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Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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While watching an old rerun of a late 50’s TV show, I happened upon an old commercial about a soap product that was 99 & 44/100 percent pure. (I always wondered what that .56 percent impurity was and why if it could be measured. Why it couldn’t be removed to reach the totally pure mark?) My memory took me back about 70 years to my last meeting with that particular product. The event started with the words, “I didn’t . . . “ and things went sharply downhill from there to the point that “pure “ had nothing to do with taste. Polite society today...
With the recent tragedy in Florida involving a school shooting, I find it appropriate to update our patrons about our ongoing efforts to upgrade and improve security in Thermopolis schools. I am going to do my very best to put the discussion in layman’s terms because many of you may have never heard some of the terms associated with school security. Because there are so many “what ifs” with school security, the District will be examining all aspects of school safety, but school security and safety drills will be our focus for the time being...
March 20 was National Agriculture Day – a day designated each year by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA) to celebrate the accomplishments of agriculture. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) joins the council in thanking American agricultural producers, especially in Wyoming, for their contributions to the nation’s outstanding quality of life. This year’s theme, Agriculture: Food for Life, spotlights the hard work of American farmers, ranchers and foresters who diligently work to provide food, fiber and more to the United States and count...
I was thinking the other day about a certain family member with whom the scales are decidedly out of balance to the tune of thousands of dollars in his favor. It’s been more than a year since I last saw him even though he has been in this locale several times during that period of time. Occasionally his image pops up in my consciousness, and negative thoughts fill my mind of what I’d like to say to him. Then a strange realization creeps in under the blackness of that bitterness, and the question arises — Do you think he’s giving you a thought...
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise,” Socrates more than 400 B.C Through the kindness of many coaches and administrators, I have been allowed the privilege of associating with a group of HSCHS athletes who subject themselves to a most vigorous conditioning regimen the likes of which I don’t remember from my own athletic experience at their age. Their practice sessions range from an hour to nearly two hours some days; they start at 4...
Several Thermopolites braved the elements last Sunday to join a Women & Allies march held in Cody, including Reggie and Cindy Dragon, Elizabeth Straley, Barb Rice, Karen Hitchens, Howard Samelson, Suzanne Samelson, Levi Shinkle, and Marcia Bean. After the success of the 2017 Women’s March — prompted by the inauguration of Donald Trump — the message saw millions of women and men gathering to support women’s rights. This year a series of anniversary rallies were being held on Friday, Saturday or Sunday in cities across America. Casper, Cody &...
Wyoming has amazing students and educators, some of the best in the country and even the world! Some may debate that first statement and when the goal is to simply cut funding to education, it is easy to point out areas of weakness; every organization has things they are working on. Schools in general must focus on the concept of continual improvement because the work is never done. Being an educator never comes with the opportunity to stand back and admire your work for long periods of time, because each fall a new group of bright, young...
Educational practitioner and researcher Dr. Rick DuFour coined the phrase “the genius of AND versus the tyranny of OR.” His theory can be applied to the current school funding crisis in Wyoming. Many times when we talk about a funding shortage for any fundamental service, we often utilize the “tyranny of OR” to defeat solutions to our problems. What I mean by that is that we often make the assumption that we must sacrifice one group of people, or one measure, to save another. We rationalize our position with the protection of one, at the exp...
Last week I shared about the idea that cuts mean different things to different people, and as long as your children/grandchildren are not affected, they may not bother you that much. This week, I want to touch on how we are all tied together. Roughly 85 percent of school budgets consist of staffing costs. In education it is simple, we need staff to educate our students. School funding cuts equals less people and fewer programs. Less staff also means less patronage to our local businesses and less tax base directly affecting our local economy....
Is there room for more cuts and efficiencies with schools? The answer depends on what is important to you. Big School/Small School: In small schools one certified staff member represents an entire elective program. Band, agriculture, art, and digital learning are just a few of the programs that are represented by only one or a partial teacher in HSCSD #1. Reducing a position can eliminate an entire program and student opportunity. Personal Importance: I learned long ago that every person’s passion may not be important to others, but that d...
The 2018 Wyoming Legislature reconvenes on February 12, 2018 to begin the budget session. Many legislators have shared publicly they have no interest in addressing the shortfall in state education funding with additional revenue sources. My last column addressed the cuts that have taken place in HSCSD #1 since 2010, and that the legislature has a constitutional obligation to provide for education, and thirty-six other fundamental rights in Article I. The Wyoming Legislature could choose to ignore the shortfall in funding in the upcoming...
What educational choices do we want for the children of our community? Last week I shared in regard to fundamental rights provided by the Wyoming Constitution with regard to education and the impact of the Wyoming Legislature’s choice to leave out the external cost adjustment component of the Wyoming school funding model since 2010 to our students’ education. This week I want to focus on reductions that have taken place since that time in HSCSD #1. Complete program eliminations include: the family consumer science (home economics) program tha...
In my last column, I touched on the significance of our forefathers providing education as a guaranteed fundamental right to the citizens of Wyoming. (Article I Section 23 provides for education). Article 7-1 of the Wyoming Constitution states: The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the s...
