Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1253 - 1277 of 1718
Dear Editor, With the beginning of spring, many residents will begin home repair projects. With this in mind residents should be aware that several projects require permits from their city’s Building Department. The projects range fences, new furnaces, air conditioning units, water heaters, decks, patio doors, garages, sheds, etc. All new construction projects also require permits. Home owners and business owners must make sure those doing the work are licensed for installation projects and properly insured for construction projects, as r...
Abraham Lincoln recited the President’s oath of office on the Capitol’s steps at his second inauguration on Saturday, March 4, 1865. After four years of a ghastly series of bloody battles, the deaths of 620,000 men, and the dismemberment of thousands of others, the Civil War was winding down. Lincoln hoped that the Confederate States would surrender in the coming weeks. By that day, Grant’s army had encircled Lee’s army, the Confederacy’s resources were limited, and its soldiers’ willpower t...
Dear Editor: Well the polls are out and it’s ugly – only 31 percent of the country thinks we are headed in the right direction. Could it be that “headed in the wrong direction” was a by-product of this: local school textbooks teaching pages and pages of Darwinian evolution without one single word to question it, while at the same promoting animosity toward the views of our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence who said we are “created by our creator with certain unalienable rights?” The unfortunate position of too many in our...
Dear Editor: Following the expression of opinions regarding Sen. Chamber’s choice of “image” in talking about the police in Omaha, might it be useful to move the discussion forward by considering some related issues such as the following? Is there some degree of agreement on the following assumptions? One, life in Nebraska is very nice, but it is not 100 percent perfect, and two, “Post-Ferguson,” it seems likely that people of color may feel quite differently about the quality of their daily lives, compared to how white people feel. Are these...
Dear Editor: Adrian Smith is just another establishment Republican. Nebraska’s 3rd District is just about the most conservative congressional district in the United States. Yet with a Heritage Scorecard of voting conservative just 60 percent of the time Smith ranks toward the middle to lower end of Republican congressmen. Even John McCain on the Senate side votes more conservative. Recent votes bear out this out. In December, Smith voted with Nancy Pelosi for the Omnibus spending bill that fully funded all of Obama’s agenda (except illegal amn...
In France, a fight has broken out between university professors and students who wear Muslim headscarves or veils into class. Some professors insist that before they will begin a lecture, students must remove their scarf or veil. French law already bans public school students from wearing headscarves, veils, yarmulkes or crucifixes, but that law does not extend to university students. Isabelle de Mecquenem, a philosophy professor said, “The university invented secularism,” and then during the...
Dear Editor, The reigning headliners in the current administration remind me of a variation of an adage: “There is no honor among liars.” With all of the scandalous activities provoked by the former head of the Department of State, the Attorney General’s racial bias and our current President, who spends huge sums of money to hide his past and seeks to make a stupid agreement with the Iranians who have never lived up to the provisions of a treaty in the past, we wonder if there are any in the inner circle who know how to tell the truth. Our ...
In 1907, the author O. Henry wrote a short story he entitled “The Ransom of Red Chief.” In it, two crooks named Bill and Sam kidnap a red-headed boy in an Alabama town thinking that they will demand a ransom, but unaware that the boy is ornery. He throws rocks at them, claims he is an Indian chief and that they are his horses and forces them to play by his rules. He terrorizes them. Bill and Sam write a ransom note to the boy’s father, Ebenezer Dorset, but he knows his son too well, and so he re...
To learn a second language is difficult, if not impossible. At an early age, a child learns to think in his or her first language, and so his or her brain is set, hardwired for that first language. After that, an adolescent or an adult cannot stop thinking in that first language and begin thinking in a second or third. Thus, most people fail to learn a second language, despite loads of willpower and intense study. One guy said, after years of living in the Orient, “I am just not that good at l...
Dear Editor: Do Native Americans have a lock on the definition of “half breed?” A member of the Nebraska Board of Education used this term to describe our President and has received flak for doing so from many sides, including our Governor. The truth of the matter is the President is half white since his mother was Caucasian. The other half is mostly Arab and he is referred to an African mostly because of the color of his skin. It seems to me that it is the board member’s prerogative to refer to him as a half breed and it should not raise...
Today, we honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. In the summer of 1855, George Harding hired Lincoln to assist him in a patent infringement case because Harding needed an attorney knowledgeable of Illinois law. At the last moment, the trial was moved from Chicago to Cincinnati, and so Lincoln’s services weren’t needed. Instead of withdrawing from the case though, Lincoln headed to Cincinnati to offer his help. In the meantime, Harding hired Edwin Stanton, a polished lawyer from Ohio. In Cincinnati, H...
Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots on just one question. But it’s a big decision that’ll impact the Sidney community for decades to come. The time is now to vote “yes” for the bond that’ll create the funds for a new elementary school to house students in kindergarten through 4th grade. The need to provide a school with the space, technology and amenities for our youngsters to receive a 21st Century education is too overwhelming to ignore. The new school – to be situated on donated land on the east side of town – w...
Dear Editor, I just wanted to write and thank the Sun-Telegraph and terrific sponsors for challenging us with those 18 weeks of college and pro football picks this past season. The contest was a lot of fun. It was challenging. It required clairvoyance, intuition and some luck. I looked forward to the contest each week. Thank you for that! Stan Fox Sidney...
