Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1736 - 1760 of 1862
Recently, President Obama ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to delay implementation of a new rule that further reduces industrial ozone emissions —smog — under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The announcement came on the same day new employment figures showed the economy had created no new jobs in August. With unemployment stuck above 9 percent and the economy teetering on the brink of a double-dip recession, President Obama decided the suggested benefits of the new rul...
Well. I got carried away. Miss Smarty-Pants, having so much fun and getting lots of positive feedback from her friends, has put her foot in it. You all know how it feels when you are attacked. A rush of adrenaline hits your system, causing your heart and respiration rates to increase. You may even feel a flutter in your digestive tract. It’s all a part of the “fight or flight” response. You can stand your ground and bare your teeth and take the chance of getting hurt. You c...
When Ms. Ott, your roving reporter for The Odessa Record, belittles small communities, as I feel she did in her column of September 1, 2011, perhaps she should follow her own advice. In item #13 of her “big ideas for a small town” article she admonishes us to “not be mean spirited, as it is not helpful, and we should evaluate what we say before we say it.” She infers in her article that several of our small communities are resting on our laurels. I feel that is “mean spirited” and not helpful, when you don’t know the fact...
At Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ public forum in Davenport, one of several in August, too many regulations was the major concern. A local bureaucrat expressed frustration with micromanaging from Washington DC interfering with efficiency and effectiveness in delivering services. Public officials cited examples of unfunded mandates. A small business owner (me) complained about the daunting task of trying to create just one new job without getting sideways with some obscure rule. Did you know we have federal regulations defining an a...
After reading Bernie Sanders’ column last week, one has to think that this is what one writes when he wants more taxpayers’ money to waste on social programs. He makes it sound like this is the worst country in the world, that we have nothing but poor people and that they are worse off than the rest of the world. Here are some interesting facts about the poor in the U.S., which you will never hear or read in the main-stream media. “In a new report, Heritage's Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield lay out what the U.S. gover...
The 1896 Yukon gold rush triggered a boom for Seattle as prospectors flocked to ships bound for Alaska. In 1968, ARCO found black gold — oil — on the state’s North Slope around Prudhoe Bay, triggering a boom for Tacoma’s port where equipment was loaded onto ships and barges bound for our 49th state. Today, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) is launching a campaign to bring more business to his state. Parnell, who served as Sarah Palin’s lieutenant governor, has been traveling...
The laws of physical science teach us we can neither create nor destroy energy. But it’s also a simple fact that we can surely waste it. And that raises the possibility of saving money by refusing to let energy slip through our fingers. Typical families in the U.S. spend about $1,900 each year on home utility bills. That’s $160 per month. Your bills may be higher if your household consumes a lot of energy, if you heat with oil or if you live where the cost of electrical pow...
ABC News recently released a video of an armed robbery of a Walgreen's Pharmacy in Benton Township, Michigan which took place in May. The video showed two masked, hooded robbers brandishing weapons entering the nearly deserted store at 4:30 a.m. They grabbed an employee as a hostage and dragged him around the store. Pharmacist Jeremy Hoven tried to call 911, but then one of the two robbers jumped over the pharmacy counter and pointed his pistol at Hoven, who drew his own...
I was pretty sure that I’d be writing about Deutschesfest this week. You know, about how it couldn’t happen without me. But aside from not being over-committed for a change and gaining 8 pounds in four days, I have nothing to say. It’s done. The party’s over. I leave it to wiser heads than mine to debate the outcome. No, I’m going to talk about something else this week. Because while I was downtown in my dirndl, my dogs vanished. I saw them early Sunday morning when I let the...
Originally published in "Common Dreams," September 14, 2011 The crisis of poverty in America is one of the great moral and economic issues facing our country. It is very rarely talked about in the mainstream media. It gets even less attention in Congress. Why should people care? Many poor people don’t vote. They certainly don’t make large campaign contributions, and they don’t have powerful lobbyists representing their interests. Here’s why we all should care. There are 46 million Americans – about one in six – living below t...
Looking at the opinion polls, it’s easy to be depressed these days. Three out of four likely voters say America’s on the wrong track, consumer confidence has tanked, investors are sitting on the sidelines and job growth has stalled. In short, this is not a recipe for optimism. In his most recent survey, Seattle pollster Stu Elway found that voter confidence has sunk to an all-time low, the worst he’s seen in 20 years. Elway writes: “Economic recovery is a little like the fiv...
Occasionally I’m guilty of just a tiny bit of cynicism about people and their motivations. And sometimes I grow weary of news reports about the nasty behaviors of which some folks are capable. But any and all residue of my negativity evaporated instantly when I read of a cadre of truly courageous volunteers in Japan. The Japanese who affected me so strongly are retirement-age citizens who are offering to help with the Fukushima clean up. They are doing so, they say, because t...
