Your Letters

SJSD, you don’t ‘get it’ With all due respect to the SJSD Board and district administrators: You simply don’t understand or “get it.” How many of you have spent a week or two at our local public high schools? I suspect that none of you have taken this time to evaluate our three high schools.

Africa My wife and I had the good fortune to visit Africa on a 14-day Safari through some of its vast areas of the country, 111.7m sq. miles, and 1,528,432,247 people. The people were very friendly, helpful and willing to help us however they could. I think we kind of stood out. One of most

In light of recent storm I live on the south end of town and I feel like as a tax paying citizen of this city for almost five years now that I need to write this. The City of St. Joseph is abysmal at maintaining their streets and alley ways. In light of this recent

Constituent representation When will elected officials begin to do their job of representing their constituents? I have just read two articles in the News-Press and neither article states how the organizers contacted their electors to act in their behalf. The first is the article about removing the I-229 overpass. I know MoDOT engineers are not

What is going to replace the gas tax? Guess what — thirteen states give drivers an incentive to buy an electric vehicle — before charging them extra for it. Will EV’s pay their fair share to replace this tax? Some ideas getting tossed around to cover the gas tax and its problems: Pennsylvania — Adding

Return to sender The postal service continues to surprise me. The organization delivers millions of pieces of mail daily, at a reasonable cost. But then there are incidents such as these: My son and daughter-in-law and I last week each received back a piece of mail, each marked “Return to Sender. Not deliverable as addressed.

Here is their chance MWSU is in deep trouble. Here’s the MDHEWD five-year enrollment trend: Headcount decline -31.2%; FTE decline — 35.8%; Full-time student decline — 38.2%. MWSU President Elizabeth Kennedy has no answers, yet the Board extended her contract with hefty increases in salary and benefits. Our only hope lies in a new Board

How did I do? As a Director of Purchasing for many years, one thing I can remember clear as day, was the president of the company telling me, “I do not need a paragraph when you can tell me in ‘one’ sentence!” Therefor this letter is one of “bullet” points, no explanations needed as they

Overwhelmed with shame I am horrified and ashamed of the way our guest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was treated at the White House last week. The “spiders” invited the “fly” into our “parlor” and then, true bullies that they are, they sucker punched him, talking over him, shouting at him, attempting to shame him for

Bond issue Transparency for voters! What a novel idea. Just weeks before a new bond issue comes before voters, the Saint Joseph School District admits using a private, yet tax funded, e-mail account to “advise” recipients of information about the 2024 bond. How many times has this happened and not reported? Simple transparency! The most

Choices about schools About the upcoming SJSB election. I am 78 years old, graduated from Central and my wife from Lafayette. We just signed up to freeze our real estate taxes so we are just going to sit this election out and let the parents and kids make the choice about their schools. Michael Stephens

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Dec. 27, 2024 One cent makes no sense It never ceases to amaze me how our government officials think. I see where our current City Manager Clint Thompson thinks another penny CIP tax at North Mall is no big deal. Let’s put this in perspective. If I make an

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Dec. 20, 2024 Shooting school students in Madison, Wisconsin I’ve seen no evidence that Western European countries have fewer mentally disturbed people than we do in the United States. Yet these countries have virtually no mass shootings or attacks on schools. The difference in them and us was demonstrated

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Dec. 13, 2024 Get us out of the U.N. Have the Republicans co-sponsored the “Defund Act” H.R. 6645 and S3428, which would fully withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. and U.N from the U.S? Whereas this is under the UN’s net zero banking alliance (NZBA) plan. U.S. Bank, Wells

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Dec. 6, 2024 Wind mills more good news? Oil and hydraulic fluid deterioration leads to critical failures. Other areas that cause oil leakages include deteriorating seal rings, blocked oil filters, and if oil pressure is too high, pipe ruptures can occur. Another problem that occurs inevitably is the contamination

