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  • No, we aren't Rome

    Rich Lowry, American Writer and Columnist|Sep 14, 2023

    An op-ed in The New York Times warns, as the headline puts it, that “America is an empire in decline,” and finds a precedent in imperial Rome. The piece, written by the co-author of a new book, “Why Empires Fall: Rome, America, and the Future of the West,” shows that the cottage industry in comparisons between the United States and Rome is as robust as ever. It is an irresistible temptation to superimpose the history of Rome and especially its decline and fall -- an enduring subject of fascinati...

  • Motza, Israel

    Bill Benson, Columnist|Sep 14, 2023

    The main highway running east to west across Israel's width is Highway One. It connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to the Jordan River Valley, near Jericho. In 2012, highway contractors working five kilometers west of Jerusalem near the town of Motza uncovered a Neolithic town, home to perhaps 3,000 people at one time. A new thing, an interstate highway, led to a discovery of an old thing, a town. Tel Motza is now the largest Neolithic site in Israel. Archaeologists define a Tel as "a mound or small...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: The Sports and Spaces Act

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Sep 7, 2023

    Last week Riley Gaines came to Nebraska. Who is Riley Gaines? Riley Gaines is one of America's most decorated female swimmers. Swimming for the University of Kentucky, she became a 12-time All-American as well as the SEC Female Scholar-Athlete of 2022. However, she has begun speaking around the country in support of women's sports and against transgender athletes competing in women's sports. At the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving national championships Riley Gaines found herself having to compete...

  • Trump creates a spin-off

    Rich Lowry, American Writer and Columnist|Sep 7, 2023

    Just how dominant is Donald Trump in the Republican Party? He's so far ahead in the polls that he felt comfortable skipping the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee, while on the actual debate stage, his epigone, Vivek Ramaswamy, soaked up an outsized portion of the attention. The 38-year-old billionaire biotech entrepreneur shows that the Trump brand is so strong that it can create successful subsidiaries, the Trump storyline so compelling that subplots can be spun off into their own prog...

  • Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 36

    Ivy Joy Johnson, The Joy Mission|Sep 7, 2023

    "One generation shall praise Your works to another, and declare Your mighty acts." Psalm 145:4 Ah, September! School, again. Football, again. New friends, again. We never outgrow it. Nostalgia takes us back to marching band and drills to do at half-time. It is noted in the newspaper's 'Old Time' events; scrapbooks are filled with pictures of people, in strange clothing, posing eyes squinting with forced smiles. But look! These are our parents and grandparents!! Every 80ish years society goes...

  • I love Latin!

    Mike Sunderland, Columnist|Sep 7, 2023

    Once in a while us males have to show off our intelligence, just to prove that the main stream media is not as accurate (aka smart) as they would have us believe. So, here goes my attempt... I attended Monroe High School in Fairbanks Alaska. It was, and still is run by the local Catholic Church. I graduated from the school way back in... well never mind! One of the courses we were required to take was 2 years of classic Latin (the language, not the style of music). Sister Lewis was my Latin...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: The Heartbeat Omnibus Bill

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Aug 31, 2023

    Last week the South Carolina State Supreme Court upheld that state's new law banning abortions after the sixth week of gestation. Bill's which ban abortions after the sixth week are known as heartbeat bills because that is when a baby's heartbeat is normally first detected. Writing for the majority, Justice John Kittredge said that while the new law infringes on a woman's right of privacy and bodily autonomy, the South Carolina Legislature had reasonably determined this time that "interest of...

  • The GOP race is not quite as over as it looks

    Rich Lowry, American Writer and Columnist|Aug 31, 2023

    If it "got late early" in the old majestic Yankee Stadium with its long shadows, as the famous Yogi Berra quote had it, it's gotten late before about the fourth inning in the Republican presidential race. In 2016, Donald Trump loved to pump out the results of unreliable online polls that showed him trouncing his competitors by ridiculous margins. Now, he doesn't need to bother with the shoddy polls; he can do the same thing with blue-chip media polls. The new national CBS poll has him leading se...

  • Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 35

    Ivy Joy Johnson, The Joy Mission|Aug 31, 2023

    "Come unto Me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Rest is not laziness or quitting. It is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason with the right people. Jesus is speaking of a sin/inequity burden Adam created by giving his dominion over to Satan, the father of lies, deception, depression, greed and avarice. Evil calling evil good. Isaiah 5:20 Pilgrims and Puritans sought these shores because of severe persecution under British kings....

  • Books and Censorship

    Bill Benson, Columnist|Aug 31, 2023

    The list of banned, censored, and challenged books is long and illustrious. Decameron (1353) by Giovanni Boccaccio, and Canterbury Tales (1476) by Geoffrey Chaucer were banned from U. S. mail because of the Federal Anti-Obscenity Law of 1873, known as the Comstock Law. That law "banned the sending or receiving of works containing 'obscene, 'filthy,' or 'inappropriate' material. William Pynchon, a prominent New England landowner and founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, wrote a startling...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: LB-589

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Aug 24, 2023

    Whenever it comes to delivering on property tax relief for the good, hardworking citizens of Nebraska, governmental entities with tax asking authority always seem to find ways to shut it down, and that is exactly what is happening in Nebraska again this year. Today I would like to inform you about how the Nebraska Department of Education is undermining the Legislature's efforts to provide property owners with some much-needed property tax relief this year. Earlier his year Sen. Tom Briese of...

  • Supporting Our Seniors

    Pete Ricketts, U.S. Senator, Nebraska|Aug 24, 2023

    Our seniors face ever-growing challenges. Rising costs, attacks on their retirement savings, fraud, and identity theft threaten what they spent a lifetime building. Many of the facilities that care for this vulnerable population are struggling to stay afloat due to burdensome regulations and other factors, threatening the availability of care in rural areas across the country. This week, I held an Aging roundtable conversation with Nebraskans in senior care to discuss solutions to many of these...

  • Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 32

    Ivy Joy Johnson, The Joy Mission|Aug 24, 2023

    "While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest..." Genesis 8:22. God has a Plan. Sowing and reaping is constant, going on at all times. Even unbelievers will tap into this prosperity. God enhances vision, effort (measure of faith) and wisdom. Human Effort plus Resources plus Holy Spirit Anointing equals Miracles! Dough enhancer is added to bread dough, a certain measure for every measure of flour. Gluten is softened so bread rises higher and bakes up softer and lighter. Smart chefs use it....

  • SUPPORT YOUR FREE PRESS

    Joshua Wood, Stevenson Newspapers|Aug 24, 2023

    Police raiding a newspaper and confiscating reporting material seems like something one would expect to find in a banana-republic, or in a scene from a dystopian novel. Yet, that is exactly what happened recently to the Marion County Record. The Record is a weekly newspaper in rural Kansas, serving a population of approximately 1,900 and known for its dogged reporting on various issues affecting the community. On August 11, the newspaper office was raided by the Marion Police Department as was the home of its 98-year-old co-owner, Joan Meyer,...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: ES & S Machines

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Aug 17, 2023

    Are Nebraska's elections fair, accurate, and transparent? To answer this question, concerned citizens must consider how Nebraska counts its ballots in statewide elections. Nebraska uses ES&S vote counting machines to count its ballots during statewide elections. ES&S stands for a company called Elections Systems & Software. Understanding how these ES&S vote counting machines work is critical for answering these crucial questions about the integrity of our elections. The use and accuracy of vote...

  • Some Gave All

    Mike Sunderland, Columnist|Aug 17, 2023

    Ordinarily country and western style music doesn't trip my trigger, but in 1992 Billy Ray Cyrus released the song "Some Gave All" that really struck a chord deep down in my soul. As a Navy veteran of the late 1960's and early '70's many of my high school classmates and young men in my neighborhood were drafted and served in our nation's military in Vietnam. A little over half of them did not return alive, and several of the survivors recovered from their injuries in stateside hospitals. Some hav...

