Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Sorted by date Results 905 - 929 of 1483
Dear Senators Enzi and Barrasso and Representative Cheney: In a public opinion poll taken in 2016, Rasmussen Reports found that 76% of Americans “believe the wealthiest individuals and companies have too much influence over elections,” while 80% “agree that wealthy special interest groups have too much power and influence over elections.” Bloomberg conducted a poll in 2015 that showed that 78% of Americans had an unfavorable view of the controversial Citizens United v. F.E.C. decision. Overwhelmingly, Americans agree strongl...
Wyoming Promise volunteers are collecting signatures across the state for a bipartisan citizens’ initiative to restore free and fair elections. Wyoming Promise is a citizens’ grassroots effort to get big money out of politics by calling on Congress to pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is working with several national organizations, including American Promise, which are coordinating similar efforts in many states, but Wyoming Promise is an independent group comprised solely of Wyoming residents. “The Wyomi...
This is probably to seem like it is going to be about one topic, but then it goes in another direction. It will tie together, I promise. Last week, Milton Ontiveroz, University of Wyoming Communications Specialist came to the office of the Sun. After a bit of time we realized we had met before at my restaurant/bar in Laramie. He said some great things about my place and our drinks. Milton made me feel proud of what I had done in Laramie even though it is gone now. A key compon...
It was a Monday. If you know anything about my normal Mondays they are usually pretty hectic and go fairly late as we try to get as much of the paper done as we can so the staff and I can proofread on Tuesdays before we get the Sun to press. This particular Monday we had our normal frenetic day, but were mostly done by 5 p.m. I was relieved and decided to go have a drink after work. The plan was to just have one or two then go home and use the unusual free time to clean house...
Editor, I would like to correct what I believe are some mistakes, in the July 19, 2017 article addressing the concrete plant issues. The concerns of mine are the actions of the Planning Commission not in the article published in the paper. The first correction that I would like to point out is that in my letter to Councilman Faust I stated that I want to be perfectly clear that I support the Concrete plant in our town and believe that it should continue doing business in the town. That was pointed out in my letter to...
I met a new manager not long ago at one of my favorite places to visit. We had not met before, but I knew the owner and some others working there. This manager made me walk away from our encounter in disbelief after ten minutes. Parting words shouted at me, “I don’t like your attitude.” Okay, that is a good way to inspire a customer not to want to come back, which is what I was at this point. I am not any longer. I remember telling my staff when I had my restaurants, if a problem happens with patrons, take care of it immed...
Having a cleaner house is simpler today than almost any time in the past. That is due to a little device that literally sucks. The humble vacuum cleaner sits where you put it until you finally decide it’s time to get some of that junk off your floor. So you find the thing, bring it out where your pets can experience pre-vacuuming anxiety, unroll the cord, find a handy socket, plug it in and watch your pets scurry to points unknown as you turn the thing on and begin to roll i...
I got more response about my last column “Goodbye Saratoga” than I ever have for something I have written. While I feel I have penned things worthier of comment, I have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of community support I have received for my prankish endeavor. I have gotten emails from town and county officials letting me know they are happy I am remaining with the Sun. That floored me on its own. I got other emails expressing the same sentiment too though. A lot of pe...
I am a dog person, I will tell you in a heartbeat. It probably goes back to my early childhood when my folks got a collie pup named Tippy for the family (i.e. me). As he got older, he became my personal substitute for a pony. I remember being on his back and him taking me for rides until I was too big. He was my first best friend. We had a cat too-my mother’s actually. The name I knew it by was Worthless; courtesy of my farm boy raised father who believed you had a pet for a purpose. The name tells you what he thought of a ho...
.....
.....
.....
I was blessed to have two fathers raise me. Given that Father’s Day just happened, it feels right to do a column on them. They were different in many ways, but in other manners, they shared common traits. My biological father William Oliver Armstrong was a southern boy dairy farmer from a tiny town in Virginia. He was the youngest member in his congregation at age 10 to find his Christian beliefs that were always a part of him. My father never talked about his salary or financial assets to my sister or me, but we knew he g...
After a very hectic Memorial Day Weekend where we covered everything from teacher retirement parties, open houses, graduations and the many Memorial Day Services in east county I showed up to work Monday to try to sort through the depressingly large array of photos and stories at hand. Needless to say, I was very tired to start with as I started to figure out where everything would go. About 30 minutes into Memorial Day I got a phone call from a friend I don’t hear from that often. I was happy to hear from Chris until I c...
You may have noticed the Saratoga Sun now covers a larger portion of Carbon County. We have recently began to cover Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow on a more regular basis. There are several reasons this has come to be. There are developments, both social and economic happening in those areas that are, and will be, of interest to the entire county. We have been witnessing a rebirth of sorts in businesses growth and an overall improvement in terms of positivity in the northern end of the county. The Saratoga Sun has also...
To most people who know me in Wyoming, it is not much of a secret I worked in the world of spirits (not the ghostly type) to make my living. Probably less well known, I earned my bread and butter as an English teacher in Taiwan for almost half a decade. I taught English classes for doctors in a few hospitals, gave private English lessons for business owners and rich housewives wanting to read novels written in that language (which was actually very cool). Several large...
Before I get into my regularly-scheduled rant, I would like to express how proud I am of every single participant at the Wyoming State track meet held recently. I saw kids trying to compete with aches and pains (one observer commented that one of the students was trying to do the high jump on a bum shin), I saw athletes come off the field and break down bawling because they felt they could have done better, I saw sisters compete and pump each other up at the same time, athlete...
The modern holiday of Mother's Day in the U.S. was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Jarvis wanted to honor her mother who was a peace activist. Efforts by Jarvis, had all US states observing the holiday by 1911, with some states officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day, held the second Sunday in May, as a national...