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Nov. 29, 2024 Why, America? Women’s Suffrage Amendment; Securities and Exchange Act; Social Security Act; Unemployment Compensation Act; Rural Electrification Act; Federal Home Loan Act; 40-hour work week; minimum wage; over time; G.I. Bill; school lunch; Marshall Plan; NATO; Peace Corps; first manned moon mission; Civil Rights Act; Head

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Nov. 22, 2024 Liberal bias A liberal journalist may retire, but they never go away! Alonzo, the difference between liberals and conservatives was mentioned in your assessment of MAGA. Some people don’t feel that way. Conservatives think that way. As Americans, we have to take the feel out of

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Nov. 15, 2024 American Water rate increases I attended the city hall meeting with the Public Service Commission and American Water to express my objections over the outrageous increase American Water is asking for. Here are my points I made to them. Some facts the public needs to know:

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Nov. 8, 2024 The monster in the fields Higher than 300 feet (100m), wind turbines are an integral part of our transition to renewable energy. Currently, there are more than 341,000 wind turbines across the globe. Servicing is infrequent as it requires scaling to the top of the turbine

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Nov. 1, 2024 Why? The editorial endorsement of Josh Hawley should come as no surprise, since you are a 3-timer for Trump, but why? Let’s look at some of his votes in the last four years: Federal minimum wage raise: No Women’s Health Protection Act: No United States Innovation

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Oct. 25, 2024 Vote carefully I believe this year’s November 5 election is the most important in my lifetime. Check out the list of endorsements by news media here in this country and world-wide for Harris/Walz versus Trump/Vance, and you will see what an outlier our local News-Press is

By NewsPress Now Coal-power capacity China has led a surge in coal-power capacity, the world’s total to a record high in 2020, primarily fueled by new plants in China, accounted for about two-thirds of the expansion, with Indonesia and India following closely behind. The current state of coal consumption: The coal fleet expanded by 2%

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Oct. 11, 2024 Benedictine deserves recognition As a 1954 graduate of St. Benedict’s in Atchison, I was again pleased to see the rankings of its successor college, Benedictine, by the US News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal. In its ranking of America’s Best Colleges, US News

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Oct. 4, 2024 Opinion on Trump There are many reasons that Donald Trump is obviously unfit to once again serve as the leader of the free world, one of which is the fact that he seems to prefer autocratic to democratic leaders. However, everything we need to know about

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Sept. 27, 2024 Inquiries to Harris Harris in normal times advocated the most left-wing policies imaginable, often to prove her liberal purity before adoring audiences (Harris had the hardest left voting record in the U.S. Senate.) In a debate or interview, I would pose a number of questions to

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Sept. 20, 2024 Sports betting and school funding Haven’t we heard this before, if we pass a bill, i.e. lottery, it would be a windfall for schools, and now here we go again, pass the sports betting bill and see all the money going to schools. Well, fool me

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Sept. 13, 2024 Ensure a fair count Amazingly, the progressive Democrat/communists faction of the Democrat Party is attempting to stonewall congressional election reform efforts demanded by Republicans that would insure the credibility of ballot integrity for future elections. Charles “Fish Lips” Schumer has declared any such proposal DEAD in

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Sept. 6, 2024 How Kamala and Nixon were similar in more ways than one Kamala Harris unveiled her “economic plan”, such as it is. Among the usual “free stuff” for the uninformed: $25,000 for first time home buyers; $40 million to help fund a new home construction boom with

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Aug. 30, 2024 Know the facts I am writing about an incorrect statement published in Explore Outdoors, July 26-26, 2024, Weekender, C4, after within several weeks of the previous incorrect statement about the Eastern Spadefoot Frog occurring throughout Missouri, including St. Joseph. In the paper, a photo is shown

By NewsPress Now Your letters for Aug. 23, 2024 Selecting the next SJSD Superintendent Dr. Gabe Edgar has announced his retirement effective the end of school year 2024-2025. A note of appreciation to Dr. Edgar for giving the school board adequate time to hire the next superintendent. The board will hire a firm that assists