Supporting local, small businesses is more important now than ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses are among the hardest hit. Reasons? They do not always have the ability to social distance due to space constrictions, they may not have an on-line presence to continue with sales…
America! It is time to choose! And the choice is not easy! And filled with potential problems!
Ms. Embry [Letter, Nov. 18 issue], and others, kindly keep your guilt trip to yourselves. I would like to read a newspaper without somebody telling me I’m selfish. The China virus is the flu; you will most likely get over it. I might not, I have all the co-morbid factors, but I will not subm…
This morning my daily Seattle Times had an article by Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Statesman: “Idaho hospitals may have to start rationing care next month.” St. Luke’s, Idaho’s largest health care system, is projecting a crisis in December where hospitals may be forced to begin choosing which …
The ICFP opinion piece by Laura Smith (Nov. 18, 2020) was long on emotionalism and short on fact.
Laura Smith, representing Syringa Hospital (Free Press , Nov. 18) advocates continued widespread use of masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 due to its alarming spread. If the masks are effective, why the alarming increase in cases?
Supporting local, small businesses is more important now than ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses are among the hardest hit. Reasons? They do not always have the ability to social distance due to space constrictions, they may not have an on-line presence to continue with sales…
Why does Idaho (pop. 1.7 million) have 919 COVID-19 deaths and Australia (pop. 25 million) have 909? Why does Oregon (pop. 4.3 million) have 885 deaths and Utah (pop. 3.3 million) have 849 fatalities? Norway (pop 5.4 million), has reported 328 deaths while nearby Sweden (pop. 10 million) has…
Thanksgiving is one of the most patriotic holidays we celebrate as Americans.
Having lived seven years in Vietnam, I know communism. Communism tells its citizens if they can go to church, or assemble for political meetings. It tells them who they can associate with. It tells them what news they can read, what programs they can watch, what music they can listen to, and…
(Editor’s note: Carol Asher submitted this statement to be read at the Nov. 19 Lewiston City Council meeting in regards to its mask-wearing decision. Council approved 4-3 a face mask or other covering be worn while in public, through Jan. 25.)
Some things I don’t understand about covid-19. Some states are seeing in the neighborhood of 1,000 new cases daily. The people making the decisions — county commissioners, mayors, governors, etc. — are saying we must wear masks and practice social distancing whenever we are outside our homes…
Many civic leaders in Idaho and other states have issued orders during the past nine months affecting property or what happens on property. Do such orders apply to public or private property or both?
There is an enemy among us. Mostly unrecognized, it is a pervasive enemy — staring back at us in those black mirrors we call screens. Unrelenting, this enemy manipulates us into wasting away the hours, distracted and apathetic to the needs of our family, friends, and community. That enemy is…
“[Dexter] wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people—he wanted the glittering things themselves . . . [but] sometimes he ran up against the mysterious denials and prohibitions in which life indulges.”—from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Winter Dreams
Apparently, this community cares more about politics and vague notions of “freedom” than we do about the lives of our family, friends, and neighbors. We claim to support our businesses, veterans, schools, and first responders, yet we are doing nothing to protect them from Covid exposure. We …
No president is elected in November. So, I wonder, why requests for concession speeches due to popular votes dominate some headlines when the game hasn’t even been played yet?
Dear community members,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
I am concerned about your front page article [Nov. 11 issue] in yesterday’s Free Press (“Syringa board discusses stance on masks”) and I feel a need to respond to board members’ quoted comments.
Real leadership does not often come with the title or the paycheck. Often, the best leaders are those who lead from where they are, wherever they are. We all know this. Jim May, Syringa Hospital trustee, knows this as well. That’s why he asked Kristi Brooks, Syringa Foundation director and t…
Local manufacturing businesses and jobs have experienced a resurgence in recent years that needs to continue for our state’s livelihood and connection to the global economy.
It is a great benefit to our state that more than 115,000 veterans choose to make Idaho their home. Idaho veterans offer a helping hand to their fellow veterans, military families and broader communities time after time. I look to Idaho veterans, the veterans organizations they lead and the …
Reduced availability of medical visits, and concerns about contracting COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic contributed to large drops in medical visits, including for preventive care. But now is the time to makes sure you are up-to-date on prevention. Even though I have no family histo…
We have different types of alarms in our life in order to be prepared and to remind us of things that are important. Some alarms we can hit snooze, or even ignore, most of the time we need to heed them. We have had alarms go off for seven months about COVID, we know there’s fatigue, but we c…
Adding to Jim Chmelik’s excellent article [Oct. 28 issue]: Our Founding Fathers, like us, were not perfect men, but they were great men, tasked with the formation of a government instituted to protect all men in the defense of their God-given rights; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Freedom! What is it? What does it mean to you and me? What did it mean to William Wallace of Scotland, played by Mel Gibson in Braveheart, who launched a rebellion against England because of treatment and death of his wife. You hear “Freedom!” all through the movie, again at the end, when Wa…
As we approach Veterans’ Day, it’s important to honor the contributions of service members and veterans to our safety and security; and, to acknowledge the skills and perspective veteran-owned small businesses bring to the business world.
