Sorted by date Results 926 - 950 of 1692
Typing your last name and final six digits of your social security number into Equifax’s website is sort of like getting a sore tooth looked at by the dentist - you know you need to do it, but the potential bad news you receive could lead to future pain. In this case, it is less of a root canal and more identity theft. I’m not sure which is more painful. To recap recent events, Equifax is one of three major consumer credit-reporting agencies, with data on more than 820 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide. In early Sep...
The closure of a school impacts an entire community. It isn’t just the students and staff being moved to another location, nor is it the physical act of closing a building and mothballing it for possible future use. With the closure of a school, the community loses a place to gather. It loses a gym to dance or practice in. It becomes a loss for everyone involved. With the school board deliberating on if it will close Jackson Elementary and a final judgement expected to pass in November, there’s time to discuss the value the school brings to...
Dear Editor, The second amendment of the United States Constitution states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Obviously the need for a state militia has been replaced by the National Guard and Coast Guard whereby trained military personnel are entrusted with the defense of this country against domestic enemies. Their weapons are tightly controlled and safeguarded. The only two reasons for a citizen to own a firearm are for hun...
Dear Editor, I’m writing about a circumstance I find very upsetting. A picture that was sent to me that I’m told is hanging in Gigi Jasper’s AP English classroom at Rock Springs High School, of a caricature President Trump that says “STOP BIGOTRY.” I’m also told Jasper is putting up statistics in the room that purportedly show the number of black people being killed by white police officers on a daily or weekly basis. This is totally inappropriate and unacceptable. Posting statistics out of context is irresponsible and inaccurate at the very...
Dear Editor, Now, more than ever, it is imperative for us to be the champion of girls. In today’s world, girls need girl-only spaces where girls are the first thought not an afterthought. Girls need to feel safe and encouraged by positive female role models to be a G.I.R.L. – where they are Go Getters, Innovators, Risk-Takers, and Leaders. Girl Scouts provides the necessary space for girls to learn and thrive. Girl Scouts works! We stand firm in our belief that Girl Scouts is the best leadership experience for girls in the world. While we sup...
For some, terror comes in the form of the eldritch horrors imaged by H. P. Lovecraft or the most grotesque creatures dreamed up in Hollywood, while others may fear abduction by aliens and the unknowable body experiments they conduct. For my two-year-old nephew, terror comes in the form of the Toast Ghost, the spirit of a piece of toast my nephew presumably ate at some point. Toast Ghost floats around my sister’s house at night, keeping my nephew awake with the horrible sounds of crunching b...
For eight years, I have participated in Green River URA/Main Street’s Trunk or Treat. The Trunk or Treat may have moved locations a few times, but it’s always been fun. It’s a chance for local businesses employees and owners to dress up in Halloween costumes, decorate their vehicles or trunks and hand out candy. Over the years, the employees and their family members at the Green River Star have been the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Scooby-Doo group, Smurfs, Willy Wanka and the Umpa Lumpas,...
The Carnegie Library, or Green River Circuit Court building, has sat vacant for far too long and along with the U.P. Depot building downtown, deserves a better fate than what it has. For generations, the building was a portal to the world for Green River’s residents. One of 16 libraries gifted to Wyoming towns by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the building was later utilized at a circuit court. Stained-glass windows helped create what was described as the most beautiful courtroom in Wyoming. After the circuit court moved to an addition to t...
Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the Sweetwater County Commissioners and their uncalled for comments toward the former board members of the hospital board. When Commissioner (John) Kolb publicly calls these honorable, unpaid servants corrupt, while the other commissioners sit silently, this is uncalled for. Many of the Sweetwater County Commissioners have known the hospital board members for years and know that Mr. Kolb’s comments were unwarranted. I have personally known Artis Kalivas for over 50 years and he has done nothing but h...
For anyone whose read the columns I’ve written on the page over the past year, it’s easy to say I’ve developed a fascination with YouTube, arguably the internet’s most popular video hosting website. There’s a lot to see on almost any topic a person can think of. Want to check out what the street food scene looks like in Bangkok or Los Angeles? What about watching a man build a primitive hut with only the most basic of tools? Want to take a tour of a hand-made Christmas putz in the middle of...
The Green River Fire Department along with the National Fire Protection Association has recognized the week of Oct. 8-14 as Fire Prevention week. This year’s slogan is “Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out.” We encourage everyone to take a few minutes and talk about fire prevention to help keep the residents of our community safe. It is very important to have two ways out of your home whether it’s a house, mobile home, or apartment. Everyone should have two different ways to escape to the outside, which includes a meeting area for everyon...
I recently watched an old video clip on YouTube, from the TV show “Candid Camera.” In case you are not familiar with “Candid Camera,” it aired from 1960 to 1976, and secretly videotaped people in situations where they were (safely) pranked or involved in a funny situation, set up to get their reactions. This particular episode showed an elevator prank. Three members of the “Candid Camera” staff would enter an elevator after an unsuspecting “victim” had already entered. The staff members did not speak when entering but instead, they all just tur...
