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We owe our veterans, who have sacrificed for their country, our careful consideration of legislation that would affect them so much. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act is no exception. Yet the Veterans Administration continues to have serious concerns. This could impact veterans across the board. We need to carefully increase benefits. As Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee tasked with oversight and enforcing rules on government spending, I have to be concerned that the bill would cost far more than originally estimated. More than...
The other day came a lengthy report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announcing worrisome findings for anyone with a Medicare Advantage plan and anyone thinking about buying one in the future. The findings are also relevant to anyone buying any kind of health insurance this year. The ominous takeaway? The information given to consumers in the provider directories is deeply flawed, often misleading, inaccurate, and says CMS, “can create a barrier to care.” Imagine choosing a plan based on the information that your doctor...
Anyone stopping at the Green River Post Office Tuesday afternoon would have seen the support our community has for our servicemen. A trailer packed with priority boxes was brought to the post office by members of the VFW, sending them to soldiers stationed overseas. The fact a community the size of Green River can manage to donate enough care packages to fill a truck trailer is impressive at any stretch of the imagination and speaks to Green River residents’ dedication to those serving in the armed forces. Unfortunately for Wyoming, U.S. S...
Over 100 years ago Abner Luman created the Green River Drift, a grazing system where he moved his cows more than 100 miles each way from near La Barge to the upper Green River near Union Pass, and then back again. The cows grazed slowly up the Green as the grass greened up in the spring, spent the summer in high meadows, and grazed slowly back down to La Barge in the fall. The grazing during the trip, both up and down, was a crucial portion of the annual feed for his herd. The Green River Drift is still in place today, though not quite as long....
Ah. Yes. It’s the case of the missing library books: part two. During this past month, my sons, Matthew, 8, and John, 6, have managed to misplace three library books. Even though I check their backpacks every day when they get home, things still wind up disappearing. The one book Matthew had checked out I never saw him bring home. This led to an even bigger question. Where did the book go between our house and the school? I asked him about the missing book that I can’t seem to remember the tit...
I read an article by Drs. Srini Pillay and David R. McDuff in the Nov./Dec. 2018 issue of Coach and AD, where they discussed how student-athletes can sharpen their minds by actually intentionally “un-focusing.” I really enjoyed this article and I am going to try to instill some of their tips and reminders into my own life. After all, who couldn’t stand to sharpen their mind a bit? So, I’ll share with you! The authors point out that no matter how hard we try to concentrate on tasks, our minds do wander. I know mine does and in the past, I have...
The area west of Green River, past Jamestown, is poised to explode with development in the next few years. A Love’s Travel Stop is going through the permitting process and should that project come to fruition, it wouldn’t be hard to see other developments like a restaurant or some other business built to attract people off of Interstate 80. With that realization, it seems like the vision of past mayors to see expansion west of Green River was the correct course for the city to take and unfortunately, failed to navigate to completion. Past pro...
No one can argue that safety is a priority concern when a school has an active shooter on its grounds. One university is pioneering a rather unique approach to helping students and faculty remain safe and fight back against an assailant. Oakland University, near Detroit, recently purchased 2,500 hockey pucks to distribute to students and faculty. The university has a no weapons policy and Mark Gordon, the university’s police chief, initially suggested using a puck to distract a shooter. ...
Running for an elective office is something I had never pictured myself doing. I’ve even looked down on politicians as somewhat less than human. Then one day I read something written by the Sweetwater County Conservation District (SWCCD), in March, 2018. This could not stand. Something had to be done. It was so utterly wrong and misleading, even using as a supporting document RS2477, written in 1866, then repealed in 1976, that I was shocked and almost vomited. I was mortified at the low level to which a government advisory committee would s...
What will happen to the Carnegie Library building in Green River? Right now, it’s safe to say no one really knows what the future holds for one of Green River’s landmark buildings. However, we believe if the building can be saved, it should be. The most important reason for preserving the building is its historical and aesthetic value it gives the city. Generations of residents remember going to Sweetwater County Library when it was housed in the building, while others attest to the building housing the most beautiful courtroom in Wyoming whe...
Remember when we used to have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas on separate days? I do too. It used to be the holidays were more separated. Now, it seems like the commercialism of it all has completely taken over. I thought it was bad enough when Christmas items were out before Thanksgiving, but this year some stores had Halloween and Christmas items on sale in the same aisle. To me that’s just nuts. The only time Christmas items should ever be in the same aisle as Halloween is if it’s a S...
The Food and Drug Administration just announced it would once again try to regulate tobacco products. This time the target of the agency’s regulatory hand is what it believes is the growing menace of flavored e-cigarettes and other tobacco products used by young people who’ve turned to vaping and smoking. The FDA said about 3.6 million kids under age 18 now admit they use e-cigarettes. That’s an alarming number and is worrisome because FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb has noted that almost all current smokers started when they were kids....
What did the dog say when he sat on a piece of sandpaper? Rough. As the father of five, I am no stranger to lame “dad jokes,” but a new study suggests laughter is a large component of maintaining positive mental well-being, brain health, and even decreased instances of dementia. According to data recently released by The Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH), an ability to maintain a positive sense of mental well-being is related to better brain health and even lower dementia rates in older adults. The GCBH defines mental well-being as a per...
