Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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‘Tis the season for giving — or, for some legislators, a good time to demand that the government force taxpayers to give others a large gift. A few weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the house floor to issue another plea for the federal government to cancel nearly $1.7 trillion in student-loan debt. That is, she is demanding that taxpayers who didn’t go to college, or who didn’t take on large loans to go to college, pay off the often massive loans of those who did. AOC argues that...
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The traffic light on Winkler Avenue was green, yet the Camaro in front of me hit the brakes. I managed to avoid him as he stopped short for the duck and her eight babies, who were slowly trying to cross the four-lane street. It was rush hour and cars were whizzing in both directions. Camaro Guy and I held our ground as the duck family reached a two-foot center strip of grass. Now what? Like a shot, the Camaro swerved into the two oncoming lanes and stopped, successfully...
The Federalist Papers, it has been said, constitute one of the most important works in the world of political science ever written in the history of the United States. There is little exaggeration, if any, in saying that The Federalist is surpassed only by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as an iconic writing in our nation’s political history. Authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the 85 essays thoroughly explained the meaning of the Constitution proposed to Americans eager to know what the delegates t...
Christmas card trends are telling — they speak to the mood of the country — and this year’s trend offers some positive news. According to the Washington Post, hand-written “snail-mailed” Christmas cards are all the rage, particularly among millennials who, all of the sudden, are spending more on Christmas cards than baby boomers. We baby boomers came of age well before everything went digital. I still have and cherish the hilarious hand-written letters my friends and I shared during our colle...
Children all over the United States are currently wringing their iPhone-calloused hands over the possibility that Santa Claus might not make it this year because he's trapped in a delayed shipping container somewhere off the coast of California. The situation is a little different at my house. With three daughters in their mid-to-late teens, my wife and I are starting to wonder how much longer we should renew our private contractor partnership with Old Saint Nick. When the girls were younger...
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is my favorite Christmas movie. It takes me back to a simpler time I have never experienced, but love to revel in nonetheless, if even for a couple of hours. There’s something special, and timeless, about the way the characters treat each other and the way the community rallies to help a man through his most trying time. This film, that director Frank Capra didn’t consider a Christmas movie at the time, is now ranked #1 on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) list of the To...
Our time is the best gift we can give to our friends and family this Christmas. Nobody knows how much time we have on Earth - nobody knows when our time will end. We all have friends and loved ones who were claimed way too early. Hopefully, you are blessed, as my family has been, to have loved ones who have lived long and fruitful lives. Such family members have an abundance of wisdom to share - wisdom cultivated over time. I particularly enjoy the pearls of humorous wisdom my 88-year-old...
The other day, Otis, the used car dealer, pulled out a wad of bills and handed my son two crisp C-notes. That’s all Danny’s ’98 Pontiac Grand-Am was worth anymore, but the rite of passage it had provided was invaluable. Danny purchased his car from Otis years earlier with $3,000 saved from two summers of maintenance work at the local golf course. The Grand-Am served him well, but it didn’t really shape his development or fuel memories the way a first car did in my day. That was the 1960s, when k...
The first landmark ruling delivered by the U.S. Supreme Court was Marbury v. Madison (1803), in which Chief Justice John Marshall asserted the power of judicial review, the authority of the federal judiciary to review the constitutionality of governmental acts, including laws passed by Congress. Consider the fundamental impact of the power of judicial review for American Constitutionalism. In 1627, in The Five Knights Case, an important case in English legal history, the Attorney General, representing the King, asked: “Shall any say, the K...
During hunting season here in North Dakota, it is critical for drivers to stay alert to avoid collisions. Every year tens of thousands of cars hit deer on North Dakota roads, a tragedy that takes precious lives and sends many more to the emergency room. Deer aren’t the only wildlife you are likely to see lying dead on the shoulder of the road. Elk, pronghorn, pheasant, sharp-tailed grouse, and bighorn sheep are among countless species hit every year on our roads. Collisions with vehicles, and r...
I wish I had a change of heart, but I still can't support it. Back in 2009, long before I got my beloved 11-month-old puppy, Thurber, I was critical of a proposed federal bill that sought tax deductions for pet owners. According to the Washington Times, Robert Davi, a tough-guy Hollywood actor, and then Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., attempted something back then that tough guys and conservative Republicans don't often do. They collaborated to get a bill - the Humanity and Pets Partnered...
The year-long commitment of this column to the exploration of the Constitution has focused, primarily, on historical explanations of the aims and purposes of delegates to the Constitutional Convention. On occasion, we have illuminated constitutional controversies surrounding current governmental acts through this historical lens, a method which largely avoids charges of partisanship, and leaves disappointed readers to quarrel, not so much with this author, as with James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and others who wrote the...
