Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1786 - 1810 of 1862
These are the good times. I was driving through the country last Saturday, looking at deer happily chowing down in wheat fields. Everyplace is a drive-through if you’re a herbivore at this time of year. It’s a simple historical fact that wheat farming has been central to American agriculture since the country was young. And today wheat grown in the U.S. supplies American consumers and millions of other people around the world with largequantities of economical nutrition. Eve...
It’s really hard to let things go when you’re a control freak. I have a hard time with poor grammar. I struggle with disorganized organizations. I want the rows of vegetables in my garden to be straight and at least sort of the same distance apart. On the other hand, my flower gardens are jungles, with no rhyme nor reason to the placement of plants. I see it, I like it, I buy it and occasionally I manage to plant it before it expires. It appears that what I really want is to...
Recently the president said that there are no more spending cuts to be made to lower the deficit. Let me help you, Mr. President, to find a few that could be cut or should never have been there. Do you know how much money federal employees cost taxpayers each year upgrading their flights to business class? 146 million dollars. The United States government has spent $3 billion doing what to America’s beaches? The government has spent $3 billion to re-sand our nation’s beaches. Advocates claim this prevents erosion and kee...
My dad used to say, “Public officials should never borrow money, except in an emergency, like a war.” As the mayor of a small town in Montana, he put that principle into practice. Buying a new dump truck was not an emergency. If the city didn’t have the money to buy it, the answer was no. Even if state or federal funds were available to make the down payment, if the city couldn’t come up with the rest of the money, the answer was still no. Most vendors feel the same way whe...
Now that I have six months under my belt, I thought I would give you an update about my new job and some of the things going on around Lincoln County. Right after the first of the year the Board made a decision for the county to self-insure for medical insurance. This decision was made based on several factors. The pool that the county was previously in was experiencing drastic premium increases due in large part to excessive claims by some of its members. The general thought...
I am given to making sweeping general statements about myself, which upon examination turn out to be less than true. For example, I frequently tell others that I am not a “people person.” While it’s true that I usually prefer the company of animals to that of people, I hardly think I can be classified as a misanthrope. I’m not comfortable in crowds. I don’t go to concerts. I prefer to wait to see a movie until I don’t have to sit next to strangers. I actually like it when we c...
As of this Friday the 15th of July our little hometown market will no longer be known as Denny’s after 7:00 p.m. For me, it’s heartfelt that the smallness and fun of it all will be over. I really enjoyed singing at the end of my shift and at the check stand, to sing along with the customers that I so much have grown to love and get to know. I especially thank them for their kindness. Hearing the stories of past times, of husbands, wives, farm life and the like will be cherished by yours truly. The $30 meat boxes to the sal...
Joseph and Mary Zicha are my grandparents, Joe Zicha my uncle. Many years ago I became very saddened that their cemetery was just a mess of weeds. It was Arley Bischoff that took it upon himself to turn that chaos into a place of beauty. Oh, how hard he worked and for so many years kept it that way and still sees to it that someone keeps it mowed. Thank you for publishing his wonderful poems and giving him credit for his talents. I’m so grateful. Margaret Wraspir Chapple Ogden, Utah...
Later this month, state legislators will begin discussions about designing and implementing a health-care exchange. If experience is a guide — and it is — Washington lawmakers should tread very carefully because recent events have shown how perilous such efforts can be. State health-care exchanges, authorized under the federal health-reform law, were originally characterized as virtual open-air markets where health-insurance providers would compete side-by-side so con...
A few weeks ago, I was enjoying a nice dinner at Anthony’s restaurant in Spokane, and as I sat on the terrace, I couldn’t help but marvel at the massive amount of water flowing over the Spokane Falls. I also couldn’t help but think about the potential flooding that would take place in Eastern Washington this year were it not for our dams. While the Mississippi River and its tributaries are currently spilling over their banks and levees, Eastern Washington is mostly safe from such a disaster. That’s because of our dams. B...
According to the July 5 edition of the Kansas City Star, “parents are chilling out more at kids’ sporting events.” A national survey of youth soccer officials found that the majority of parents are behaving as well or better at their kids’ matches than they were two years ago. In most states, through the Youth Soccer Association program, the referee scores the behavior of parents, coaches and players on a scale of 1 to 5 after each game. At the end of the season, teams d...
At risk of being called crazy, I submit this letter to the Editor. Everyone knows I am nuts, why else why would I be here JK. Not a problem. I am nuts. I’m good with it. Over the 4th of July weekend I had some traveling bikers (at the Rolling Thunder Saloon). Somehow we came to a discussion about molecules. It was very interesting to me. Basically every item, be it a bar chair, a motorcycle, your grandma’s rocking chair. Everything contains energy. Even your car, your tractor, your table, somehow contains energy. Eve...
Kudos to Nancy and Doug Plinski for all their labor in cleaning and repainting the Tourist Park. It looks great!...
