Opinion

This week, we met with Ruby Collins, an entomologist based at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension office in Red Willow County for our monthly “Coffee Talk.” She is a remarkable professional, and we are fortunate to have an expert of her caliber working locally and accessible to the community...

We recently received a note from the communications director for one of Nebraska’s federal representatives asking that any press covering an upcoming in-state event keep the location and time private. The message explained that the gathering was intended for local leaders and media only, adding that recent events elsewhere had experienced disruptions...

This past weekend, I hopped the train to Colorado in search of snow. Somehow, we have made it to the end of January with no significant snowfall in McCook or Southwest Nebraska. While we received snow while we were gone - almost enough to warrant getting out a shovel - it wasn’t enough to cross-country ski on, the reason for the trip...

Stop the presses. Hunter S. Thompson is still dead. That was the unmistakable takeaway from a news release that crossed my desk this weekend from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The release announced—again—that Thompson died in 2005 by his own hand. ...

I’ve recently read a report on the population “out migration” from states of the U.S. New York leads the pack, but California, as expected, isn’t far behind. I was surprised to see that our own state of Nebraska was included in the top ten. Yes, I have also noticed that McCook and Red Willow County have been slowly shrinking in population numbers over the years. Memory tells me that the population of Red Willow County was 12,615 back when I was County Commissioner; Nebraska was 1.8 million...

Attorneys deal with laws for a living. Bureaucrats work with regulations. Restaurateurs contend with heat, spice and the irregularity of natural ingredients. I work with words and, occasionally, punctuation. One of the small but persistent details I run into daily is the long-running battle over the so-called serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma or the Harvard comma. ...

The whistling starts faintly, no particular tune but just the joyful sound that comes from strolling down an empty hallway. Then the whistling grew louder, the closer it got to my office door. The whistle only came to a stop as Cal Siegfried poked his head into my office at the end of the hallway in the Keystone...

As political tensions intensify across the country, the divide between Americans feels deeper than ever. Impassioned arguments fill our newsfeeds, and it often seems like half the country has “lost their minds.” People want to stay informed, but many no longer know which sources to trust — or whether any can be trusted at all...

As we look toward Martin Luther King Jr. Day next week, it is worth remembering how uneasy the holiday’s creation was. Although the observance was signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1983, the adoption was not immediate. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was not fully recognized by all 50 states until 2000, when South Carolina became the last to do so...

I am hoping that by the time you read this, there will have been some form of multinational intervention in Iran—not necessarily bombs or invasions, but the unmistakable presence of outside powers saying, with one voice, that what is happening inside that country cannot be ignored...

“What does it cost?” – This simple, direct question is one many of us ask frequently, whether shopping at the grocery store or asking questions of our local or state government when projects are proposed. Yes, it seems like a straightforward question but there is a lot more to “cost” than the initial price...

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Never heard of it. The only reason that caught my attention is that it is only a short distance east of where our daughter and family live on the southeast edge of Tulsa. It seems that a group of Muslim believers have petitioned the City of Tulsa to build a Mosque on ten acres of land that they already own...

Dear Editor, Israeli billionaire tech entrepreneur and Cato Networks co-founder Shlomo Kramer argued on last Monday’s episode of CNBC’s Money Movers that, in the age of AI, the U.S. government must limit freedom of speech and take control of social media. Founded in 2015, Cato Networks provides all-in-one cloud-native network security, Software-Defined Wide Area Networks, and Zero Trust Network Access...

I know I am out of my depth on this topic, but I remain fascinated by the ongoing discussion of Greenland. Like a bad traffic accident, it is hard to look away. Unlike Sen. Thom Tillis (R–NC), who takes Trump’s bluster literally, the talk about purchasing Greenland always struck me as being funny. It still does, yet the story stubbornly refuses to go away...

Who remembers sitting in their classroom at school, staring at the clock on the wall, as the seconds slowly ticked away? It seemed like the day would never end. The last day of the school year seemed so far away. And graduation? That was a far-off dream that couldn’t get here quick enough...

As events unfold in Venezuela, I am reminded of a recent Pew study that offered a glimpse into how Americans—particularly younger ones—view engagement in world affairs. Overall, 53 percent of Americans say it is extremely or very important for the United States to take an active role internationally. ...

About all morning, your old columnist, with a military background, had been watching accounts of our special forces foray into Venezuela to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro and his equally terrible wife. President Trump offered Maduro a way out, but oh no, he insisted on going the hard way. The President and his staff explained the flawless event at a news conference a little before noon...