Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1838 - 1862 of 1862
As the price of gas passes $4 on its way to $5 a gallon, the finger pointing in Washington, D.C. has reached a frenzy as politicians rush to place blame. “Wall Street profiteers!” “Speculators!” “Big Oil!” As if on cue, the administration has launched another investigation into charges that speculators are manipulating oil prices – a perennial response of elected officials when gas prices stir anger among the electorate. Previous investigations have found no conspiracies....
In case you haven’t heard, there is a controversy going on about the privacy of Smartphone data. According to an April 21 Los Angeles Times article, “Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad are keeping very close track of where you’ve been.” Researchers have found that hidden in the operating software of the devices is a file that can hold records of a user’s exact geographical location, each marked with a timestamp. According to the article, those records “create a highly detailed hist...
To the Editor: Figures don’t lie, and these figures below can be verified. The dollar against the Swiss Franc has decreased 27% since President Obama took over the White House. It is similar against the Australian Dollar, which was worth about 80 cents and is now over a dollar. Commodities in general have gone up by leaps and bounds, but the paycheck has actually gone down during the Obama administration. Gasoline would be at least $1 per gallon cheaper at the pump without the government printing more money. Canada’s dol...
To the Editor: We have a government that is spending 188 million dollars per hour – money which they have to borrow, and now they want to raise the debt limit so they can spend more. If this keeps up, we won’t have to worry that the Republicans' budget will get rid of Medicare like some of the left-wing fear-mongers are predicting, because there will be no Medicare or health care for anyone. We are 14 trillion dollars in debt, and this administration wants to spend more. The question that should be asked and is being ask...
To the Editor: I like what I have been seeing in The Odessa Record. Frankly, most newspapers are dead, like the PI in Seattle etc. But here, it is often the highlight of the week for a lot of folks. Terrie and the staff are doing well. I will be honest, first I read the obituaries to see if I am still here. Then I flip to the back page to see if I am in the police report, either personally or with my business. There is, of course, a lot of ink there. I do save every article and save it in my scrap book. Many times I have...
It’s my opinion (you’ll find I have a lot of them) that emotional health is at least as important as physical health. In fact, I believe that you cannot have one without the other. One of the activities that sustains my emotional health is connection with a community. This community could be a small town, such as Odessa, or a church, civic group, 12-step program or any other group of people you have something in common with. Long ago, in some self-help session I attended, we...
This week The Record begins running a new series of articles by sometime correspondent Patti Jarschke. She'd like reader feedback, so feel free to comment in an email message sent to therecord@odessaoffice.com, a letter to the editor (P.O. Box 458, Odessa 99159) or by dropping by the office with your letter or note. She plans to focus on whatever controversial issues strike her fancy in any given week. Readers can also suggest topics if they wish. An article by reporters...
During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama promised organized labor that he would support their agenda. Having failed to get labor’s priorities through Congress, the Obama administration is seeking to achieve the same goal through regulation. For example, the president campaigned on passing card check, a union-backed measure that eliminates the secret ballot in union organizing elections. Inappropriately dubbed the “Employee Free Choice Act,” card check actu...
When I was a little girl, I loved the first of May. Each year I would make a basket of construction paper and lots and lots of staples and tape. I would quietly go outside and raid the flower beds, choosing the flowers I thought were the prettiest. When I was satisfied with my basket, I would hang it from the handle of the red back door of our farmhouse (the front door was only for visitors and holidays) and then ring the doorbell. Then I’d run as fast as I could, hiding b...
Many of us are angry that we have a government with Department of Health watchdogs that are paid for by our tax dollars to “protect us against ourselves.” Let us not forget the shutting down of “Christmas on the Hill” last year. At the same time, they fail miserably, where they should be paying attention to a much more important problem. Case in point, E-Coli outbreaks in restaurants. We are told that if two or three neighbors want to have a potluck in their back yard, that’s O.K. What’s the difference between 10 or 12 people...
Let's see, based on figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the House Republican budget plan would eliminate Medicare as we know it. The plan would also give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to U.S. billionaires and raise taxes on the middle class to make up the loss in revenue. If implemented, Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan would eliminate 1.7 million jobs in the first two years. To top it all off, according to Matt Miller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, “The House Republican bud...
In Illinois, the workers’ comp system is so out-of-control that Democratic state Rep. John Bradley introduced legislation to abolish it and put workers’ compensation cases in the state’s circuit courts. Workers’ comp was established nearly a century ago as a no-fault insurance system so workers and employers would not have to go to court. However, without major reforms, it is certain to collapse because of rapidly escalating costs and premiums charged to employers. In Springf...
