This is the 80th annual observance of National Newspaper Week. Naturally, I’m hyper-aware of the importance and value of newspapers and journalists all year long. If I wasn’t, I would need to be in a different line of work, obviously. But this week, conversations with friends and acquaintances have brought[Read More…]
Columns
Loose Ends: A place at the table
MEEKER | Years ago as a reporter, I first became aware of the need for local government to send representatives over to Denver to make sure decisions about our area were not being made without us. The Piceance Basin was booming and plans were being made to handle the influx[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Number Jumble
By DOLLY VISCARDI | Special to the Herald Times MEEKER | They say it is all in the numbers. Any change in government policy and reasoned decision-making should be reflected in the digits in the data. Local governments often turn to paid consultants to look at the numbers and interpret[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Oct. 1, 2020
That was a debacle, not a debate By NIKI TURNER | [email protected] I try to avoid touching on national politics in this space, but what we witnessed on live television Tuesday between presidential candidates was, quite frankly, embarrassing. It resembled those awkward family dinners that devolve into a shouting match[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: A long way to go
Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg It’s hard to believe that just 50 years ago, a woman couldn’t get a credit card without having her husband co-sign the application, could be[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Far and away
RBC I Living in the northwest corner of Colorado for only part of a lifetime gives one a different perspective about distance. Those old sayings people use to describe the proximity of a place often didn’t work. There seemed to be few places that could be described to be just up the[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: A different kind of horror movie
I’ve never been a big fan of modern horror movies. Most of the characters are what we refer to in fiction writing as TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) and the villains are over-the-top evil with zero redemptive qualities. It’s hard to connect with protagonists who are too dumb to turn[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Hindsight is 20/20
By Niki Turner | [email protected] 2020 sucks. On that — if on nothing else — we can all agree. I’m still scraping branches off my roof from this week’s super-early winter storm. I don’t know why any of us are surprised, the weather these days is beyond unpredictable and into[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Finding Fault
By DOLLY VISCARDI | Special to the Herald Times MEEKER | “What are you going to do with it?” A gruff, accusatory voice broke into my peaceful morning walk. I looked over to see who was concerned about the cluster of bright yellow Aspen leaves in my hand. I had[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Cutting off the nose to spite the face
By now you’ve likely heard about the drama this week at the county regarding budget cuts and restructuring county departments and how no one wants to lose our local dispatch center. It’s true that the commissioners have some difficult decisions to make, and anyone who has ever tried to balance[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: 1 in 4
Last week we learned that we have received another national press award for our coverage of the Daniel Pierce shooting in Rangely last year. We are the recipients of the first-place award for investigative journalism in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. I’ve been humbled and honored by the[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Rascals in. Rascals out.
MEEKER | Rascals in. Rascals out. More than 125 years ago, those two phrases were this paper’s editor’s words of choice to describe the political machinations that move below most of our country’s surface. That continues to happen today. Everyone’s perspective differs depending on their own agendas and allegiances. The[Read More…]