LETTERS OPINIONS
Loneliness: People do need people
Ashley, North Dakota, is a small farming town where the local diet leans hard on sausage, deep-fried chicken and strudel. It has something of a medical center, but the nearest trauma hospital able to handle the most serious injuries is almost four hours away in Fargo.
In no one we trust: Americans grow increasingly cynical, with increasingly good reason
In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled “When Unity Was All-American,” writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those whom they elected. “What I remember most,” he recalled about America during World War II, “are home front adults pulling …
Price gouging is whose problem?
Horrors. The profiteers running this year’s World Cup are forcing fans to shell out thousands for a single ticket. But they’re not. FIFA, which oversees the once-every-four-years soccer tournament, is slapping astounding prices on the tickets. No one has to buy them.
Bureaucrats in the way
Is your business “needed”? Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is “needed.” Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn’t proved her business was needed.
The Platners are in therapy — they really need it
The Democrats’ apparent choice to replace Maine Republican Susan Collins in the U.S. Senate has built a rap sheet of dazzling disqualifiers. It wasn’t enough that Graham Platner’s impersonation of a blue-collar oysterman has been exposed. Turns out he attended the Hotchkiss School, an elite prep school in Connecticut and …
728 X 90 AD
Rocket men: Hezbollah demands impunity and Democrats say ‘Sure!’
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen recently claimed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was “un-American,” an announcement that surely surprised the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American citizens who have supported AIPAC, whose forebears and family members served in America’s military and fought for their country in …
Know Your Legal Rights
Graduation parties, summer festivals, and holiday weekends often bring more people onto Wisconsin roads — and more alcohol-related driving risks. For drivers with a prior OWI, state law requires significantly stricter penalties for a second offense, including mandatory jail time and long-term driving restrictions.
Roadless forests at risk as repeal effort advances
To the Editor: The U.S. Forest Service is attempting to repeal the Roadless Rule, a very popular rule, which has protected millions of acres of National Forests from logging and mining for 25 years. These roadless areas are often the last remaining intact ecosystems in the U.S., providing vital habitat …
Sonny Rollins knew not to die young
How is it that the “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins lived to 95? Aren’t jazz musicians supposed to die at tragically early ages? Actually, that’s a myth that Rollins and others proved flawed.
Trump’s Memorial Day message
I don’t expect very much of President Donald Trump and generally, I’m not disappointed. In so many ways that we have come to take for granted, he is a small man, the antithesis of what we mean by “Presidential.” Tall in stature, small in character. That’s who we heard from …
728 X 90 AD
River News: Our View
Well, just as we presumed, the Oneida County board was partying like there was no tomorrow this past week, voting to approve the DNR’s purchase of yet more land using tax dollars in Oneida County.
When political violence becomes acceptable, it becomes inevitable
A society that begins to excuse political violence should not be surprised when political violence multiplies. Once you create a moral framework in which violence is not merely understandable but righteous — once you argue that certain institutions are so corrupt, so “murderous,” that the people who participate in them …
Looking past ceremony: Military Appreciation Month and the case for strengthened veteran health in northern Wisconsin
Communities across Northern Wisconsin are closely tied to military service — with countless residents and families shaped by generations of enlistment, deployment, and return. That connection takes center stage each May during the commemoration of the National Military Appreciation Month — an annual tribute that intends not only to highlight …
Libertarians condemn petition circulator ban
To the Editor: The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin strongly opposes the recent federal court decision allowing Wisconsin’s out-of-state petition circulator ban to remain in place. Measures like this do not strengthen democracy, they weaken voter choice and make it harder for grassroots candidates, independent candidates, and third parties to compete …
River News: Our View
There are moments when local governments reveal whether they actually believe the policies and principles they themselves adopted, or whether those principles are merely performative words for public consumption, to be tucked away and forgotten the moment political pressure arrives.
728 X 90 AD
