Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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This will be my last column in the Sidney Sun-Telegraph for a while. Next week my wife and I will close the sale of our farm near Gurley, and we’ll be off to a new beginning in Belle Fourche, S.D., where I will become pastor of the Christian Life Center. It’s going to be necessary to focus my attentions on the move, my family, and my new job until at least June of this year. I’ll then reach out to the editor and we’ll discuss whether a return to these pages will be possible. I wrote my first c...
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s getting expensive to drive. Between soaring prices for gas and diesel fuel and the insane cost of both new and used vehicles, people are having to cut back on driving in order to save fuel costs and prolong vehicle service life. The solution, our political elites tell us, is to purchase electric vehicles. The push for electric vehicles to replace those with combustion engines over the next 10-15 years seems like a great way to contribute to the planet’s salvatio...
My last position at Cabela’s HQ involved not only forecasting weather, but calling out trends in economics, technology innovation, politics from the local to global scale that could impact the outdoor industry, and business. I enjoyed and was good at it. Now I do it as a hobby, but am very concerned that what was once dismissed as conspiracy theory is now openly discussed by wealthy and powerful people and organizations. I don’t know that there’s a secret group of a dozen people pulling strin...
Opinions on the significance of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine vary from a regional dispute to the brink of World War III. But one thing most astute observers will admit is that the ongoing war on Europe’s eastern flank has been highly instructive. We learned this week that U.S. Green Berets had been in Ukraine training its soldiers in recent years. One area of instruction focused on how to effectively resist a superior armored force with small, highly mobile, well-armed units. This tra...
The images we’re seeing from Ukraine are upsetting. Families displaced, combat in the cities, buildings leveled and innocent lives snuffed out. And let’s not forget each Russian tank we see set ablaze burns a crew of soldiers inside alive, soldiers who, we’re told, often have no idea why they’re even fighting. And each of those dead men has loved ones at home whose lives are devastated by the loss of a son, husband or father. We shouldn’t react joyfully to any death. Yet as we watch the comba...
Even big media outlets have been forced to acknowledge inflation is a big problem. It’s sad those running our country are so disconnected from the people they govern that they’re unable to understand how devastating our current wealth-evaporating economy is. The latest official core inflation figure I saw was 6.4 percent, the highest since August 1982. This is misleading as it’s an average across a range of categories that don’t even cover all of the necessities of life Americans pay for every d...
You need not be a meteorologist to see the storm clouds gathering on the horizon. I speak metaphorically, but just as you know it’s time to seek shelter when the sky looks ominous and warning sirens blare, so too you sense what I do about what’s coming our way politically and economically and want an action plan. I’m not a politician, nor am I an economist. I do have quite a bit of experience in disaster preparedness and helping to manage crisis. My ability to predict the future is pretty good,...
It’s amazing how quickly changes in the global landscape occur. Canada went from a representative parliament government to tyranny in a matter of days. Vaccine and mask mandates were supposedly settled science a few weeks ago, but are now dropping like flies sprayed with insecticide. And a peaceful, but tense relationship between Russian and its neighbors turned into the biggest war in Europe since 1945 overnight. The result is a world losing faith in institutions and a high degree of u...
Change, even good chance, can be hard. That’s what Karen and I are learning as we prepare to leave Cheyenne County for our new home in Belle Fourche, SD. This reality has been driven home as good friends we’ve made here share the impact we’ve had in their lives over the years, often impact we may not have known about until it was shared. I arrived in Sidney in October of 2004 as I transitioned from a 25-year career in TV and radio to a new position as a writer for Cabela’s. Karen and the kid...
You can’t be blamed if you’ve not heard about the massive demonstrations and protests underway in Canada because most media outlets and social media platforms are doing all they can to block the spread of news about them. In spite of this, the protests continue and are spawning similar actions across the globe from Europe to Australia. It began as a protest involving thousands of truckers when the Canadian government imposed draconian measures it thought would prevent the spread of COV...
I’m not optimistic about America’s future. It pains me to say that. But with $30 trillion in debt, gains made by China, a belligerent Russia, an incompetent government, complicit media and a rising generation of Americans more concerned about gender issues than any of the aforementioned challenges, you can see why I’m concerned. Add to that increasingly open voices on both the political right and political left calling for the other side to be silenced, and it’s hard to see how we avoid bloodsh...
I’ve been blessed. I’ve been sure to let God know that. Though far from rich by the world’s standards, I’ve got a beautiful wife, a nice house, a vehicle that runs, food, clothing, clean water, and a lifestyle that’s comfortable. I’ve got friends, something of a “following” in the area, access to medical care and the benefit of living in a rural area not plagued with the problems afflicting the big cities. If you can relate to any of this, you’re blessed too. Many times over the years I’ve go...
