ABC News reports: “A respiratory illness sweeping through parts of the U.S. has landed in Colorado, sickening hundreds of children, according to local doctors. The disease hasn’t been officially identified but (they) suspect a rare respiratory virus called Human Enterovirus 68.”

While authorities plan to investigate where the illness originated from, I think they ought to start by looking at the 60-thousand-plus children that allowed in to the U.S. illegally. Too bad the Obama administration will not release this information to the public or confirm or deny the possibility.

And I know that jus’ by recommending such an action and because political correctness dictates — I’ll be called a racist.

It’s a ‘rookie mistake’ on my part, shopping for shoes with a woman that isn’t my wife. I should have known better, but I did it anyway.

My friend Kay claimed to need new walking-shoes before going on a cruise later this year. So I thought, “How hard can that be?”

If I had to rate it from one to ten, with ten being the hardest possible, I’d say it was a 21. We looked through several different stores for nearly five-hours. But I must admit that our last stop was a classic.

After finding a shoe she absolutely ‘loved,’ Kay took nearly half-an-hour to find the right size. She explained that she needed to make sure the pair she purchased fit in a specific way.

By specific, she meant not too tight, not too loose, not too much heel, no uncomfortable pinching, etc. I know that had she been able to see my face, she would have seen a blank stare in my eyes.

I know it isn’t nice to check out like that – but sometimes self-defense comes before friendship.

The sales woman, a pregnant young lady of 19, ran back and forth pulling shoes from their stock. She climbed up and down the ladder in the back room searching for each shoe-size Kay requested.

At the end, and with 10 shoe boxes open and shoes of every size between 6 and 8, Kay simply looked at the woman and stated as fact, “I don’t like them.”

I nearly walked out of the store so I could go hide.

That’s when Kay said, “I’ll come back Sunday.”

Triggered, I responded, finishing her statement, “…and make this nice woman run up and down a ladder and back and forth again.”

Hearing my smart-assed remark, the young woman looked at me, “Oh she can come back Sunday, but I won’t be here – I have the day-off for my baby shower.”

“You’re pregnant?” Kay exclaimed, adding, “I didn’t notice!”

Once outside and at the car, Kay looked at me and asked, “I should I go back and buy a pair.”

“I thought you didn’t like them?” I responded.

“I don’t,” she answered, “but I feel bad for making her work so hard.”

Fortunately for the pregnant woman and my sanity, I was able to talk Kay out of returning to purchase a pair of shoes out of pity. But then on our way home Kay declared, “We need to find me a new purse.”

I nearly jumped from her car as we sped along northbound 395.

The year 1977 was full of activities throughout Del Norte County. In Smith River, new lily ideas shared Lily Field Day brought experts from colleges, scientists, jobbers, and others interested in the bulb industry together with the growers to spend a day exploring the future. Research and Development chairman Birger Dalstrom opened the meeting and introduced the main speakers. 

Sharon McKinney, Dr. Al Roberts of Oregon State University, a specialist in ornamental horticulture, had developed test fields to try new bulb strains. James Green, also of the State University talked about micro irrigation and fertilizer injections and Dr. Bob Lindstrum, a USDA inspector, talked about the need for less fertilizer as the plant can only absorb so much and overfeeding creates nothing but waste. 

A little further south, a state senate bill authorized an $8 million acquisition of the Lake Earl property. The dune area and Lake Tolowa would be managed by Parks and Recreation, and Lake Earl and surrounding wetlands would be managed by the Department of Fish and Game.

The purchase had been in the works since the recommendation of the California Coastal Commission. It was deemed as having a high degree of statewide significance and importance.

In a ‘Del Norte Triplicate,’ editorial, publisher Jim Yarbrough stated that $8 million was not nearly enough to compensate the private owners and that included the lakes themselves. Yarbrough warned that the deal would consume more than expected as had the Redwood National Park.

Yarbrough acknowledged that much of the property is not useful for agriculture and has had building permits tied up by the Coastal Commission. Saving dunes and wetlands was not a bad idea since it takes the burden from private owners who cannot use their land for anything except running a few cows or sheep.

