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(2008/07/25)
Up until recently, my cell phone didn’t ring very often. Usually the people dialing my number were family and friends. But lately, my cell has been ringing more and at, shall we say, inopportune times and rung by people wanting money.
(2008/07/25)
I’m giving up on airline travel. The humiliating process of going through airport security — exposing your ugly toenails, walking barefoot on filthy floors, stripping belts and jackets, collecting all those nasty fluids into transparent plastic bags — is getting even worse.
(2008/07/25)
Each morning recently I looked in the mirror to see if the rash on my shoulder had faded during the night. I was convinced that it was caused by a chigger bite that showed in a darker red. Apparently, I was wrong.
(2008/07/25)
For the past two summers, friends and I have attended the concerts presented by the La Crosse Concert Band at Riverside Park at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evenings. Every concert has been extremely entertaining.
(2008/07/25)
Each year, Chileda in La Crosse holds a premiere road race during Riverfest. This is a sanctioned 5K and 10K race attracting elite runners and families enjoying an early morning walk through La Crosse.
(2008/07/22)
The sign is beginning to fade slightly after several seasons of Wisconsin weather, but the message is still quite clear and unmistakable in its meaning: “Stop the war now!”
(2008/07/22)
Between the recent announcement that the Janesville GM plant will be shutting its doors, ongoing concerns about the economy and the rising unemployment rate, and now the devastating effects of extreme weather and flooding, the people of Wisconsin can be forgiven for wondering “what’s next?”
(2008/07/22)
Adverse possession is a law, recognized in every state. Using it, a neighboring landowner can take title to land you have purchased and paid taxes on. Having a survey and knowing where your legal boundaries are does not protect you. If someone claims part of your property, you will have to defend your rights in court or risk losing through default.
(2008/07/16)
I’ve taken a lot of ribbing in the past week after I wrote about the grass snake that decided to make its home in my 1989 Ford pickup.
(2008/07/16)
Congress created opportunities for rural communities, strengthened Wisconsin’s dairy farming economy and supported small family farmers in the Farm Bill passed this year. While I was disappointed that the bill did not do more to target limited resources to programs essential to family farmers and rural communities, this bill made significant improvements in other areas:
(2008/07/16)
I don’t know when it hit me, but when it did, I was rueful of how fast time passes.
(2008/07/16)
Vernon County has had two 100-year flood events in two years. This is when a 100-year event means it has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.
(2008/07/09)
Most of my vacations end up being almost as much work as work. There’s always a long list of home improvement projects to do if we’re not going out of town, and if we do hit the road, well, that can be work, too.
(2008/07/09)
The front page of the June 19 edition of The Coulee News contained a nice feature article: “West Salem Police Department to peddle bikes.”
(2008/07/09)
The definition of “neighbors” was shown recently in the uniting of our neighbors that were devastated by the recent floods, willing to reach out and help one another in their own time of need. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.
(2008/07/09)
While I was at work early Sunday morning, I was listening to Sporting News Radio on WKTY. It was about 6 o’clock when I heard a report of a new sport lobbying to be added to the Olympics by 2020. I thought this one might be too big of a stretch to make it, but the sport, if you will, is competitive yoga.
(2008/07/01)
Maybe it was because my first driving experience came at the wheel of a quarter midget, a pint-sized race car, whizzing around a banked oval track and trying to get to the checkered flag first. Or maybe it was just a character flaw that compelled me to always need to be in front of any cars going the same direction I was. Whatever it was, I have been a speed demon most of my life.
(2008/07/01)
I was somewhat surprised on a recent trip to Washington, DC. When I was there in May 2000, I counted five anti-Clinton demonstrators along with more than 30 burnt-out hippies commemorating a battle of the Vietnam War with all the familiar slogans and chants of their era. Two years later, Lisa and I witnessed more than two dozen anti-Bush demonstrators picketing along Pennsylvania Avenue, protesting the No Child Left Behind Act, among other things.
(2008/07/01)
Last week, the White House renewed pressure on Congress to allow oil drilling offshore and in protected areas. This idea makes no sense. As a nation, unconsciously, we have chosen to follow a developmental route over the last century that makes all aspects of our civilization highly dependent on crude oil. We are paying the price for this choice and will pay far more in the future.
(2008/07/01)
When students learn about our system of justice in civics class, they’re told that every American has a right to his or her day in court. Yet, people from all walks of life often unknowingly sign away their right to a trial when they sign a contract.
(2008/07/01)
As I leave this area, I wish to say to the entire community that it has been a privilege to live and pastor here. This is a wonderful area to raise a family and enjoy “God’s Country.”
(2008/07/01)
La Crosse Area Home and Community Education would like to send a thank you to those establishments who donated door prizes for our June Dairy Bake-off. It always is a big part of our program and is much appreciated.
(2008/06/24)
For over 100 years, the volunteer members of the West Salem Fire Department have provided 24-7 coverage for the West Salem Fire Protection District, which includes the village of West Salem, the town of Hamilton and the town of Barre. We, the members of the West Salem Fire Department, are seriously concerned that public safety in the West Salem Fire Protection District is being compromised due to budgetary constraints.