Sometimes a politician is fortunate enough to hold the right office at the time when their service is needed the most. Such is the case with Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, the outgoing and incoming House speaker. Traditionally, the leader of the House serves one two-year term and then retires from politics altogether or takes a break before running for Senate. But a majority of Harshman’s Republican colleagues were savvy enough to realize a week ago that it would be for the good of the chamber, and the state, for him to remain the speaker. H...
Government entities need to be more vigilant in ensuring their discussions occur in public. A recent example of how easy it can be to slip can be seen with Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s Board of Trustees. The board, with the exception of Richard Mathey, and the hospital’s CEO discussed pulling hospital funds from Bank of the West in emails sent amongst members of the board in late September. The board ultimately made a decision in October to withdraw those funds from the bank, with board chairman Mathey claiming the board broke the...
It is an interesting time of year. The mid-term elections are over, the days are shorter, and the holidays are picking up speed. Some businesses will have their peak of profits over the next week, while others are slowing down as their staff takes holidays and focuses on family, food, and snagging the best black Friday deals. Some businesses are preparing for year end. Reflecting on accomplishments, balance sheets and wrapping up projects. On a personal level many will take time this week in particular to practice gratitude. Gratitude makes...
I originally intended to run this in October, since Halloween factors perfectly into a game featuring Dracula and other well-known monsters. With the elections, I opted to hold off because allowing our readers to voice their opinions is much more important than me using this space to reminisce about a 31-year-old game I played on a Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Mini. Castlevania Dracula has become one of the most enduring icons of horror. Bram Stoker’s original character, based l...
Voters in three conservative Western states overruled their elected officials in the midterm elections and expanded Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of low-income people via ballot initiatives. “The GOP has been bashing the [Affordable Care Act] for nearly a decade, and voters in the reddest states in the country just rejected that message,” Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness Project, told ABC News. “It’s a repudiation and a tectonic shift in health care in this country.” It’s a fair assessment of what happened, b...
We live in some troubling times. Last week, a reporter for CNN was banned from the White House after a dispute with President Donald Trump during a press conference. The exchange between the two was heated and the reporter, Jim Acosta, did refuse to return the microphone or sit down as he attempted to question President Trump’s characterization of a Central American migrant caravan as an invasion of the United States. CNN, along with Fox News and other cable news networks, can be criticized for making entertainment out of the news. It c...
On Saturday, Nov. 3, Sublette BOCES sponsored a presentation and book signing for “Wild Migrations, Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates.” This book is an impressive body of research that answers questions about the species that migrate from the Red Desert to Yellowstone. I find it very ironic that just as these scientists have documented the cultural habits of the Sublette mule deer herd and exact maps of the migration of mule deer, antelope, elk, and moose, the state of Wyoming and the federal government have opened 68 proposed oil and gas leases whi...
We wanted to say thank you to the sixth-grade teachers and students at Lincoln Middle School for making and displaying the veteran signs placed on Uinta Drive and Monroe Avenue. This is such a wonderful way to honor citizens of Green River for their service to our great country. The time and effort you put into this project is appreciated by both the veterans and the citizens of Green River. Don and Pat Cywinski Green River...
Representative Cheney recently introduced a bill that threatens our way of life in Wyoming. While the subtitle of Cheney’s bill would have us believe otherwise, “ H.R. 6939: Restoring Local Input and Access to Public Lands” actually guts local input by unilaterally releasing Wyoming’s wilderness study areas without a single public meeting or town hall discussion. If Representative Cheney wants to restore local input on public lands issues, she should spend some time in Wyoming listening to her constituents. The bill impacts wilderness study a...
In an interview she did for Parade Magazine (Oct. 14, 2018), Jamie Lee Curtis said, “Every good thing that ever happened to me was because I was in horror films.” My take from that is that good things happen to you, but sometimes only after you work hard for them and even do things that might frighten you or that you are afraid to do. Stepping out of our comfort zone can be scary and challenging but that’s how we grow. We shouldn’t be afraid to fail, rather we should be afraid not to try. (I don’t like scary movies at all by the way.) As...
In July 2017, Interior Secretary Zinke signed Order 3354, directing the BLM to streamline their oil and gas leasing process. Five months later, the BLM Washington Office issued Instruction Memo 2018-34 in partial fulfillment of that order. The BLM memo, among other things, instructs that “the BLM will not routinely defer leasing when waiting for an RMP amendment or revision to be signed.” That phrase of the Instruction Memo opened the floodgates which had been holding back numerous parcels in the BLM Rock Springs Field Office (who is sup...
Four percent - the unemployment rate in Sweetwater County. Ninety-six percent of us are working. Four percent - the percentage of public land in Sweetwater County being considered for wilderness. Ninety-six percent of our public lands are working and available for development. But ninety-six percent is not enough. Rep. Liz Cheney’s bill wants it all for development. With the stroke of a federal pen, Cheney’s bill, HR 6939, would release Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Sweetwater, Lincoln, and Bighorn Counties. The bill opens them up to min...