Several weeks ago, when The Editor suggested that my column should have a name, we discussed several options. “Advice from a small town girl” seemed about the best possible choice from among several, some of which were downright weird, and most of which were boring. But now I see the perfect title. “It’s all about me.” Because it is. I can’t crawl into your heads and talk about the issues you have with yourself and the world. I’m way too busy in my own head. It’s not always pr...
When I was younger, I used to enjoy picking a pint or two of huckleberries in the mountains in the summer. But even when you work hard, huckleberry picking doesn’t yield a lot of fruit per day. Picking raspberries goes faster because the fruit is larger and the berries grow more thickly on the plant. And picking apples is faster still, with output measured in bushels rather than pints. Still, it’s one thing to pick a bag of apples from an old tree by the side of a gravel roa...
In 1975, as America was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial, Poland was a suppressed Soviet satellite state. The Polish people were impoverished, had no right to free speech and if you wanted a job, you had to play ball with Communist Party bosses. Poland was a bleak land that had never recovered from World War II. That same year, more than 5,000 miles away, the Business Week program began at Central Washington University as a way for high school students to experience...
Every town has a story. What is Odessa’s story? The true story cannot be dictated by a town banner or a marketing campaign. Unconsciously, every person who travels through our town characterizes Odessa. Is it the tale we want told? Are we progressive or are we conservative? (I don't mean Democratic or Republican parties). Is Odessa hip and cool or is it family friendly? Are we dead or are we vibrant? Are we clean or are we dirty. Are our neighborhoods vacant or are they thriving? Is your property neat and tidy or overgrown a...
Editor’s note: Lise’s column was inadvertently omitted from last week’s issue. We are running two columns this week to catch up. This would be a really good week to say something that will make everybody mad, ‘cause I’m not here. I’m on a cruise to Alaska. The part of me that has watched too many reruns of “The Poseidon Adventure” is a little concerned. The part of me that has always wanted to see our biggest state (and maybe Russia - I just have to get access to the Palin’s...
I’m back! Mind you, I’ll feel more like I’m back once the deck stops heaving. I’ve never noticed before just how much dry land can move. Our cruise to Alaska was quite an experience. In order to fully understand why I say this, you need to know that I can remember vacationing at a motel only once in my life before I was 15. We were campers. We camped on the coast, where we dug clams and I lost my brand-new plaid tennis shoes to the tide. We camped in the Olympic rain forest,...
You and I have our challenges and some real worries, too. There are bills to pay and doctors to visit, to say nothing of mulling over those strange sounds coming from the rear of the car. But I confess I thought the life of a cow was rather placid. Eating and sleeping, I would have guessed, pretty much summed up the existence of the more than one billion bovines that share the planet with us. But as I've recently learned, both beef cattle and dairy cows often have trouble...
Partisan wrangling in Congress over the federal deficit and government spending has created gridlock. Not much else is getting done. Into that void have stepped federal bureaucrats who are circumventing Congress to implement sweeping policy changes. With President Obama’s legislative initiatives stalled in Congress, his appointed agency directors are finding ways to implement his programs without congressional approval. These aren’t penny-ante changes – some programs carry tri...
In his June 9, 2011 letter, Garry Rosman had some questions concerning the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the formally state-owned property in Creston. I would like the opportunity to address this subject. Mr. Rosman is under the false impression that the state spent $1.3 million to build what he referred to as ‘the Creston Bio Energy Plant.’ The facts are that the state never funded the biodiesel project in Creston. The building belonged to the NW Lincoln County Regional Public Development Authority (PDA) and was...
Nate here. I love the Odessa Record so much that I have a scrip sent to President Obama, Gov. Gregoire, my mom, my grandpa and several others. The Record always puts in opinions regardless of the content and generally un-edited. I like that it is true and to the point. However, I have a problem with this week’s paper, and it is not the Odessa Record’s fault. They publish it; we read it. Page 2 – Lise Ott, always positive and a good read. Thank you. This week, Page 5, “Notices of infraction will be issued.” Let me start (by...
I want to make it CLEAR that this is my OPINION and NOT a rebuttal to anything written to you in the past. It seems to me that doing the same thing over and over again, looking for a different result, is insane. I have a hard time with people in this community or any other, who are placed in a public position, no matter how large or small. They are looked up to for guidance and good decisions, some are given good pay, insurance benefits and other perks not to mention the TRUST of the townspeople in Odessa, and they rip them...
Just as thousands of college graduates are walking across the stage to receive their diplomas, the U.S. Department of Labor announced frail May jobs figures. Unemployment ratcheted up a notch to 9.1 percent and the U.S. economy added just 54,000 jobs last month — barely one-third of the 150,000 needed each month to return our nation to prosperity. Even more troubling, economists think the true national unemployment numbers may be much higher. That’s because the government doe...