This is a tale of two governors and the importance they place on every state’s largest job-generator, small businesses.
Who to trust? The grump with the permanent down-turned mouth and no pets ... or the guy with the brilliant, genuine smile and dogs?
Halloween is upon us, and normally that means hundreds of happy kids in the streets, in the stores, and knocking on doors. This is the first year in my lifetime that is a truly scary thought. I’m still hoping to see some guidance from our local leaders on how to celebrate safely in the middl…
If those who are managing this “pandemic” are so concerned about our health, why are they actively keeping promising treatments for “Covid” from us? There are plenty of doctors out there who are having great success in treating patients with “Covid.” Why are they being ignored and censored? …
The government our founders gave us was a republic, not a democracy.
So, Skip Brandt [Oct. 21 guest opinion] accuses this 40-year resident of lack of insight into the dumpster history. If some may recall, Mr. Brandt was the one fighting to have a huge garbage receiving station on Mt. Idaho Grade Road where Cook and Sons are now located. The people objected. I…
It is rare that two candidates for the same position are in my circle of friends or associates, but the race for the open county commission position is one such situation today.
Last week, I received word that a person in my congregation tested positive for COVID19 with symptoms to prove it. The adage my wife and I came to adapt earlier in the year proved true, “I’m done with decision-making in 2020.” We made the decision to keep the church open, informing congregan…
“I get so upset when I see how our freedom is being trampled. So many people don’t appreciate what they have. Speak up – don’t compromise.” - Margarete Fallat.
Just a few thoughts with respect to Idaho County Democratic Party Chairman Jim May and his opinion [last week’s issue].
Your tax dollars are being used for one group’s multimillion-dollar business and it has to stop. It’s an injustice that is costing Idahoans and even taking some lives. You’re probably thinking, “Oh, there goes Carl,” but this is serious and this is what it means to each one of us.
It’s always amazing when angry citizens write letters without doing their homework. Kim Chenoweth’s letter [Oct. 14 issue] was nothing short of speculation that there is some sinister plot in the works aimed at making life easy for the people living in the City of Grangeville. If she had bee…
Hip! Hip! Hooray for teachers! I am so grateful for our local teachers for showing up at school and making our lives recognizable again. My five children have loved school and thrived this last month of school.
The Free Press last Wednesday carried a letter from the local Democrat whiner, Shelly Dumas, which I found to be both humorous and typically deceiving. Like so many of her past offerings, she uses the usual tired, old Democrat approach to the current choices available to Idahoans.
As the voting deadline approaches, it boggles the mind to believe there are still undecided voters out there. After the censoring stunts by the tech giants from Silicon Valley, Twitter and Facebook, they made it crystal clear they don’t give a damn about our First Amendment Rights – Freedom …
“Great leaders we have had, but we could not have had great leaders unless they had great people to follow.” -- Eleanor Roosevelt.
Who elected the commissioners? Simmons Sanitation? So Simmons bought a dumpster site near the golf course and this eyesore, like all their others, will welcome travelers to town. The solution: fire Simmons, hire Walco. You’ll respond, “But we signed a contract.” Seems to me once they remove …
My family and I would like to say thank you to everyone who has been so generous and kind to us over the last few months. Since my diagnosis of breast cancer back in March we have seen an outpouring of love and support from a wide variety of people in our community. We have received many mea…
We can do better than the letter “R”. For too many years, too many Idahoans have methodically and monotonously voted “R” without regard for candidate qualifications or real issues. Relying on a worn-out strategy, the GOP has punched the same buttons in 2020; 2nd Amendment, abortion. Honestly…
More thoughts on people not taking “Covid” seriously. Mary Davidson (Progress Oct. 1 issue) calls non-mask wearers stubborn. This implies that they know they should wear masks but just refuse to do so. What about the possibility that the non-mask wearers know something different to be true t…
Hello! My name is Brandy Tharp and I am here representing The Humane League, who is a non-profit organization for the welfare of animals, particularly ending the abuse of animals raised for food. You may have caught my previous letter last month that supported the importance of USDA, organic…
If you watched the Vice Presidential debate Tuesday, you heard Democratic nominee Kamala Harris vigorously debate the deaths of over 210,000 Americans from a virus that no one (medical and scientific personnel) had ever heard of before, nor did anyone have expertise on how to treat it back i…
October! Interesting month! And a reminder that every patriot should be thinking about a couple of events which happened just over 100 years ago! First was WW I, which in 1917 was tearing up Europe and we were getting involved. The other was the documented “Miracle of the Sun” in Fatima, Por…
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