Greetings Hot Springs County Patrons, The new school year is off to a terrific start. Students and staff are settling into their classes, and parents and families are establishing their routines. There is a great deal of positive energy at the start of a new school year. For our seniors, they are experiencing their “last first-day”, and for our youngest students, it is the beginning of a journey that will literally change their lives. Having had the humbling privilege of serving children for more than two decades, I have had the great opp...
Annually, as we approach another Perseids Meteor Shower in August, I am reminded of a day back in 2000, and a wildfire. It was August 11. The Kates Basin Fire was burning the ridge from Blondie Pass to the Wind River Canyon. The day began fairly benign. Crews were making progress building fire line. Breezes were just 3-5 miles per hour. But then, just after noon, the wind began gusting to 45 miles per hour. With humidity around 10 percent and temperatures above 90, the fire exploded. Working on Mexican Pass that day was Jim Burnett, an...
SHOP THERMOP! It is the war cry and basic marketing of our community’s businesses. We have all heard it, and we all have our own responses. The question I would present to these businesses is, why? What do you have to offer me that I can only get in Thermopolis? Nearly forty people recently went through an intensive half-day customer service and hospitality workshop. We all learned, or dusted off basic customer service skills that were taught many years and many jobs ago. I am sure that Mark Dykes will have written an article about what we d...
My freshman civics teacher, Mr. Cormack, assigned many writing projects throughout the year requiring him to repeat his favorite admonition to be “brief, concise, and to the point.” When he assigned a paper extolling the right to vote, I took him seriously and wrote, “If people don’t vote, our country will die. But what if they vote wrong?” Mr. Cormack responded, “Mr. Clothier, it is possible to be TOO brief, concise, etc.” Given the state of our election campaigns, I’ve been thinking of historians’ controversies 1000 years in the future (sh...
There was a time in my life when the three necessities were a roof over my head, food on the table and a beat-up, well-used baseball mitt on my hand . . . and I wasn’t sure about the roof. Summer was viewed by youngsters then pretty much as it is now — a time of “hanging out" with friends doing whatever the moment presented as long as it had something to do with a bat and ball. Dad was home from the war, we were in the first home that was ours and not somebody else’s, and “Ike” was President. The Russians were a million miles away, and our des...
This is only my second time in Cleveland so the neighborhood I picked for lodging, while covering the Republican National Convention, was a crap shoot. I got lucky. Tremont is about a mile due south of the convention center and I had planned on just renting a bicycle, thinking it would be easier pedaling in and out of the downtown area than taking a cab or Uber. I was wrong. On Sunday, friend, wife and I decided to do some reconnaissance in the hope that my internet-mapped route would be as easy as it looked but as Sunday wore on, the police,...
The rest of this series will propose best solutions to dealing with the geologic hazards of the Bighorn River Floodplain. A previous column described the geologic hazards caused by the Wind River Canyon rockslides. These rockslides are a threat to motorists, trains and even the town of Thermopolis. The canyon closures and the vehicle and train wrecks are obvious reminders of the dynamic force of gravity at work on the walls of the canyon, often aided by precipitation and train vibration. A more catastrophic event would be a large-scale...
It once was thought that a medical bill adding up to a million dollars was a catastrophic economic blow to a family from which it would likely never recover financially, but that was before organ transplants and other medical technologies now able to save life where previously no chance existed, but can cost much more than a million dollars now. In the early 70s, a friend’s daughter was born nearly three months premature. The bill reached over a half million dollars by the time the couple could take their child home. I lost contact with the f...
Trying to talk in a reasonable manner about gun legislation in Wyoming is like throwing rocks at a hornets’ nest from three feet and expecting the emerging residents to be thankful for the opportunity to meet you. So . . . let there be some common ground before the discussion starts. The 300 million or so firearms in the U.S. (100 million or so handguns) are not inherently evil, but they are dangerous if handled carelessly, improperly or criminally. Even the most ardent pro-gun advocates are appalled by the statistics of firearm deaths in t...
Transgender bathrooms are not something that most people like to talk about. In the news, we see that people are going to start bringing the law into transgender people using the bathroom. A lot of people don’t see the big deal with it. There are no laws on transgender bathroom using. But people or owners of businesses can complain because they aren’t using their actual gender bathroom. North Carolina passed the bill for transgenders to use the bathroom you see them as. But people are saying how it makes them uncomfortable or how they don’t bel...
Donald Trump is boiling over more than usual from the frustration of watching past victories being eroded by curious math formulas that seem to deny the validity of voter preference. Bernie Sanders draws huge, enthusiastic crowds but would have to achieve nearly 65 percent in electoral victories to even close the gap on Hillary Clinton's lead. Our own Independent Record headlines "Democratic caucus evenly split" (Apr 14) when even a quick scan of the article reveals that Bernie Sanders won a double digit victory over Hillary Clinton state-wide...
When I was a boy, I once walked near a wasp nest in a clothes line pole at which time one pesky inhabitant took umbrage and stung me on the jaw. I swatted him away but he evidently thought once was not enough and returned to sting again slightly below the initial attack...another swat and a third attack. Now, there were two very angry parties involved in a unpleasant dialogue, and I doubt that that wasp understood that crazy entity chasing it around the yard until he landed and met his doom. Somehow the end game took some of the sting out of...