One of the many duties journalists have to the communities they serve is to hold lawmakers and officials accountable for their actions. A few weeks back, Stephanie Thompson wrote an article about a few comments Sweetwater County Commissioner John Kolb had made regarding former members of the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. A week after that story was published, I wrote an editorial that appeared under the “Our View” section of this page, criticizing him for rehashing the past and cla...
Dear Editor, Good morning and thank you for allowing me to speak during this public comment portion of your meeting. I approach you today with a request. A request to stop the disrespect that is being shown to myself, my fellow prior hospital board members that I served with, Jerry Klein and George Lemich. For the commission to label us as corrupt is not only wrong, but insulting. When one of you is introduced in the public media arena as a commissioner those comments made to the media and/or public airways is a representation of all of you. I...
Youth sports offer many different benefits to not only the young people participating, but to the young adults that mentor and officiate. Building character in young adults is a culmination of important life lessons and officiating can be a great way to help develop character. Young adults, as officials, learn to be confident in tense situations, think and react quickly on their feet, and they begin to assume more responsibility in their life as they schedule to work and earn an income. Being an official is also a mentor role to the...
While we can’t speak to the long term viability of our big-city cousins in the newspaper business, we can tell you with confidence that your hometown paper is in fine shape. Our annual audit of our readership, mandated by the United States Postal Service, is printed in last week’s newspaper and it’s as strong as ever. That’s because with few exceptions, if you want to read about Green River and people of Sweetwater County, there’s one credible source that leaves the others in the dust. And it’s the same source that your grandparent...
Comments made by representatives of Castle Rock Hospital District have us concerned about their willingness to share and publish their salaries. Speaking to the Sweetwater County Commissioners last week, board members expressed reluctance to publicize their ambulance workers’ salaries, fearing that information would lead to Sweetwater Medics poaching their workers with the promise of a higher wage. We don’t believe that fear warrants the hospital district request to not publish those salaries and thankfully the commissioners agree with us. Cit...
In our current economic climate, there are many families where both parents are working or even have multiple jobs. For many single-parent homes, a full-time and part-time job is a regular necessity. Here in Green River, shift work and overtime can be challenging if you have children. That’s where an after school program can help. It is a safe, fun, and productive place to send children when school is out for the afternoon. Most programs provide homework assistance, a healthy snack, and fun physical activities or free play for children. T...
Unzipping the tent screen, I emerged into the dawn of the day of the great eclipse, the 21st of August, 2017. I was camped at Mistake Lake, at an elevation of 10,800 feet, in the Titcomb Basin, located in the center of Wyoming’s Wind River Range. Below, on the prominent moraine between two big lakes, were fourteen tents. I was to pass another thirty to forty tents on the upper reaches of the basin. Perhaps never before had the basin been so crowded. For that matter, neither had the state, now with five or six times its usual population, owing t...
A few weeks back, Sweetwater County Commissioner John Kolb made a few comments about Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. This isn’t uncommon for the commissioner, as he serves as the commissioners’ liaison to the hospital board of trustees. While updating the commissioners about recent developments at the hospital is part of his duties, Kolb isn’t doing anyone any favors when he decides to deride the hospital’s former administrators and trustees. We understand the hospital was in a difficult and unsustainable position at the end of Jerry K...
Across America, we have aging roads, bridges, dams and water systems. Our crumbling infrastructure is threatening public safety, slowing economic development and costing us all. A recent study by the American Society of Civil Engineers found that American families are losing $3,400 per year in disposable income because of crumbling infrastructure. This comes in the form of wasted time in traffic, higher grocery bills or unreliable water and electricity services. It is time we address our long-neglected public works. As chairman of the Senate Co...
It hadn’t even been a week; and already my son had his first braces injury, which left him with a couple of broken brackets and a cut lip. Of course this incident would have to happen right before bedtime. My boys, John, 5, and Matthew, 7, were supposed to be getting ready for bed. Instead, I hear all sorts of noises coming from John’s bedroom, which led me to believe that they weren’t getting their pajamas on or ready for bed. As I approached the closed door, which is something I don’t allow m...
Bring on the braces. My oldest son, Matthew, 7, got braces put on exactly two weeks ago. He was so excited to get them on and the place I took him to made it a wonderful experience. After his braces were put on, he was given three helium balloons attached to a pudding cup with a spoon. He also received a draw-string bag with a T-shirt, water bottle and everything he would need to be brace successful, including wax, mouth wash, tooth brushes, flossers and floss. He was smiling at everybody as big...
The coal industry will likely never return to its former glory, despite promises President Trump has made to the contrary. Fossil fuels will likely take a similar course, but not for several decades. Still, countries are starting to put the writing on the proverbial wall. China currently considers a ban on the production of gasoline and diesel-fueled cars and France has taken steps to end the sale of diesel and gas cars by 2040. Supposing those events do take place, it’s likely the market for fossil fuel vehicles will decline sharply during t...
The Green River URA/Main Street Agency finished up an exciting Farmers’ Market season Sept. 13. We were excited to bring back past and new vendors and best of all, it didn’t even rain every Wednesday like it has been known to do. The vendors really enjoy Green River’s Farmers Market and we all appreciate the support of the community for this important summer event and we are already looking forward to next year. We have some fun activities as we head into this fall. The first Saturday in October, the Green River URA/Main Street Agency will host...