At the opposite end of the county, the Klamath Salmon Festival celebrated its 11th annual parade and feast. The theme for the day was “Redwoods to Peanuts.”

It was a day for the 4,000 plus visitors to understand the pressure put on Del Norte County by the federal government’s acquisition of more land to enlarge Redwood National Park. The floats and entries were judged on how well they depicted the theme.

Teri Philips was crowned as Festival Queen and was also in the Fourth of July parade. Long time business leader Jack Morris was the Grand Marshal of the parade.

Besides the barbecued salmon dinners that were served all day, there was music, a logging show including Jack and Jill double bucking, art show, fashion show, and much more. It was a true celebration of the town of Klamath and its comeback from the floods into a growing community.

In Stateline, Nevada during the 1940’s there used to be a “Welcome to Nevada” sign that read “A Debt Free State Welcomes You, ” “No sales tax, ” and “No Income Tax.”

That was different century though. Today,  while Nevada’s has no income tax, the state’s debt is well over $26 million and  it’s sales tax rate is now 6.85% to 8.1% depending on local municipalities.

Tesla’s decision to build their factory in Northern Nevada came with some incentives. These include transferable tax credits of $12,500 for up to 6,000 permanent, full-time employees, no real or personal property taxes until 2024, and exemption from Nevada’s 1.17 percent modified business tax on wages for 10 years.

Great — but there are two problems as I see it.

The first is employment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the politicians and executives are boasting 6,500 jobs at an average of $25 an hour.

However, many of those jobs will be filled from outside the area. This is because Nevada’s education system ranks traditionally at the bottom of most national polls; we don’t have the trained workers necessary to fill the positions.

The second are the dim-wits who are ‘negotiating’ to bring this company to Nevada. They’ve wasted tax-payer money, when all they need to do is cut the cost of doing business in the state by eliminating over-regulation and high taxes.

Several people were injured, including seven children, in an explosion at the Nevada Discovery Museum in Reno where docents were demonstrating how to make a smoke tornado.   

Authorities say that about a dozen children were seated six to 10 feet away from the routine experiment. They add, that the order in which the chemicals were applied got switched, causing a flash that lasted two to four seconds.

One child suffered second-degree burns and was kept overnight at Renown Regional Medical Center for observation. Officials with the hospital say six children and two adults were also treated, but released.

No serious damage was reported to the building. Reno Fire says it plans to recommend that the museum review its safety procedures.

The tornado effect is created when a cotton ball soaked with methyl alcohol is dusted with boric acid and then set on fire inside a large glass container. The jar is set on a Lazy Susan, then spun around to create a miniature green whirlwind.

Jesus said, “If anyone wants your shirt, hand over your coat as well and if someone wants you to walk a mile, walk two with them.”

I’m paraphrasing of course.

As a kid I believed that was only in the event I was being forced. But as an adult, I’m not so sure.

Yes, I can give you the shirt of my back and the coat too and I’d walk a couple miles with you, but in the end what good would it do you? If I handed you all the cash in my wallet, the keys to my truck or give you a room in my house in which to live, what have you gained?

Nothing! It all jus’ stuff.

It is far better to love you unconditionally, despite or perhaps in spite of our differences. Love leads to hope and is the one truly charitable item we possess that can be given away freely.

“The FBI and Apple said Monday they are investigating the apparent hacking of iCloud accounts that led to alleged nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other female stars being posted online,” reports NBC News

The FBI is also investigating former IRS head Lois Lerner about her actions involving the targeting of conservative groups. However neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice is looking into the IRS as a whole for its illegal activities.

But what can anyone expect when the NSA is sharing ill-gotten metadata with the FBI, the DOJ and another 21 agencies? Certainly not an investigation into what really matters to a U.S. citizen.

In the end, a Hollywood celebrity’s privacy is more important to the FBI than those of a regular American, including those not involved in the Tea Party.

Stop trying to be someone you’re not.
One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else.
Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you.
Don’t change so people will like you.
Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

Most residents know the facts, but for those whose families were not in Del Norte County in the early morning hours of that Good Friday: The quake that shook Prince William Sound, Alaska and generated the tsunami registered 8.5 on the Pasadena scale. At the time, it was the most severe quake recorded in North America.

