be able to send their children to the best possible schools. Opponents argue that alter...
Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse. 12/14/11: Things got ugly pretty quickly last Wednesday as the crude oil and gold markets tanked and took the rest of the commodity sector with them. The euro tanked on further concerns over the state of the European economy, as Germany indicated it was unwilling to increase its commitment to the region’s bailout fund. The only grain news floating around at all is mild concern about a drying weather pattern in South America potentially affecting soy and c...
With a bad economy, political bickering in our nation’s capital and daily news coverage of raucous protests here at home, it may seem harder to get into the Christmas spirit this year. But if you look closely, you will see countless examples of generosity, courage and hope. Just a few weeks ago, more than 18,000 motorcycles rumbled down I-5 for the 33rd Annual Olympia Toy Run. A tougher band of softies was hard to find, as the state’s capitol filled with leather-clad mot...
