The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

I would like to make it clear: I didn’t do it!

It wasn’t me who wrote that op-ed piece in the New York Times telling of the disarray at the White House.

This is for the record. I do not know anyone that works for the Times, I have never been in their building, and I have not met with anyone from the Times at an alternate location.

Now, I must admit that I do receive the Times’ Sunday edition, courtesy of my daughter, Kathy Beck. I receive it on Monday, but I do not have contact with a member of their staff. It comes in the mail.

For instance, I have not stated that our country’s immigration policy is flawed, and that we can’t seem to locate some 1,500 children nabbed by federal authorities. I have not stated that our foreign policy is a mess, nor that we are running out of cabinet members and close friends of the president to indict.

I haven’t even written about that $43,000 telephone booth in the EPA office.

The reason I want to deny all this, and more, is because I have an idea that could save our country a lot of money.

If everyone who didn’t write that op-ed piece would send a formal denial to: The President, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington D.C., 20500, it would cut down on the number of people the FBI will have to investigate.

It seems clear to me that it wasn’t written by a senior staff member because I don’t think there are any left, or if there are, they’re probably not able to write something the Times would publish.

Get your denials in as soon as possible.

• On another idea. There is a meeting this coming Thursday at 5:30 at the Wine Bar on Main Street concerning consolidation. You must come.

If people would look at consolidation in terms of the benefits, instead of focusing on the problems, I think it would get a fairer hearing.

The chamber of commerce has arranged for representatives from SCJ Alliance to lend a hand. Their firm has tackled problems like this and is well situated to guide the communities into the processes needed to accomplish this.

Come Thursday night, ask questions, gather information, and keep an open mind.

The topic has been tried and tested a number of times, and always been pushed aside.

It’s an issue whose time has come. Give it a boost.

• The air is beginning to get a crispness to it. Better dig out those parkas for Raider football games.

At least you won’t have to suffer zero-degree weather to see the Raiders play.

In the late 1950s, while covering College of Idaho football games at Caldwell, it got so cold that the college had to put 55-gallon burn barrels along the sidelines because of the cold.

On a couple of occasions that year, the mercury dropped to below zero and officials built fires in the barrels so people could warm themselves. That was when you could travel the sidelines and follow the action on the field.

It was not unusual for players, officials and fans to periodically gather at the barrels to get warm.

At least you won’t have to suffer like this at a Raider game, but you’ll still need a parka.

The College of Idaho is a small, private, liberal arts college with about 1,000 students.