Its waves reached Crescent City at 12:04 a.m. Police officers, deputies, highway patrolmen, firemen, U.S. Coast Guard and volunteer citizens saved many lives. In some cases, those rescued never knew who had helped them.

As the waves were wreaking havoc, some residents drove to the scene to help or observe, only to be caught up in the next wave. When the series of waves subsided in Crescent City, 11 had died and three were missing. A Klamath resident also died.

Seaside Hospital, then Crescent City’s medical facility, received 12 in-patient and 12 out-patient flood victims. The facility’s telephones were out for about four hours as frantic loved ones tried to locate the missing.

Although the newest part of the harbor in 1964, was in better shape, it too sustained extensive damage. Much of the damage came from huge logs and the concrete, 40-ton doluses that acted as battering rams as they washed like toothpicks through the town.

Assistant County Engineer Cliff Niessen reported that the maximum crest of the wave was 20.78 feet. The waves damaged a total of 289 homes and businesses, damage totaled $16 million.

Financial aid to families reached $51,876. One-hundred nine applications for assistance in Crescent City received $42,922. In Orick three applications received $858, in Gold Beach two applications received $1,265, and in Seaside, 13 received $6,831.

In the same year that a tsunami ravaged Crescent City, rising waters also ravaged other areas of Del Norte County. This time, instead of ocean waves pummeling the land, it was river currents rushing down the mountains and through the valleys that devastated the area in 1964.

During the Christmas months, storms rolling in off the Pacific combined with warm weather caused snow in the mountains to melt and the Smith and Klamath Rivers to swell to unprecedented heights. The 1964 flood was the second 100-year flood to occur in less than a decade.

In 1955, a flood forced residents in Klamath, Klamath Glen and Orick to evacuate their homes and convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to declare the area a “major disaster area.”

Hundred-year floods don’t occur every 100 years. Rather, the name is a statistical probability saying that any given year there is a 1-in-100 chance there will a flood of this size.

Though flood gauges were swept away during the 1964 flood, estimates suggest that the flood waters crested eight to 10 feet higher than they did in 1955. According to a Red Cross survey, nearly 850 homes were destroyed and 3,000 people left homeless after the 1964 flood.

Damages were estimated at $40 million. This time, on Christmas Eve, a new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, declared the region a disaster area.

Several bridges over the Smith River were washed away, as well as sections of the Douglas Memorial Bridge over the Klamath River (the bears stood their ground). The only way into Crescent City was from Brookings since the bridge over the Chetco River was not washed away with the flood waters.

Mud, sand and silt caked the roadways and covered the foundations of homes that no longer had houses. Logs and debris were once again stacked along the Crescent City beaches while the Klamath townsite was completely obliterated and abandoned.

The flood of 1964, coupled with the deadly tsunami earlier that year, changed the landscape and the history of Del Norte County forever.

Twenty years after the 1964 Tidewave , Wally Griffin published a book “Crescent City’s Dark Disaster,” chronicling the events and showcasing photos of the natural disaster that killed 12 Del Norte County residents.

From that night came a new moniker for Crescent City, the “comeback town,” coined by Bill Stamps Sr. Stamps Sr. was taken off the air when the waves shorted out the equipment.  “Dark Disaster” credits Mason and Virginia Dever of KPLY, who stayed on the air all night to broadcast the latest news to those who could hear them.

In this nation there are three political beliefs to be aware of; Libertarian, Conservative and Progressive. Each are a piece of bread and a bar of butter.

The bread represents the people. The butter the level of government involvement they want in their lives.

The Libertarian is nothing more than a piece of bread, left untouched. It in essence, is a void waiting to be filled by something or someone.

The Conservative is the piece of bread with a single layer of butter spread evenly across it. It is neither to little or too much.

The Progressive’s bread is hidden beneath the layers upon layers spread across it. There is so much butter, in fact, that time usually devoted to the bread is now being spent on the upkeep of the butter.