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 890 - 914 of 1718
Sometimes life in the State Legislatures is like searching for gold only to die without anything to show for your efforts. Last week a bill came up in the Legislature that several State Senator believe is a bad bill. The bill was LB88, a bill designed to protect student journalists. Believing that we could muster enough votes to kill the bill, we set out to filibuster the bill. Filibustering a bill on General File requires the opponents of the bill to talk for eight hours, and that is exactly...
For those of you who did not read my first installment on this topic, T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. translates as: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Science fiction author Robert Heinlein used this device quite effectively in a novel titled “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.” I do not know the author’s political party affiliation, but I believe that he would find today’s American government, from top to bottom, to be radically out of whack. Why? As I wrote previously, for more than 50 years there has...
Americans' right to keep and bear arms is under assault. New anti-gun bills were introduced last week that would mandate background checks whenever a gun is sold or given to someone, outlaw so-called "assault weapons" and limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds. As debate over gun control intensifies, I hear many Second Amendment advocates declaring gun ownership to be a God-given right. Is it? I've been a licensed minister since 2009, but have been preaching in churches off and on as a temporary...
Dr. Seuss, at least some of his published work, has been added to the academic hit list. It seems 21st century critics have discovered he was not always a nice guy by today's standards, some of his stories don't fit evolving social morality. His stories weren't balanced in racial representation, among other charges. The critic did admit some of the books were written in the 1920s. The publisher of the books cited racial implications and inuendos that are not comfortable with today's culture. I...
By now many of you have heard about the new sex education standards being proposed to the Nebraska Department of Education. These new standards would teach children as young as five years-old about gender identity and same gender families. These new standards are not the result of any piece of legislation in the Unicameral. Instead, the 60 page draft of proposed changes to the State’s health education curriculum came from a team of so called “education experts,” otherwise known as LGBTQ activist...
I first met Andy Hoffman at a chili cook off in Butte, Nebraska, in October of 2004. I was running for my first term in the Nebraska Legislature. I was walking from group to group, talking with the cooks and tasting their chili, when I came upon a young man in jean overalls. I introduced myself, and we ended up talking for over 30 minutes. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he “grilled” me for over 30 minutes with a smile on his face. He was kind, and he later became a supporter and a d...
Drug Administration (FDA) gets on inspection of our drugs, according to the director of health care at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO recently conducted an extensive study on the safety of our drug supply and discovered that FDA is failing to inspect drug manufacturing facilities overseas. Some facilities have not been inspected for five years or more. Some have never been inspected. “This is fascinatingly scary,” one Nebraskan told me after my questions as Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agr...
Jews around the world will elaborate Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) 2021 starting on the evening of Saturday, March 27th, and ending at sunset on Sunday, April 4th, in the Civil Calendar. In the Hebrew Calendar, Passover every year begins on 15 Nisan and ends on 22 Nisan. Passover celebrates the Jews Exodus from Egypt, when the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob liberated themselves from slavery and became a new and unique nation under God. Jews had lived peaceably and friendly in Egypt for...
In the first scene of William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” a military official named Flavius reveals his disgust with a dashing military and political official named Julius Caesar, by asking, “Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness?” In the second scene, on a crowded street filled with people cheering for Julius Caesar as he passes by, he hears a single voice above the din, and asks, “Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shri...
I can visualize readers shaking their heads and asking, “What in the world is T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L.? It would be great if I could take credit for this attention-compelling device, but it comes from a science fiction story written by Robert Heinlein titled “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.” It pops ups frequently throughout the story and serves to emphasize a very vital message the author presents in this work of fiction. So you won’t have to buy the book to decode the message, here it is in plain l...
A 17th century philosopher named René Descartes struggled to make sense of the mind-body problem. He understood that thoughts originate in the brain, but he observed that mental activity is ephemeral, without physical substance. How can this be? he wondered. Ever since, philosophers have called Descartes’s philosophy “dualism.” They concur that what occurs within the mind exists in a separate reality from what occurs in the physical world. The 16th century writer Michel de Montaigne tried...
I’ve written two books. Non-fiction “Trophy Bucks in Any Weather” on how weather affects animals in 2008 through a major publisher of outdoors-themed books, and my self-published novel “Species Unknown” in 2019 using tools provided by Kindle Direct Publishing (KPP) through Amazon. One of the most common questions I’m asked by people wanting to publish a book is, “Should I self-publish or go the traditional route?” Here’s how I answer. Traditional publishing is great if you can break into it. All...
The Hartzler Family wishes to thank the many friends, organizations, businesses and the entire Sidney community for supporting this project. It never seems to amaze us that in tough times the citizens of Sidney come together to support each other and projects like this one. Special thanks to the following entities, companies and foundations that are helping to make Alan’s vision a reality: Cheyenne County Commissioners, City of Sidney, Thompson-Foundation, and Oregon Trail Community Foundation. Numerous friends, acquaintances and businesses s...
