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Financially, making cents doesn’t make sense. A recent presidential directive to stop minting pennies aims to solve the problem that could only befall a government — losing money by making it.
Even with the current pause, the penny will be around for a long time. There are an estimated 240 billion pennies in circulation, or roughly $7 for every person in the United States.
The stamina and mettle of the Legislature were very much tested during Week 6 of the 2025 Session, as we worked our way through all of 41 bills in a single day on the Floor while it was zero degrees and snowing outside and all other state offices were closed. That is what can happen during the lead-up to “Turnaround,” the halfway point when time has run out for consideration of most bills in the house of origin.
The prospect of facing a deadline even had some of our committees meeting twice in the same day and having to return to the Chamber for roll-call votes. Such is the glamorous life in a day at the Statehouse, where we’re on “information overload” and called upon to make important decisions on a plethora of issues affecting our constituents. I’m kind of a “regular order” guy who favors a more consistent, even pace, but don’t always have the luxury of getting things done my way. Can any of you relate to that?
I so rarely get sick that, when I do, I look at my body like it’s some kind of trickster.
“Is this your idea of a joke?” I asked my body in the middle of the night.
I occasionally get carsick and even get air motion sickness on planes, but my nausea never (if you will pardon the expression) rises to the level of actual vomiting. So my reaction at 2:30 in the morning was to assume this was a practical joke.
A suicide devastates more than one life.
I learned that lesson shortly after my doorbell rang at 2:30 a.m. on September 10, 2016. My 20-year-old son, Austin, had died by suicide. After decades reciprocating his infectious smile and admiring his achievements on the football field and in the classroom, I had to digest in an instant that I would never see him again.
What subject/subjects should I focus on this evening: trains, planes, drones, government, conspiracy theories? My little scraps of information come from scribbles on everything from a church bulletin, bank envelope, college request for money, regular paper, and last but not least, nestled in the recipe for a chicken casserole.
Shortly before the Blackhawk helicopter/airplane collision, I watched a video (the date for replay shown on the page was March 24, 2024) with a female representative from Lockheed Martin bragging how they had gotten together with our government and developed a way to control the Blackhawk helicopter by computer or radio transmission; and she was on her way to Washington, D.C. to present it to them.
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