(2008/06/24)
Your elected officials and the West Salem Fire District Board have been meeting regularly over the last eight months to solve the fire district’s financial crisis. In fact, the village has hired legal counsel to draft language for a referendum question for the fall election ballot asking the taxpayers to allow the village to exceed state-imposed levy limits in order to solve the fire district’s financial crisis. Yet, the fire department is implying that the village has put your safety in jeopardy.
(2008/06/24)
There’s an unpopular wartime Republican president, a federal lawmaker from New York losing in a fierce battle and people protesting the progress of the war? This scenario is all too familiar to us in 2008.
(2008/06/17)
This year marks my 25th year in the newspaper business, which has proven to be a very interesting career choice.
(2008/06/17)
“Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” n Second Resolution adopted by Second Continental Congress June 14, 1777.
(2008/06/17)
In the beginning, there was one house at 224 N. Van Ness St. in West Salem that occupied all the block east of the alley, but the village board apparently thought the property would look nicer with accompanying smaller lots, all of different sizes and small houses — or was that about generating more tax money? No, this about aesthetics, so let’s look at what started the dissension between my property and the surrounding aesthetically minded neighbors.
(2008/06/17)
I ask that citizens of La Crosse County consider applying for a seat on the Criminal Justice Management Council. In September 2000, the La Crosse County Board authorized the creation of the Criminal Justice Management Council to advise the County Board on correctional policies for juveniles and adults.
(2008/06/17)
According to what I have read recently, the 2008 Farm Bill was a bad bill and President Bush was correct in vetoing it. However, Congress has overridden that veto and so now the bill is the law of the land. Ugh!
(2008/06/17)
We have a chance to get someone who actually understands what the people of the 94th Assembly District are experiencing. Someone who understands that if you can’t afford to pay for an office call to a doctor to begin with, then health savings accounts are not going to do you any good. Someone who understands that education is not just another political chess piece.
(2008/06/11)
Did you happen to watch the fight on TV last Saturday? I’m not talking about EliteXC, the beat-your-brains-in mixed-martial-arts fights that aired on CBS. I don’t recall any significant fights in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals.
(2008/06/11)
It was no fun paying high prices for gas during the Memorial Day Weekend (it was $3.929 per gallon Monday), but Americans are finally being confronted with the high cost of mobility. Since 1974, the number of vehicle miles driven in Wisconsin has outpaced its population by a factor of five, and it’s becoming clear that such mobility can’t be sustained, either economically or environmentally.
(2008/06/11)
First-time-in-a-generation achievements don’t happen often. But that’s the news Wisconsin heard last week: our state dropped out of the top-10 worst taxed states in the nation for the first time since 1980.
(2008/06/11)
I attended a Memorial Day service on Monday, May 26, and a Vietnam War protest song was sung — shame!
(2008/06/11)
When is it going to end? The men and women dying in the war, the excuses for gas to go up, and the amount of drugs that young people are able to get. It is bad enough that gas is close to $4 a gallon, but sending thousands of teens off to war is too much! We need a president who can put a stop to all of this.
(2008/06/03)
Richard Lawrence of Holmen recalls the horrors he went through in August 2005 when he was diagnosed with liver cancer and essentially given a death sentence by his doctors, who declined to even consider chemotherapy or radiation because of the rapid growth and spread of his tumors.
(2008/06/03)
I read the recent letter from Joseph Upton with great concern, as we in Congressman Ron Kind’s office go to every effort to respond in a timely and substantive fashion to the hundreds of constituent contacts we receive every day through phone calls, e-mails and letters.
(2008/06/03)
For the past 15 years, those involved with the St. Clare Health Mission in La Crosse have witnessed the problems facing the poor and uninsured in our community. We also have been witness to the difference that the giving of one’s time and talents can make in the life of someone in need.
(2008/06/03)
Here is what the Center for Rural Affairs, a nonprofit rural advocacy group, said about the federal farm bill:
(2008/06/03)
Two weeks ago, I used this column as a vehicle to write about my depression. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to a few people share their stories about themselves or their loved ones diagnosed with clinical depression. I want to thank those of you willing to share your experiences with me.
(2008/05/27)
This Memorial Day is a day of national observation and remembrance for those soldiers who never came back — those who have truly sacrificed everything for this country.
(2008/05/27)
I recently became aware of a situation that bothers me.
(2008/05/27)
The year was 1992. I had my driver’s license for one month. I thought I was pretty cool for having my recently granted freedom. But what I saw as a freedom or temporary reprieve from my parents acting as my chauffer, my parents saw it as an opportunity for me to be useful.
(2008/05/27)
There is nothing more fundamental in our democracy than the right to vote. This primary tenet of political freedom, however, is undermined when people engage in unlawful voting or unqualified electors cast ballots illegally and undetected.
(2008/05/27)
I have written to Rep. Ron Kind on many occasions and basically was ignored or sent responses that did not address any of the issues I asked about.
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