Dear Editor, The truth is that cannabis is a plant that won’t go away: it grows in nearly every climatic zone on the planet, without even needing to be tended. Its eradication is fundamentally impossible; prohibition has proved futile. And it is also an undeniable truth that cannabis can make you feel good. The cannabinoids contained in the plant can cure or ameliorate pain and suffering in numerous ways. Cannabis has been used by humankind as medicine for millenia. So I hail the introduction of LB643 for consideration by Nebraska’s Uni...
Historians rank Frederick Jackson Turner as one of the most noted of all American historians. In 1893, in Chicago at the American Historical Association, he delivered a paper he entitled The Significance of the Frontier in American History, and in it, he argued that the frontier shaped the American character. Turner insisted that on the frontier pioneers dropped their European characteristics and values, and picked up a respect for democracy, an intolerance of social hierarchy, a distrust of...
Dear Editor, Becoming a parent is one of the most difficult roles an adult will face. Our walk through parenthood comes with no manual, no chat line for help, no “app” on our phone. We set out at the task blindly with the goal of raising healthy, happy, responsible, successful and educated kids. We have a dream of a better life for each of them. We envision making a difference in their world, so that in time they can make a difference in their own world. We desire facilitating change for positive outcomes, and strive to offer them the best too...
Dear Editor, That was an excellent story written by Will Castner about the history of the Sidney elementary schools (Jan. 20 edition). Having attended the Sidney schools from 1940 to 1953, I would like to add to Will’s story (Will’s grandfather Lloyd Castner was a classmate of mine). None of the schools I attended are in Sidney anymore, the high school being torn down when the new one was built several years ago. We lived on the southwest corner of 12th Avenue and Linden Street when I started school. Across the street north, where the fire dep...
Dear Editor, Every New Year brings about ambitious goals, a feeling of accomplishment from the previous year and a general sense of excitement about the possibilities that lie ahead. The year 2015 is no exception. Our community is faced with an important decision on Feb. 10 about whether or not we are going to move forward with a new elementary school bond issuance. My work experience at Cabela’s and now Adams Industries has taught me to realize that if I want to be a part of positive change in my community, all I have to do is get involved a...
Dear Editor, Early on Christmas morning and 20 miles west of Sidney, my car blew a fuel pump and quit running. Sidney people came to our aid in spite of the holiday and stormy weather. Thank you to several people at the rest area – Dave from Almost Free Towing, Lee and Tom at Sauders Automotive, the staff at Perkins, two policemen and Wayne and Carrie at Sleep for Less motel. This thoughtfulness and extra effort over 48 hours left my daughter and I thankful for these kind and generous people in Sidney. Teri Hlava Lincoln, Ne...
Vivek Ranadivé coached his daughter’s National Junior Basketball team at Redwood City, south of San Francisco, in Silicon Valley. Because Vivek had grown up in Mumbai, where he had played cricket and soccer, Vivek knew very little about basketball. His daughter’s team was composed of twelve-year-old girls, who were short, white, and displayed no talent. They could barely shoot, dribble, or jump, and yet they won most of their games, losing only in the championship game. How? Malcolm Glad...
Dear Editor, We are starting a new year and our council will be working on the new water park. I would like to remind council that back in November 2012, the voters voted for a ½-cent sales tax to help pay for our deteriorating streets, a new swimming pool and to upgrade the golf course. The golf course has already spent their share of the tax money plus. Now, council wants to build a water park. One of the reasons they said we need a new pool was the current pool was too small and it leaked. And, we needed a bigger pool so they could have...
Dear Editor, I read the “Letter to the Editor” the other day (Jan. 6 edition) about looking back on 2014. It brought some thoughts to “my” mind! If the jury had found Nancy Gipfert “not guilty” of inflicting the damage on the boy, then the question still stands: “Who did it?” Mike Hebert Sidney...
Dear Editor, It seems with all the other positive notable news that was 2014, you would not have had to plaster Nancy Gipfert’s story again on the front page. Many of us believe Nancy was unjustly accused and unfairly treated. If your comeback is that news is news – what about the murders, drug busts, etc.? Why not use one of their pictures instead of drawing attention to a very controversial misdemeanor case? Or, here is a novel idea, print the positive happenings! Pam Wieser Sidney...
The time has come for me to bid you all adieu. I'm leaving Sidney to take a job in Bristol, Conn., with ESPN as a program assistant with the radio department. Before a couple of weeks ago, I had full intentions on staying in Sidney for a year or two. But then I received a call from an 860 area code. For as long as I can remember, I've loved sports and loved watching ESPN. My mom was very protective of her son. The scope of mediated text I could consume was very very narrow. I couldn't listen to...
The two Communist holdouts from the Cold War dominate the news again: Cuba on one page, and North Korea on the other. First, President Barak Obama wants to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after five and a half decades of Communist rule. Then, the FBI has traced “one of the most punishing cyber-attacks on a major American corporation in recent memory” back to the Guardians of Peace, all because of a new movie that mocks Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s dictator. Both Cuba and North Korea...
