Recap: Barbara Nascovar and her three children left Washington, D.C. by private jet bound for south central Idaho. During this Thanksgiving recess, she was tasked—by none other than the president of the United States—with using her new position as secretary of the Department of the Interior to round up participants in a scheme that would […]
Recap: Barbara and the kids packed their suitcases and jet-set off to Washington, D.C. The following day, she sat down with the White House chief of staff and the president. The Oval Office meeting was a business meeting. President Winslow Blankenship wanted to make sure that he had his “ducks in a row” for his […]
Recap: In southeast Idaho, near Pocatello, word circulated that their 83-year-old U.S. senator would retire at the end of his 11th term. Word also buzzed about the president of the Idaho Ranchers Association, Barbara Nascovar (born Smithee), who had announced her intention to run for the vacated seat in Washington. “Smart as a whip,” they […]
Recap: Night fell at last over the neighborhood. Ricky and his mom watched a bit of the local news, learning the bigger picture of the fire and murder down the street. The whole of Massachusetts and the roads immediately proximate to it would be abuzz all night with local law enforcement, county sheriffs, state police, […]
Recap: During an unexpected blackout in the neighborhood, Ricky and his mom hit the deck after hearing automatic gunfire down the street. Ricky saw casualties: firefighters injured and killed while battling the blaze at Mr. Skandowski’s. It seemed as if the entire Boston police force roared towards the scene, but the assailants were long gone. […]
Do we know how to vote in our own best interests? The easy answer is, “Yes, of course.” But isn’t that lackadaisical answer, born of the desire for ever more facile and rapid solutions, at the root of our problems? For instance, does a fictional “Bob Smith,” a more qualified and more responsive candidate for […]
“Jeez, Wanda…” said Johnny Q. Private, the new governor of Mississippi. He felt he ought to say something, but that’s as much as he could come up with. In the back of that black limo, with the fractionally dressed Wild Wanda Watkins, in broad daylight—let’s face it—Johnny didn’t stand a chance, not by a longshot. […]
His career became much more lucrative when he whittled his constituency down to one Imagine the unimaginable: an elected official who never even thinks about the people who elected him. Instead, he—let’s call him John Q. Private, Jr.—works for the highest bidder. Every vote he casts is bought and paid for by special interests. “Special” […]
Taylor Energy benefitted from lax regulation, now claims it can’t stop—or clean up—ongoing spill I didn’t know this was even possible. Did you know that an oil company can drill in the Gulf of Mexico and, when things go horribly wrong—as in “multiple wellheads pumping oil into the seawater for 14 years” type of wrong—the […]
Still a month left in the Atlantic hurricane season: It’s a good time to check your supply kit So far, so good for Central and South Florida this hurricane season (touch wood). Not so for Northwest Florida, the panhandle of our state, which was devastated by Hurricane Michael last month. Especially now that we’re experiencing […]