One of my mother’s friends was raised decades ago on a few acres at the end of a gravel road in Idaho. As she puts it, her family’s basic challenge was eating what it produced before other critters did. In other words, it was useful to consume the eggs in the henhouse before the foxes got to them. Those images sometimes come to my mind when I look at a bag of potatoes in the grocery store. Potatoes are relatively cheap and nutritious food, a good source of the basic food energ...
I give up. It has become abundantly apparent to me that this whole “health quest” is going to require a serious commitment, and I don’t mean to the nearest psych ward. No, I mean a serious commitment to a structured food intake program, commonly known as a (no, don’t say it!!!!) DIET. Of course, now the question is, which one? It amazes me just how many people claim to have the answer to my weight problem, from common-sense approaches such as TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibl...
Just a note to say “CONGRATULATIONS” to the five students who received awards in excellence for their (science) projects at the Odessa school. This is a great honor for you. I am proud to tell people I am from Odessa. I graduated from the Odessa High School in 1946, valedictorian of my class, but I can honestly say that I would be unable to accomplish what you did. Keep up the good work and again, congratulations! Bill Jessett Camas, Wash....
Just over a year ago when President Obama, then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., rammed Obamacare through Congress, no one really knew what was in the 2,700 pages of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). But small business soon learned that it wasn’t so affordable. For example, the law includes a provision that requires all businesses to file a 1099 form to the Internal Revenue Service for p...
What I need is a personality transplant. In the two weeks since I saw the doctor about my knee, I have reverted to what I consider to be my true personality - that of a banana slug. I haven’t been writing down what I eat. I haven’t really even been thinking about what I eat, but I’m pretty sure that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. But every day is a new day, right? And every new day presents us with the opportunity to be a new person, if only in small ways. I have a picture...
Washington State’s hospitals are strongly opposed to the House budget and its attack on hospitals and the health of our residents. The House budget makes deep cuts to payment rates and services that will directly impact safety net hospitals and vital services provided to Medicaid enrollees. The House budget violates all the agreements made last year on the Hospital Safety Net Assessment, and changes the assessment from a fee to a tax on hospitals and their patients. The result is a $250 million cut to hospital Medicaid r...
Recently I heard this complaint: What does the government do for us? Let me count the ways, starting with money. Only the federal government has the right to print money. This “government” money shows up in many forms. Some of us receive Social Security benefits, and some get Medicare and Medicaid assistance – all government programs. Many of us get cash at ATMs, and some of us even save money at banks – both insured by FDIC, a government program. Some invest in U.S. Treasury bonds, and some get farm subsidies. Both are sup...
By DR. E. KIRSTEN PETERS Scientists have studied natural climate change for quite a while. Part of what we have learned about past climates comes from tree rings, and thereon hangs an interesting tale going back more than a century. Flagstaff, Ariz. was a pretty small burg in the 1890s, without the street lamps of big cities ‘back East.’ It also has an elevation of 7,000 feet, making it well over a mile above sea level. It was those two conditions that brought a young ast...
I’ve been totally bummed out this week. Even before last week’s paper was printed with my ode to spring, I knew I was having a setback. I don’t deal well with setbacks. I want life to proceed smoothly, without interruptions and without failures. Oh, well. About three weeks ago, my right knee started feeling a little funny. It wasn’t bending very well, and if I set it down wrong while I was walking, there would be a twinge. A week later there was more than a twinge, so I took...
I love spring. If pressed, I would tell you my favorite season is fall, but I love spring. When I was a little girl, I could be found wandering the creek just behind our farmhouse, or the swales up the driveway, looking for wildflowers, polliwogs, birds’ nests. I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it was to find a clutch of killdeer eggs disguised as gravel, lying at my feet. Of course, it was better to find them at my feet rather than under them. I haven’t changed much.... Full story
Those of us who have been around the block a few times will remember that the last time gasoline hit $4 per gallon a new industry sprang up. Drivers could buy magnets to attach to fuel lines to allegedly boost a car’s gas mileage by 20 or even 30 percent. The devices didn’t work, but the brisk market for them reflected the pain we were feeling at the pump. The Rock Doc confidently predicts the current spike in gas prices will lead to yet another round of activity by the cha... Full story
Washington voters have made it more difficult for state lawmakers to hike taxes by requiring a two-thirds majority to do so. The Legislature’s response? Increase fees, instead. Gov. Gregoire has ordered state agencies to cut their budgets and streamline their operations, saying, “State government cannot conduct business as usual.” But instead, some agencies want to offset their agency’s budget cuts with higher fees. Fee hikes require only a simple majority vote in the Legisla... Full story
To the Editor: The Columbia Basin Development League submitted comments during the public input stage of a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Odessa Subarea Special Study. The Special Study is evaluating alternatives which would deliver Columbia Basin Project water to the Odessa Groundwater Management Area to replace deep wells. The wells in the area are in severe decline. A “no action” alternative is also being considered. The League commented that the State of Washington relied on expected Project development in... Full story
