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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My friendship with Jackie Cassara began over lunch in 1992, after she announced that she was gay as if it were a warning. We had spoken over the phone a few times for a story about one of her colleagues. Jackie and I were both working mothers with young children. Our conversations were lively and fun and constantly veering off topic. After my story ran, we agreed to meet in person. What I didn’t know at the time was that Jackie had only recently started coming out to friends and families. Reactions had been mixed, sometimes painful, and she d...
On March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush ordered General Tommy Franks to invade Iraq. That day jets rained down bombs on military targets in Baghdad, and the next day the land troops marched into Iraq. Last week marked the invasion’s 10-year anniversary. In the war’s run-up, Bush had sought and received Congress’s vote of support, but, according to Kofi Annan, the U.S. president had “bypassed the UN Security Council and violated the United Nations founding charter.” The world’s nations opp...
This week, I am pleased to announce the grand opening of the new Nebraska Center China, located in the heart of the business district in Shanghai. The opening of Nebraska’s first trade office in China is exciting for many reasons. With soaring export growth and ever increasing opportunities for foreign direct investment, we are working to create new trade opportunities that benefit Nebraska. China is Nebraska’s fastest growing export market, and already Nebraska’s fourth largest export market. We want to enhance Nebraska’s opportu...
It didn’t take me long to realize that Sidney is a city of cliques. I’m not saying that as a bad thing by any means, but the younger crowd surely has divided themselves into groups of friends. Sometimes these groups cross into one another, but for the most part they disassociate. I tend to think the older crowd accepts everyone, as in most places, but you can also tell who likes someone and who doesn’t. I guess I was sort of a loner in the works, but unlike most, I was blessed to find a group of friends who were locals right off the bat. But f... Full story
The budget process is one of the most basic functions of government - to set priorities of how to best use tax dollars. Every year, Congress and the President are required by law to agree to a 10-year budget resolution to manage our nation’s long-term finances. However, for too long we have not used the budget process to improve the fiscal condition of our country. In recent years, the federal government has spent too much, borrowed too much, and promised too much. Trillion dollar deficits have pushed our national debt to nearly $17 t...
Four years. That’s how long it took Senate Democrats to pass a budget resolution. It’s also the amount of time it takes to get a degree in finance, economics or accounting. But after looking at their final product, it appears the Democrats didn’t use this time doing any of that. Their budget, which narrowly passed in the Senate late last week, turns a cold shoulder to the realities our country faces. Americans today are coping with higher taxes, fewer jobs, a fragile economy and important government programs on the brink of bankruptcy. So how d...
I mentioned in my first column for the Sun-Telegraph that I would relay the events that led up to my first trip to Nebraska a few years ago. This is from a “note” that I wrote on my Facebook page a year and a half ago. Due to the length of the story, this will be a two-part series. Well, here goes part one: September 10, 2001. I had resigned from my radio station job days earlier, and this was the eve of my last day at the Domino’s on Old Hammond Hwy in Baton Rouge. I went to Papa John’s to visit with my former Domino’s manager and a former co... Full story
In a recent senatorial dustup, Sen. John McCain called Republican colleague Rand Paul one of “the wacko birds” of Congress. McCain (who sometimes appears not too tightly wrapped himself) was giving Sen. Paul a tongue-lashing for having mounted a 13-hour, old-fashioned, stand-alone filibuster over the possibility that murderous drones could be used for targeted assassinations of Americans right here at home. McCain said that the Kentucky senator’s talk-a-thon had veered into the “realm of the ridiculous,” adding, “I don’t think (it) is helpf...
Two guys are at a conference, looking bored. On stage, there’s been talk about “dongles,” which, if you aren’t aware, are devices you plug in to laptops to get connectivity. Bigger ones are supposedly more powerful. Can you guess the joke? (Hint: about whether size matters.) Actually, I thought it was kinda funny. The women sitting in front of them didn’t. These guys weren’t on the stage. No one was making her listen to them. She could’ve turned and told them to shut up. She could’ve changed seats. She could’ve had her own conversation abou...
I have said one of the first methods in fighting depression is getting to truly know yourself, and that is undeniable truth. But what I can’t tell anyone is how to do that, because everyone is different and everyone may have a different way of understanding and accepting who they are – who they really are. For me it was many, many tests. As silly as it sounds I took as many tests as I could find that were considered reliable personality tests. I am not saying those tests offered by Facebook, but credible psychological tests that help peo...
There is something about helping others that I find addicting. Though I am sure there has to be some kind of way that someone could solely support themselves and their family by helping other people everyday, I have not found that career path yet. It’s extremely hard for me to see someone in need and not do something to help them - whether it be emotional, physical or monetary pain they are going through. They say one person can change the world, and looking at past powerful figures, good and bad, this appears to be true time and time again. B... Full story
During the week of March 17-23 people all over the nation will celebrate National Agriculture Week. I would like to remind all Nebraskans of this important week and encourage our citizens to take a moment to reflect on the importance of the agricultural industry in our state. Farming, ranching and related agribusiness activities are responsible for approximately a quarter of our state’s economic activity. Ninety-three percent of our state’s land is used for agricultural production, and Nebraska is one of the top states in the nation for interna...
