Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1900 - 1924 of 1962
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...
As of last Thursday, I’ve made a 10-pound dent in my 100-pound weight loss goal. Not without obstacles, however. I managed to deal with the Memorial Day weekend family potluck pretty well – as long as you don’t count offending my brother. But that’s another story. Potlucks are problematic for dieters. Well, for this one anyway. I don’t care how beautiful the green salad or fruit trays are, I want potato salad, beans and lots of tender, juicy meat. If there’s room I might hav...
I was so sad as I read the paper this week. Yes, one of our citizens did wrong. I believe he should have to pay his crime, and he is. I also know he is not only paying for it through the judicial system, but he is paying for it each day in his mind. Gerald and I have not lived in this community all of our lives. But we do feel like part of the community. We have enjoyed everyone in the Finkbeiner, as well as the victims’ families. Our hearts go out to the families that were hurt. Our home (in other places) has been broken i...
In the June 2 sheriff's report, I saw where someone got a telephone call saying they had won a Mercedes and $1 million dollars, and they called 911 to have them check it out. What a waste of tax payers’ money. Remember, unless you entered a contest that says you can win the above, forget it, as it’s a sham and the police have better things to do within Lincoln County. Chuck Wood Gig Harbor...
We recently visited Odessa on Memorial Day. The cemetery looked great, as did the city park. However, we can’t say the same about the streets with all the weeds growing on them and even on the sidewalks downtown. The front of the city hall even had weeds. Isn’t there a city crew anymore? Several junked cars were parked on streets. We thought unlicensed cars were supposed to be hauled away. Aren’t there any police either? Couldn’t believe some of the yards with knee high weeds and grass. This isn't the Odessa we remembe...
We’ve all heard the stories. An elderly woman is awarded $2.7 million after spilling McDonald’s coffee in her lap. A Washington, D.C. judge sues a local dry cleaner for $54 million for losing his pants. A neighbor successfully sues two teenage girls handing out free cookies, claiming they triggered an anxiety attack when they knocked on her door. These stories make the headlines, but each year tens of thousands of anonymous lawsuits choke our court systems — and we all pay t...
It’s a classic plot device of murder mysteries: an evil killer slips poisonous mushrooms into the frying pan of an unsuspecting victim who dies an agonizing death. But in real life, poisonous fungi typically sicken and occasionally kill people for quite different reasons. Recently I learned a lot about what can go wrong in the world of mushrooms from Dr. Denis Benjamin, a medical doctor who is also a fungi and poison expert. As the weather improves over so much of the nation,...
Remember when I wrote about “the definition of insanity” a few weeks ago? That it is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result? Well, I’m there. I hurt all over. Every year, about this time, I swear that I’m not going to have a huge garden again. That’s because about this time, I’ve just finished planting approximately 250 pumpkins, squash and gourds, 50 or so tomatoes, about the same number of peppers and eggplant, and that’s not even counting the seeds of peas, beans, kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, radis...
What is wrong with this picture? The State of Washington loaned the PDA (Public Development Authority) $1.4 million dollars to build the Creston Bio Energy Plant. The operator left and the PDA was not able to keep up on the payments. The PDA then turns the project back over to the State of Washington. The state then sells the property for $213,000 to a private party. What a poor investment for the taxpayers. We spend $1.4 million on a plant only worth $213,000. How did this happen? No wonder the state is in financial...
In recent weeks, amid the breaking news of tornadoes across the southeast and plains states, there has been another story in the news, that of the so-called "Botox Mom," Kerry Campbell, aka Sheena Upton. This mother of eight-year-old daughter, Britney, hit the news when an article first published in the UK tabloid, The Sun, landed Upton a spot on Good Morning America and Inside Edition here in the United States after she boasted of injecting her daughter with Botox in order...
The U.S. is being inundated with historic floods from Minnesota to Louisiana as a massive amount of water from heavy rainfall and snowmelt races down the Mississippi River. With U.S. taxpayers shouldering the majority of the claims through the National Flood Insurance Program, Bloomberg reports the Mississippi’s surge could result in the highest flooding losses since the $16 billion in claims following Hurricane Katrina. Without our network of dams on the lower Columbia and S...
It’s time to get back to my original purpose – the pursuit of good health. Right about the time I got on my soapbox, I also went back to Weight Watchers. Now, I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve “gone back” to Weight Watchers. My mother made me join when I was a teenager, and it was AWFUL. You were required to eat fish four times a week, liver once a week and were limited to 4 eggs per week, along with a host of other restrictions. No wonder people lost weight: They were either starving to death or couldn’t stomach what th...
The U.S. Republican senators recently voted to keep giving $21 billion in subsidies to big oil and gas companies, which have made world-record profits -- $32 billion between January and March 2011 and more than $900 billion over the past 10 years. This Republican financial support of Conoco Phillips, BP, Chevron, Shell, and Exxon Mobil comes at a time when 74% of the American people (according to the Wall Street Journal) want this subsidy support ended and when at least 13 million Americans are out of work! (By the way, Mr....
I wanted to thank the young lady who wrote a few stories in the past weeks. She has been a GREAT addition to this newspaper. Her style and story made me smile and think of being young and full of imagination again (which I haven't done in a long while). I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to meet her in the post office. I can’t remember her name, but she is just a delight – so talented, so happy and so proud that someone liked her work. Well, young lady, please keep up the good work, and I look forward to the next sto...
By 2025, the TransAlta energy facility in Centralia must replace coal with natural gas to generate electricity, but Washington has no gas to offer. Fortunately, we have neighbors with an abundance of gas — natural gas, that is — to ship to us. In Washington, three-quarters of our electricity comes from hydropower. But 14 percent of it comes from coal burned at the TransAlta facility, which employs 600 people in good family-wage jobs and provides heat and light for 1.23 mil...