In the southwest Pacific Ocean, the Hunga Tonga volcano erupted on Saturday. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a big news story because the same volcano erupted in 2009, 2014 and has been rumbling since December of last year. But Saturday’s eruption was far more powerful than those previously observed, and it triggered both a tsunami and a noise that were experienced thousands of miles away. I like volcanoes. They give humans a healthy dose of humility. The power of a single major eruption, and the wa...
Change is a constant in life, and I have news of a big change in mine. But first, some backstory is in order. In 1990, my lovely new bride and I fled Minnesota to start a life together in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In seeking a new church to attend, we found Christian Life Center, a nondenominational fellowship in Belle Fourche pastored by Rev. Paul Howard. It became our church home and we made many new and wonderful friends there. Two years ago, I received word that Pastor Paul’s h...
We live in a time of incredible hostility. Hatred can be expressed openly without consequences, provided such animosity is directed at the right group or person. The internet and social media have made expressing opinions to a large audience fast and easy. Sadly, many choose to hide in the shadows of anonymity while directing all kinds of filth, threats, lies and profanity at those with whom they disagree. This must stop, and I know a good way to do it. The founders envisioned a nation in which...
A new year is almost upon us. The holiday affords time to reflect on the past year and contemplate what lies ahead. For me, I suspect like most, 2021 had both high and low points. My freelance writing business saw an increase in clients during the year, which was a blessing as I’d lost several that shut down due to Covid in 2020. In addition to Nexgen Outfitters, Benelli, Stoeger, Franchi, Uberti and Kent Cartridges, I added Scent Blocker and the BeAlive ad agency. This helped me supplement m...
The common people were oppressed. An authoritarian central government passed laws and levied taxes without regard for their impact on everyday working folks who were looked down on in disdain. Politicians and appointed officials in positions of power got there largely by bribes, being a member of an influential family, blackmail, or knowing someone higher up who owed them a favor. Corruption was rampant at all levels of government from the local level all the way to the highest office holders...
On Saturday I was alarmed to read about Friday night’s deadly tornado outbreak. While tornadoes can and do take place every month of the year in the U.S., December is not a month we usually associate with large, long-track tornadoes. Yet, as I write this on Saturday afternoon, the death toll continues to climb as rescue and search teams clear away rubble looking for possible survivors. Officials expect a final death toll well in excess of 100 people. December is usually the slowest month for t...
We live in a time when legislative bills containing hundreds of pages are passed by Congress without sufficient time to read or analyze the contents. This results in unpleasant surprises when such bills are finally scrutinized. One such surprise has been found in President Biden’s much-promoted “Infrastructure Bill” and former congressman Bill Barr of Georgia brought it to light in a piece he wrote late last month for The Daily Caller. Buried in the recently passed bill is a mandate that all v...
The recent trial of Kyle Rittenhouse dominated the national news cycle. As usual, the event became highly politicized. I followed the trial closely as I carry a firearm, and was concerned the Rittenhouse verdict might impact Second Amendment rights. In the end, the jury acquitted Rittenhouse of wrongdoing, but that doesn’t mean the young man didn’t do anything wrong. By “wrong” I mean error in judgement. Having been a concealed carrier of firearms most of my adult life, I understand that si...
Last week I wrote about ESG scores and what they mean for business now, and soon could mean for individuals. ESG scores are just the latest mile marker on the road to a utopia planned by collectivist and globalist elites in which they rule the world and we serve as happy minions that are mere cogs in the machinery making the world run. In exchange for passive servitude, a large centralized government will promise security, peace and unparalleled convenience. They envision a world in which...
I had an exchange with my editor in the last week during which he remarked how things I’d written about months ago are only now starting to be covered on the fringes of mainstream media channels. Specifically, I’d written several pieces about The Great Reset. Now that the World Economic Forum’s meeting for this year has wrapped up, they’re not even trying to hide their intentions anymore. It’s all out in the open on the WEF website, and on the site of the International Monetary Fund. One just ha...
Several weeks had passed since President Biden announced he’d be instituting a mandatory vaccine enforcement measure through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The more time that elapsed, the more speculation there was that the president was bluffing. Last week he showed he wasn’t and established rules that require all businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure all their workers are either vaccinated by January 4 or are tested weekly and weari...
Before I dive in to today’s topic, a bit of background is in order. I’ve been involved in weather on a professional level for more than 40 years. Previous jobs include broadcast, online and print meteorology, fire meteorology, forensic meteorology and expert testimony in meteorology. Critics will point out weather is not climate. Yes, but meteorological education in my case included climatology, and weather over time is climate. I am qualified to speak on this topic. Climate change is a rea...
If you’ve not yet heard, there’s a major push to rid the world of internal combustion engines by the year 2030. You read that right, get as many vehicles powered by fossil fuels off the road as possible in about 8 years. That may seem unrealistic, but General Motors announced in January of this year that it will no long make cars powered by gasoline after 2035. Ford announced in February that 100 percent of its passenger vehicles offered in Europe will be all-electric by 2030, and Volvo ann...