Nebraska farmers are among the most efficient and productive in the world. Our producers have embraced new technologies and techniques to produce an abundance of crops, opening the door to increased trade and helping to feed the world. These advances have not only helped American agriculture thrive, but also play a critical role in meeting global food demands of the present and future. By 2050, the Earth’s population is expected to swell to more than nine billion people. To feed this growing population scientists believe we will need to produce...
The Republican National Committee is out with a 100-page analysis of how the party can revive its sagging fortunes. Doubtless many of the recommendations are good ones — more outreach to minority and women voters, better candidate recruitment, fewer debates during the primaries, openness to immigration reform, competing with Democrats in absentee and early voting and much more. Some of these things may help, or at least, as my grandmother would have said about chicken soup for a cold, they can’t hurt. Others sound a little desperate, such as...
In my haste to pack and get ready to move last month, I forgot to pause and reflect upon an anniversary that forever changed the way that I feel when I attend indoor events and concerts. On Feb. 20, 2003, I was living in Buzzards Bay, Mass. On this day, the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in United States history where 100 people died happened in West Warwick, R. I. only 60 miles from where I lived. For those of you who are not familiar with this, the band Great White was playing that night at The Station, a small concert hall/club/bar with no... Full story
Getting in to see your doctor on short notice can be a headache. But imagine being required to schedule an appointment before you can use your own money to buy Aspirin for a headache. Unfortunately, because of the new health care law, this is a reality for 33 million Americans who choose to budget for their health care expenses with a flexible spending account (FSA) or a health savings account (HSA). Families with these accounts are now prohibited from using their own money, set aside specifically to cover health-related expenses, to purchase...
The other day, I was out driving with my wife and daughters and the subject of British royalty came up. In my head, I teed up a funny anecdote about how, when I was 16, I literally bumped into the Queen of England. Long story, but she was a middle-aged monarch visiting the States, I was a brash teenager who didn’t respect barricades, and ... kismet. A long but good story. I turned to my wife and daughters and said, “ Did I ever tell you about the time ... “ Dead stares. My daughter rolled her eyes. “Are you going to tell us how you met the que... Full story
As I stated in last week’s column, I have gone a period of time in which I found what it was to tap into the happiness we can only find within ourselves, true happiness, before my Mom became terminally ill. The combination between the people who entered my life and after years of running from it I armed myself with education about depression and the manic phases that follow. Yes, I had been told before it is important to know what each is and it is important to understand who I was so I could see the signs when either approached, but I was a...
Michael Vick was all set to do a book tour to promote himself as a new and improved role model when things got ugly. “Despite warnings of planned protests, Vick had hoped to continue with the appearances as planned, bringing his story of redemption and second chance to major markets,” his publisher, aptly named Worthy Publishing, said in a statement. “However, once the reported protests escalated into threats of violence against the retailers, Worthy Publishing, Vick and his family decided to cancel the events.” In case you’ve managed to miss t...
“It’s a sign,” exclaims a February Associated Press story — a sign that our economy is “healing.” “It signals that things are getting back to normal,” added a delighted market analyst. And a March 4 New York Times report heralded it as “a golden age.” The “it” they’re hailing is the Dow, that mystical force believed by faithful Dowists to be “The Way” — the provider of good fortune, often bestowing its magical beneficence by magical means. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the holy measure of corporate stock prices, and it is now smiling w...
When I look at my life now I am content with where I am at and content with where I have been. But one thing has been missing for a while is my random, always interesting impromptu adventures. This past weekend I jumped into my “mom-mobile,” as my friends in high school called it, and hit the road. I was just getting over the flu but my friends gave me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. In college I was known for hopping in the car and driving down to my relatives’ homes in California (an approximate 12-hour drive) or meeting up with some fr... Full story
Today is March 13, L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, a day that Church of Scientology members on every continent observe. Born in 1911, Hubbard’s biography is an incredible story of erratic behavior, pathological lying, adultery, and estrangement from previous wives and children. You can read about Hubbard’s trail of deceit in a new book by Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief. Hubbard was a prolific writer who wrote hundreds of books, mainly pulp fiction, adven...
Each morning, while the rest of the world is still fast asleep, ag producers across Nebraska are up, checking on their herds or preparing their equipment for a long day in the fields. Careers in farming or ranching offer few days off. Cattle still need to be fed on Christmas morning. Crops, ripe for harvest, don’t care about your vacation plans. A break from the fields on a rainy day is an opportunity to get caught up on equipment maintenance. And animals don’t need veterinarians only between 9 and 5. For 365 days a year, farmers toil with the...
If there’s one sure way to capture the attention of the usual suspects in the press, it’s to highlight the problems of women with high-powered careers, as billionaire Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has done. In her Ted talk three years ago and now in a book that has received lavish attention, Sandberg laments that women “are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world. The numbers tell the story ... 190 heads of state — nine are women. Of all the people in parliaments in the world, 13 percent are women. In the corpora...
Many Americans, including myself, are often frustrated by the inability of Congress to get important legislation passed. Congress was unable to agree to a new long-term Farm Bill last year. The Senate has not passed a budget in nearly four years. And it seems like Congress and the President are locked in constant showdowns to avoid the latest ceiling, cliff, or shutdown. Some would point to divided government as the cause of the current dysfunction. However, divided government does not have to result in gridlock. During the 1980’s, President R...