  • A Summer's Day

    Bill Benson, Columnist|Aug 17, 2023

    Popular song writers will, on occasion, dub into their lyrics references to summer. In 1970, Mungo Jerry sang, "In the summertime, when the weather is high, you can stretch right up and touch the sky." In 1972, Bobby Vinton sang, "Yes, it's going to be a long, lonely summer." In 1973, Terry Jacks sang about enjoying his "Seasons in the Sun." In 1977, in the film Grease, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John sang a back-and- forth duet about their "summer days drifting away, to summer nights."...

  • LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

    Aug 17, 2023

    Editor’s Note: We appreciate and encourage all Letters to the Editor. It is especially encouraging to receive them from readers outside of our community as it is representative of the faith that people still hold for community print media as a means for the sharing of information. To Whom it May Concern, Many Nebraskans, especially those in rural communities like mine, have been misinformed by those circulating the petition to repeal the Opportunity Scholarships Act. The information being given out by both paid and volunteer canvassers is f...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: Nebraska Needs Coal

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Aug 10, 2023

    Last week Nebraska State Senators learned that the Federal Bureau of Land Management will soon begin enacting the Buffalo Resource Management Plan in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. This means that a moratorium is being placed on the mining of coal in that region because the lands are federally owned. In their attempt to go green, the Biden Administration is refusing to renew lease agreements in the Powder River Basin, which supplies roughly 40 percent of the nation's demand for coal. This...

  • Let's Make This Right

    Barbara Perez, Sidney Sun-Telegraph|Aug 10, 2023

    Last Friday, just before we closed for the weekend, a handsome, shy young man came into the Sun-Telegraph office carrying a box that he quietly informed me was a gift. Turns out that it was a sampler box from a local business, Savor & Grace, and it was filled with all kinds of charcuterie delights. I was appreciative of the gift, delighted by the contents (seriously, it was SO delicious!) and inspired by the sheer warmth and neighborliness of the gesture. I lived in NYC for a number of years,...

  • Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 32

    Ivy Joy Johnson, The Joy Mission|Aug 10, 2023

    "The earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. When grain is ripe, the farmer puts in his sickle. Harvest has come." Mark 4:28, 29. All seed is time sensitive. Harvest starts as seed comes out of the barn and is placed into good, fertile soil. "As a rancher/farmer, my most important crop is my children!" North Park (Walden) Colorado has 3 seasons: Before Hayin', Durin' Hayin' and After Hayin'. Surrounded by the Continental Divide on three sides,...

  • Paid to Commit Suicide

    Mike Sunderland, Columnist|Aug 10, 2023

    Some are addicted to alcohol. Some are addicted to various narcotics, others to various perversions. Our nation and world has increasingly become addicted to these and more to the extent that we have all but passed the national fatality level. Most of us are aware of the various drug addictions that plague our fellow Americans. Even in Sidney, Nebraska there are both young and old who are addicted to the junk that is pouring over our so called sovereign borders. The alarms have been sounding...

  • Letter to the Editor

    Aug 10, 2023

    As a member of this town for 37 plus years, I have seen lots of businesses come and go within the city limits. Of which I can’t recall any of the names of them now, but being that as it may, it should not dampen that spirit of said reality of keep on keeping on. The buildings or stores are still there but alas, no longer do they hold the same feelings as years gone by. My story involves another part of the current population. This you will not like one bit. I am a decorated Navy Vietnam veteran. I willingly gave 24 years of my life to sacrifice...

  • Straight Talk From Steve: Shop Class

    Steve Erdman, 47th District|Aug 3, 2023

    High School shop classes are beginning to make a comeback. For those of us over the age of 50 shop classes were considered a high school staple, but many high schools have since retired these classes and switched to technology classes. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, this trend of students taking fewer credits in shop classes started in the 1990s. The result of students taking fewer shop classes over the years is that demand has now gone up for people working in trade...

  • Mutually assured re-nomination

    Rich Lowry, American Writer and Columnist|Aug 3, 2023

    There's being fortunate in your enemies, and then there's having enemies who are helping you take the first step in your political comeback. Donald Trump and his adversaries want profoundly different things in the long run -- Trump wants to be back in the White House; Democrats want him in an orange jumpsuit. Yet, in the shorter term, they both are seeking the same thing -- Trump as the Republican nominee, either so he can sweep to victory (Trump's view) or be beaten again and held to account...

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