Opinion

OPINION – The horse’s mouth might be the worst place right now

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Last night’s Seward County Commission meeting devolved quickly into a three-ring circus with accusations made and one commissioner telling the public to only be informed by other paid inside government source.

Sorry, Commissioner Presephoni Fuller, but you don’t get to tell the public where and how they should inform themselves, and that the source should be solely the government.

That’s why freedom of speech exists. That’s why the right to redress the government exists, so that people like you who feel ordained to lead cannot impose your will on the rest of us.

OPINION – Loving strangers

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

Traveling is inherently annoying. Even if I travel light, I have a heavy handbag, my suitcase catches on the curb, my laptop flops against my hip. Everything takes three times more energy than it seems like it should.

Once I get to the airport, there are more annoyances. People walk slowly, three abreast, oblivious to the fact that they are not moving at the prevailing speed. Everyone takes too much carry-on luggage. People talk too loudly on their cellphones. Younger people sit on the floor and spread all their possessions around them, as if they plan to take up permanent residence in the airport waiting area.

OPINION – AI runs on power, but power isn’t moving fast enough

GUEST COLUMN, Christian Bonilla, DMARK Energy Solutions

Artificial intelligence is booming -- and America's power grid is struggling to keep up.

At the World Economic Forum, President Trump recently warned that "We need double the energy we currently have in the United States for AI to be as big as we want to have it." Elon Musk has echoed similar concerns, predicting that AI data centers could overwhelm the electricity supply next year. The Department of Energy predicts that AI-driven electricity demand could increase sixfold by 2030.

They're right about the scale of AI's electricity needs. But they're wrong about the diagnosis.

OPINION – Tax increase was classic bait and switch

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Todd Stanton, Seward County Commission

As the saga of the greatest tax hike in Seward County history continues courtesy of the Taxing Trio (as they have been dubbed by this paper) much media and social media coverage centers upon troubling facts uncovered by citizen investigators.

But, let's together examine how we ended up here. Perhaps you, too, will view it as one of the greatest cons ever perpetrated upon our citizens. We can name it The Great Bait and Switch.

OPINION – Charlie Kirk and the State of our nation

GUEST COLUMN, Star Parker

The nation is rightly traumatized by the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The media is filled, also rightly, with give and take trying to understand what can and should be done so that we don't see more of the same.

But unfortunately, much of the expression that I hear is informed by the same misguided sense of right and wrong that brought to fruition the horrible act.

That is — who do we blame?

Homicide is unfortunately not so exceptional in our country. Among industrialized nations, the U.S. homicide rate, hovering around 6 per 100,000, is among the highest.