My name is David Bryan. I am an American born citizen, born in 1949 in Baylor County, Texas. I have lived my entire life in America except for a year I spent in Turkey serving my country in the United States Army. I have always been told that America was the home of the brave and the land of the free. That I have as one of its citizens the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have the right and freedom to my choice of religion and the right to worship God as I please. No one h...
The second amendment to the United States Constitution says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” That this right cannot be infringed upon means that no government entity may pass legislation encroaching upon this right, yet that is precisely what so many in the anti-gun lobby want legislators to do. Today there is an all-out assault on our most basic fundamental rights, especially thos...
Last week I talked a little about the odd season, birthdays of my dad and my daughter, and the anniversary of my dad leaving this earth. I do need to clarify that even in the moments of remembering, sadness comes in moments, randomly, not in waves. What also happened recently is hearing of a friend, another father, who was struggling. Somewhere in the words spoken and implied was the quiet question of “am I doing enough?” It is a question that haunts a lot of parents, not just fathers. It is...
As I said last week, I won’t dispute the global temperature has increased slightly in recent years. The climate has always changed and always will be. What is disputed by many atmospheric scientists shut out of the conversation by media is how much of a role human activity plays in global temperature change. In spite of this, we’re told sweeping overhauls of economic, government and social institutions are immediately required to avoid catastrophe. To promote this view, emotions are played upo...
On Feb. 16, business owners and managers, City officials and the curious met at the Elks Lodge to discuss the possibility of a Downtown Business Association. The concept as presented is to promote growth and work together as a business community, supporting each other, sharing resources and experiences. Economic Development Director Melissa Norgard stressed the Downtown Business Association (DBA) is not to compete with or replace the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce. It is to further stimulate the downtown business community. It also needs t...
For whatever reason, this year is keeping some curtains open. Actually I’m in between days. February has become a month of emotions. I have birthdays, Valentines Day when guys are reminded to stay in touch with their emotions, and the day I had to say goodbye to my dad. By this time 15 years ago, he was in a hospital bed with a broken hip, and a list of other issues that made him look tired; the kind of tired I had never seen in him before. It is the kind of tired that stole his last breath t...
Global temperatures are getting warmer. For that reason, a climate crisis has been declared. John Kerry, the Biden administration’s “climate tsar,” says we have only nine years to stop a global catastrophe. He’s a moron. The United Nations last week released a 168-page report titled “Making Peace with Nature” (anthropomorphizing nature is a pagan religion concept) in which the actions necessary to avoid irreversible damage to the planet include requiring governments to alter their tax structures...
If it is true that every cowboy sings a sad, sad song, then in Nebraska they all sing the same sad song about protesting their property valuation. Protesting property values in Nebraska is like turning a lump of coal into a diamond. If you squeeze the same lump of coal in your hand all the days of your life, all you will end up with is a dirty hand, and if you protest your property valuation every year, all you will end up with is a pile of filing fee receipts. Getting a decision on a property...
Here’s a tweet I wrote this week: “I’ve been in meetings with @BillGates. I respect his intellect and desire for social responsibility by the world’s wealthy. On this idea, though, maybe he should come to #Nebraska and learn a little more. #NoFakeMeat.” I was responding to an interview Gates did for the MIT Tech Review in which the Microsoft co-founder opined on climate change: “I do think all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even...
Nebraska is a biofuels powerhouse - the second and third largest producer of ethanol and corn, respectively, in the country. With 25 active ethanol plants and a capacity of more than 2.5 billion gallons, the importance of biofuels to our state economy cannot be understated. Biodiesel production in Nebraska has seen exponential growth as well. Thanks to innovation and technological developments, biodiesel production has grown from 25 million gallons in 2004 to 2.9 billion gallons in 2019. Ethanol...
COVID-19 brought with it many new challenges, including furloughs, unemployment, and hospitals struggling to keep up with surges of new patients. We all hear about those things every day. But you may not have heard about how the pandemic has made it much harder for victims of domestic violence to seek help. When you’re stuck in the same house as your abusive partner for months on end, technology can be your only lifeline to the outside world. Yet many of these victims share a cell phone plan w...
The second impeachment hearing of now former-President Trump is about a week old by now. I was immediately struck by a saying I heard many years ago from an attorney. It is so obvious most people don’t see it. “If you can’t pound the law, pound the table.” The message is clear, and being played out... with a difference. In Donald Trump’s five years in the political arena, counting the campaign leading to his election, he has been labeled or otherwise implied guilty on more issues than anyone in...
