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Domino effect
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 11.11.2009 / 12:59 PM PST
When my kids were young, they loved a book titled “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” It was a cute little story, about the consequences of a single action. (If you give the mouse a cookie, it needs a glass of milk to go with it. The mouse spills the milk, so you need […]
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Do the math on health care reform
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 10.15.2009 / 12:56 PM PDT
I have a math question to pose for all those congressmen and senators who cannot seem to find common ground on health care reform. It is a word problem — the kind you used to hate back in high school algebra class.
Here it is:
I’m 59-years-old. My plan was to semi-retire, working part-time as a newspaper […]
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 09.21.2009 / 1:53 PM PDT
You lie!
While driving through Utah on a vacation last week, my husband and I were startled to see those two words, complete with the exclamation point, carefully woven with fluorescent ribbon into wire fences on over several highway bridges. Granted, Utah isn’t exactly an Obama state. But still, somebody was enough of a fan of […]
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Those lazy, hazy (health care debate) days of summer
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 09.04.2009 / 11:59 AM PDT
As far as summers go, this has been a great one. One of the advantages of being laid-off of work is the extra recreation time. I’ve spent the summer the way Colorado mountain people do: hiking, fishing, camping, floating the river, mushroom-hunting forays, and wildflower photography trips. And on every outing, the topic of health […]
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Talkin’ at the ‘Town Hall’ meeting
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 08.18.2009 / 5:38 PM PDT
Maybe Obama is right about the media coverage of the health care debate.
When Colorado Senator Michael Bennett came to the valley last week for a “Town Hall” discussion of health care reform, 300 people jammed into folding chairs set up in a middle school cafeteria to take part. The local democrats had done their advance […]
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Health care issues? Pass the spaghetti.
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 06.19.2009 / 5:49 PM PDT
When somebody organizes a big community spaghetti dinner in this community, there is often a tragic reason involved.More often than not, some beloved citizen of the valley has suffered a major accident or illness. A few years back, it was a recently graduated high school kid who tumbled down some stairs and suffered a serious […]
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Stimulated by the stimulus package
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 06.02.2009 / 7:24 PM PDT
There’s a certain amount of embarrassment in being unemployed, particularly if you’re the type of person who has worked all of your adult life, at a job you were truly dedicated to. It is humbling to admit, “I’m unemployed” when people ask what you are doing.
That’s why most of the students and the teacher cringed […]
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What’s black and white … and disappearing?
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 04.25.2009 / 5:52 PM PDT
Of course I recognize the irony of using a blog to write about what is happening with newspapers. But since I was laid off from my newspaper-reporting job in early April, I’ve had plenty of time to ponder that issue.
I’ve been a newspaper writer since I was 20 years old. That’s how I define myself, […]
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Joining the recession
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 04.10.2009 / 11:03 AM PDT
I’m not just an observer of the recession and its impact on this mountain boomtown.
I’m part of it.
Last week, the publisher of our little weekly newspaper paid a visit and announced that two of the three members of our editorial staff were being laid off. I was one of them.
It wasn’t unexpected. Newspapers everywhere are […]
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The make-your-own stimulus package
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 04.01.2009 / 12:00 PM PDT
Like most communities, Eagle is feeling the impact of the faltering economy. Here in this valley where, for the past couple of decades, anybody who could breath could find a job, unemployment is an issue. The construction industry, which drives the local economy in this mountain boomtown, is way down. Nobody is buying new houses. […]
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Naughty toddlers and bank bailouts
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 03.11.2009 / 11:29 AM PDT
My friends and I who meet every Friday morning to cross-country ski or snowshoe would never claim to be financial policy experts. Still, like most people, we are concerned about the economy. We read the newspapers, watch television newscasts, and try to make sense out of what is happening. After all, we are all impacted.
The […]
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No news is good news?
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 03.04.2009 / 12:25 PM PST
“I’m going to quit reading the newspaper. It’s all just so depressing. All the news is bad,” declared a co-worker of mine recently.
The irony?
We work for a newspaper.
Apparently, to some people, even within our organization, we’re the bad guys, because we keep reporting news that is less than happy.
I can understand the attitude. The people […]
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Happy dollars and partisan politics
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 02.23.2009 / 11:26 PM PST
Partisan politics hasn’t left Eagle. It has just been sleeping under a bed somewhere for the past couple of months. It made an appearance last week at a meeting of a local service club, on the same day Barrack Obama was in Denver to sign the economic stimulus legislation.
Members of that service club make a […]
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The soup kitchen and the stimulus package
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 02.07.2009 / 2:16 PM PST
The economic downtown is being felt enough in Eagle that starting Monday, the local Methodist Church and the Salvation Army are offering a weekly “soup kitchen.” Volunteers will prepare and dish up a hot, nourishing “simple supper” of soup and rice or pasta every Monday night, for no charge.
The clients will likely be the same […]
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What happened to the ‘boom’ in ‘Boomtown?’
Posted by Kathy Heicher | 01.28.2009 / 12:11 PM PST
Four months ago, in my work as a local newspaper reporter, I interviewed a man who worked for a major local gravel and paving business. I asked about the economy, and he ventured the opinion that this mountain valley, with its resort economy, seems to be somewhat “recession-proof.” At the time, I agreed. Over the […]
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