Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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Eddie Grant, a Harvard Law School graduate and a former third baseman who played for the Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants, was the first major league baseball player killed in World War I. In all, seven other major league players lost their lives in the Great War. They are Lt. Tom Burr, plane crash; Lt. Harry Chapman, illness; Lt. Larry Chappell, influenza; Pvt. Harry Glenn, pneumonia; Cpt. Newton Halliday, hemorrhages; Cpl. Ralph Sherman, drowned, an...
The daily Southwest border updates are generating nationwide concern, except in Washington, D.C., where indifference reigns. The latest Department of Homeland Security report showed that in February, more than 100,000 people were either apprehended by, or surrendered to, federal immigration officials on the U.S.-Mexico border. Those totals, a 14-year high, include about 9,460 unaccompanied minors, and more than 19,240 family units, which reflect 62% and 38% increases, respectively, when...
Events on Capitol Hill and the Southwest border are unfolding at a dizzying pace. The outcome of those developments will have long-lasting and irreversible effects. At the center of the chaos is immigration, the tumultuous topic that has embroiled Congress since the Immigration Reform and Control Act that President Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1986, 35 years ago. During the budget resolution debate that will pave the way for a mid-March final vote on President Biden's $1.9 trillion...
President Biden is going full speed ahead with his plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The Democrats’ latest approach to convert Biden’s campaign promise to more than double the existing minimum wage from $7.25, where it’s been since 2009, is to include the increase in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. Republicans are balking. They insist that extraneous issues thrown into the COVID legislation decrease the credibility Democrats have in demonstrating their sincerity a...
For millions of amateur and minor league baseball (MiLB) fans, the 2020 season was a bust. Not only did COVID-19 wipe out most all the scheduled games, 2020 may be the end of the line for many teams. Reports abound that more than 40 minor league teams are on the ropes, and in 2021 they may be gone forever. The Chattanooga Lookouts, the Erie Seawolves and the State College (Pennsylvania) Spikes are among the established teams on MLB’s endangered list. Sports Illustrated sent a survey to 68 M...
During a normal Major League Baseball season, by mid-July fans would be anticipating the annual All-Star Game. But in 2020, COVID-19, the great killjoy, has forced the game's cancellation, the first time since 1945 when World War II travel restrictions interfered and no players were selected. Baseball bugs that would have cast their 2020 ballots, and would be looking forward to watching the All-Star Game, are plum out of luck. Back during President Richard Nixon's White House years, sports...
In 1918, an influenza panic much like today’s COVID-19 struck the nation. The Spanish flu, as it was often called, killed at least 50 million victims worldwide, and 675,000 in the U.S. Then-Surgeon General Rupert Blue summarized how suddenly the highly contagious, fast-spreading and deadly respiratory disease struck. “People are stricken on the streets or while at work. First there is a chill, then fever with temperatures from 101 to 103, headache, backache, reddening and running of the eye...
For most baseball fans, the season ends when the World Series final putout is made. But in 1946, the lucky residents of Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Des Moines, Denver, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco and, finally, Long Beach had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Satchel Paige’s Negro all-stars play against Bob Feller’s white all-stars. The barnstorming tour, organized by Feller and conceived on his long, dangerous shifts manning anti-a...
The California Department of Finance announced that the state’s population fell just 40,000 people short of a historic 40 million residents. Sacramento demographers, as well as population experts nationwide, agree that California will reach a nightmarish 50 million people by mid-decade. The easiest way to understand the effect of 50 million residents on Californians’ quality of life is to imagine 25% more drivers on the roads, more students in the classrooms, more housing and more patients in...
The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program just released a study that casts serious doubt on President Trump’s insistence that the economy is improving, and that the employment market is strong. Brookings’ findings confirm that working doesn’t necessarily translate into earning a decent wage. Despite record low 3.6% unemployment, the Brookings’ report, “Meet the Low-Wage Workforce,” shows that 53 million Americans – 44% of all workers age 18 to 64 – hold low-wage jobs, earn median h...
Just a few brief weeks into the 2019 Major League Baseball season, incontrovertible evidence has surfaced that computerized balls and strike calls cannot be far away. Before each game begins, the announcers offer their insights into the home plate umpire's leanings: he'll allow the low or the high strike. Then throughout the game, with the strike zone superimposed on the screen, the announcers unload, and make critical comments such as last innings strike is now this innings ball. Although...
The refugee resettlement industry is in full panic mode. Some may ques- tion whether “industry” is the correct word. But the multi-million dollar budgets voluntary agencies (volags) have at their disposal and the lofty salaries the direc- tors earn reveal that resettle- ment is a big and lucrative business, largely American taxpayer-funded. Aided by a favorable Supreme Court decision, President Trump wants ev- er-fewer refugees. To the contractors’ dismay, last year President Trump threw out 5,0...
August 1 marked Earth Overshoot Day, the day that worldwide humanity will, in only seven months, have taken more resources from the earth than can be replenished within a single year. During a calendar year, the globe’s 7.6 billion residents consume through overfishing and overharvesting forests more than earth can replace and emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb, about 1.7 earth equivalents as measured in natural resources. With 328 million people, the U...
In June, about 4 million teenagers will graduate from high school, and another 3 million or so will earn associate or four-year university degrees. The happy graduates should view cautiously the strong May Bureau of Labor Statistics report that showed growth in employment and wages. While the economy added 223,000 jobs in May and for the year average hourly earnings increased 2.7 percent, an ever-expanding labor force assures that essentially stagnant wages will continue to plague American...
The Mexican and Canadian governments are pushing the White House to step up the North American Free Trade Agreement’s renegotiation pace and to conclude talks in May. Dubbed NAFTA 2.0, President Trump must proceed cautiously lest he open up the U.S. labor market to a new flood of employment-authorized visa holders. NAFTA, which went into force on January 1, 1994, created the Treaty NAFTA (TN) visa, a nonimmigrant temporary employment-based visa through which an unlimited inflow of allegedly h...
Observing the swamp during the last few weeks, one trend is clear: federal courts are all-powerful, and even though the judges are appointed, not elected, they have the final say in legislative issues. Nevertheless, lower court judges don’t have the right to steal American sovereignty or usurp presidential powers including those the Executive Branch has over immigration. Two recent examples: in Sessions v. Dimaya, the Supreme Court struck down a congressional statute that mandates criminal a...