New Rockford Transcript readers, city property owners, and citizens of New Rockford: I am deeply concerned for the wellbeing of New Rockford regarding the special assessments for the proposed street project that will be in addition to what you currently pay. I’d like to thank Craig Voigt for his letter to the editor recently. I’m not going to go into a lot of details about my situation regarding the estimate of my taxes nearly quadrupling; rather, I would like to keep this more about the property owners at-large, and how this has the very rea...
The Supreme Court's historic rejection in U.S. v. Nixon (1974) - "The Watergate Tapes Case" - of President Richard Nixon's assertion of an "absolute" and "unreviewable" authority to invoke executive privilege, saved the republic from an unaccountable, autocratic executive, and won richly-deserved praise from a grateful citizenry across America. But the court cut the ground from beneath its landmark ruling with a wounding declaration that the president enjoys a "limited" executive privilege:...
The COVID 19 pandemic confirmed the critical role that small businesses play in our daily lives. Throughout the pandemic, small businesses continued to provide crucial goods and services and kept our citizens employed. It sounds cliché, but our locally-owned small businesses truly are the heart and soul of our cities and towns. Small Business Saturday has become an American tradition following the Thanksgiving holiday. However, online shopping skyrocketed during the pandemic as more people...
With natural gas prices projected to be higher than last year for the winter heating season, Montana-Dakota Utilities, and AARP North Dakota, have teamed up to provide customers and members information about the price projection and tips on how to mitigate some of the increase. Natural gas prices are expected to increase more than 50% over last year across the country due to increasing demand, and flat supply, not just nationally, but globally. Options for controlling costs include: • Balanced billing: Montana-Dakota offers balanced bil...
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, as we have seen, did not fail to address the issue of presidential authority to invoke executive privilege. Rather, they chose not to clothe the president with power to withhold information from Congress. The framers of the Constitution, part of a generation that fought executive tyranny in the form of King George III, studiously avoided any pretense of granting to the newly-minted presidency a power that was denied to the English monarchy. The absence of any mention of executive privilege in the...
The defeat of incumbent Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe in Virginia is a precursor of the 2022 election, when Democrats better expect that normal off-year shift against an incumbent president. While Democrats have gloried in winning the House, Senate and Presidency, they may have thought that Democrats would continue to ride high when President Biden rewarded all of the minorities with programs they have wanted for years. Huge 2020 Turnout But it took the largest turnout of the present...
Our elected representatives in Washington produce bad ideas like cows produce methane. But, if Congress really wants to do something to make the lives of Americans better – and remember, I said "if" – I have an idea. Not only would this idea garner significant bipartisan support, it would score massive political points without sowing further discord among Americans and driving the country one more level down to oblivion. Might be a nice change of pace. Here it is: Congress should imm...
Former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to deny the January 6 Select Committee access to his aides, advisers, documents and memo, brings center stage, once again, the issue of the nature, scope and authority for presidential claims to secrecy. Rarely have the stakes for the republic been this high. The committee’s investigation into the insurrection at the Capitol rightly probes the question of whether Trump incited the insurrectionists to storm the citadel of American democracy, and the extent to which he may have org...
It's no surprise that current and former members of the military make great entrepreneurs. The resilience, determination, and fortitude they acquired while in uniform was a great training ground for becoming a successful small business owner. Working in collaboration with our government and community partners, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) plays an important role in supporting service members as they exit the military and become entrepreneurs. During National Veterans Small...
I’m wondering if New Rockford property owners know what they are signing up for by not making their voices heard regarding the street improvement project currently being reviewed by the City of New Rockford. You are looking at close to $9,000,000.00 in special assessments for Plan A, and that’s before they tack on the interest and any cost overruns. I’m showing you this figure in zeros so maybe you can better grasp the cost. This money will be paid by you, the property owners, at 4% interest over 15 years. (Hmm, 4% is a pretty good return on yo...
Open letter to the New Rockford, N.D. public at large. First and foremost I do believe in God, I support and defend the U.S. Constitution, am pro-life and I am an anti-Communist! I participated in the Cold War. I personally chopped some pieces out of the Berlin Wall. I am such an anti-Communist, I fired my red blood cells for being red! Side note, for those who do not know, I have been fighting low blood pressure for 44 months and finally found out it is due to my red blood cells not...
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, regrettably often overlooked by the citizenry, provides an elegant summation of our nation’s constitutional creation story. It speaks of the work of the sovereign people. It represents a direct act of legislation, and introduces and forms part of the supreme law of the land, distinct from any and all future laws that will be passed under its authority. The Preamble is a historical and legal colossus. In the Pennsylvania State Ratifying Convention, James Wilson, a leading delegate to the Constitutional C...
When my high school classmates obtained a driver’s license, it was not uncommon to hear a teacher opine, “Oh, they must be having a sale at Sears.” Judging by the deplorable examples of road etiquette I’ve witnessed, maybe the teachers weren’t so far off about the low bar set by testers. I have pontificated about slow drivers, speed demons and motorists who think turn signals are the Mark of the Beast. But today I’d like to vent about intersections. Instructions about right-of-way are readily...