"The middle class would not exist without organized labor." So proclaimed Vice President Joe Biden at a recent speech in Ohio. He's right. And with unemployment stuck above nine percent, the need for strong unions has never been greater. I am the CEO of an international life insurance company. If you think a management perspective automatically means opposition to labor unions, think again. I am humbled to witness the impact of millions of workers' voices as they proudly affirm, "Workers matter, and we are one!" America's...
We live in a world of instant gratification these days. I want out. Wait! I don’t mean I don’t want instant gratification. I just want to take it away from everyone else. Or at least some of them. A friend recently told me of receiving text messages from another person. If the sender didn’t get a response within five minutes, she just sent another text. And another. When did we decide that the whole world must be at our beck and call? When I was a kid (I don’t seem to be able to write any of these columns without citing...
President Obama and the newly appointed Congressional federal debt reduction committee will need to look under every rock to find ways to save money and do things differently. Now, they're getting some help from the private sector. In June, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded a four-year $77 million contract to Northrop Grumman to develop a detection system capable of stopping fraud before it happens. Based on systems used in the private sector to...
I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t have much to say this week. Maybe six months of venting is enough. Even though I’ve strayed from my original topic (does anyone remember what it was?), I haven’t forgotten it. The clock is ticking down and I’m not a whole lot closer to my goal of being healthier by my 60th birthday. I have managed to lose 20 pounds since the middle of May, when I first began commuting to Weight Watchers meetings in Moses Lake. I haven’t been as dil...
We’ve all seen it – the low slung trousers revealing underwear, a style that has become fashionable for young people to wear. Until now, it has simply been a matter to shake our heads over, but there are politicians and law enforcement officials who are ready to take a stand. Kathy McManus of the Responsibility Project reported that “as a nation that pulls itself up by its bootstraps, we are also a nation that needs to pull up its pants.” McManus reports that “the style of...
Your online history of The Odessa Record states that Ted Anderson converted the paper from letterpress to offset printing. This is incorrect, since Walt Larson owned and operated the paper using the old printing press and linotype equipment. It was under his ownership that the paper was converted to offset and printed in Moses Lake, Davenport and Ephrata. I personally ran the Linotype and the folder of the old Letterpress cylinder press. It was scrapped in Moses Lake. The Linotype and Job printing platen press were donated...
My life changed drastically 10 years ago. Never forget 9/11. I was at work flying as a medivac nurse out of the Seattle area when my pilot woke me in the morning and told me I was going to war. I had no idea how much it would change my life. I had no idea how it would change all of our lives. As we approach the 10-year anniversary of this horrific attack, I must reflect. At the time I had a fairly normal life, working my job, raising my children, cutting fire wood, doing normal stuff. That day my life changed. I was...
People don’t appreciate what they have until they lose it. For example, if your water line breaks and you go without showers for a couple of days, you have a whole new appreciation for the water company. Too often, Americans focus on what we don’t have, and we take the simple things in life for granted. But the freedoms and standard of living we’ve always known are not guaranteed. Just look at what has happened in other places around the world. For example, today Gdansk and G...
When I was a kid I was “born again,” a process that involved being fully and totally immersed in water. Much more recently I was on the home stretch of an 8-mile walk in the hot sun when the minister I was walking with kindly poured her drinking water on my hot little head. Seldom does water feel so good as when splashed on an overheating noggin in the summertime. As soon as my hair was sopping wet, I certainly felt born anew, able to complete the walk with at least a tiny smidgen of spring in my step. Just a cup or two of...
Destiny Skidmore, how can you compare Bob and Bonnie Dewey to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is being sued left and right for their labor practices. You know nothing about these people or about labor law. “Help your neighbor!” has nothing to do with business. Bob and Bonnie Dewey come from a small town also; they do have the same family values. But they are in business to make money. Go to the food bank if you can’t afford food or get an EBT card. Newcomers continue to come to Odessa for the cheap housing. You have a drug store, a healt...
Subject: A good interpretation of the Federal Budget If anyone is puzzled by the effort to "substantially" reduce federal spending and is confused by the absolutely huge numbers involved, the following is a primer to understand why this issue is so critical to our country's economic health. It also portends to the mountain of federal debt faced by our children and our grandchildren. Federal Budget 101 The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we c...
I have way more ideas than I have energy or know-how to bring to fruition. I have ideas for quilts. I have ideas for redecorating the house. I have ideas for how to gain control of the garden. And I have lots of ideas for the “betterment” of Odessa. Not that Odessa needs “betterment” – it’s a lovely community. Odessa has held up to the decline of rural America much better than many other communities. But I don’t think we can afford to rest on our laurels, and I think about i...
You may have missed it, but amidst the global economic turmoil, riots in London and our volatile stock market, there is some good news. Boeing has completed flight tests on its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner and has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to certify the plane for production. The company is hoping to earn FAA approval in time to start delivering planes in September. Despite the delays, the 787 remains a major source of future income for Boeing. Boeing...
