A magpie enjoys some seed at the River Fork Ranch on Feb. 15.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
Eggs a pretty good deal, actually
Editor:
While grocery shopping at Walmart on Feb. 7, I approached the egg display where a woman stood aghast. “Fourteen dollars for eggs!” she exclaimed. Then she looked closer and found that two 18-egg cartons were wrapped together, making it 36 eggs for $14. That cooled her jets a bit. I picked up a single 18-egg carton without even looking at the price. I need the eggs, so buy them instead of a box of HoHos. Later, I saw that my eggs cost $7.38. Divided by 18, the cost of one egg is 41 cents. Since I don’t bake cookies, etc., that carton will make six meals for me and my husband. Not a bad deal, really. And it’s good, healthy protein. Maybe instead of echoing the panic-driven news stories about inflation, we need to employ the simple arithmetic that I assume we all learned in school to find the reality behind our grocery costs.
Sue Cauhape
Minden
Making heads spin
Editor:
Just weeks before the 2024 election Trump posted on Truth Social, that egg and gas prices were “Out of control.” He promised on “day one” he would “slash prices so fast it’ll make their heads spin.”
He campaigned on lowering prices, and claimed he had a plan to bring those prices down. Inflation was among the voters’ biggest gripes about Biden. But since returning to the White House, Trump has stopped pretending he cares about high prices. After all, it really doesn’t affect him personally. Inflation doesn’t hurt the wealthy like it does the “not wealthy”.
If this administration were serious about combatting high prices, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations would be off the table. They would pay their fair share of taxes instead of adding trillions of dollars to the deficit.
Instead, Trump is pursuing policies that will raise prices even higher. It appears Trump has pulled off another con job, only this time he’s stiffing American families instead of the many contractors, lawyers, and casinos before them. Buckle up.
Alice Meyer
Gardnerville
Red dye No. 3 ban
Editor:
For many who don’t know, the FDA will ban the use of FD&C Red No. 3 after January 2027 or January 2028. This is to reformulate their products in food, and ingested drugs because of the controversy. What will happen to that fun bright, cherry-red color we all love in candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, frostings, and icings? Will there not be any birthday cakes with red frosting anymore? What about the fun vibrant makeup paint and eyeshadow colors in red? I think the manufacturing companies will have to come up with a new alternative to get as close to this color as possible, or will we see the color red become obsolete?
The FDA has previously announced its intention to remove the uses of FD&C Red No. 3 but have not yet. There are currently no available data showing safety concerns for humans using the FD&C Red No. 3 dye.
I hope this ban on Red Dye #3 leads to more positive changes in our food system and encourages healthier ingredients overall. Hopefully, this will inspire food manufacturers to find safer and more natural alternatives.
Ana Brantmeyer
Gardnerville
More and more at risk
Editor:
The Trump hellscape is just getting harsher and crueler. There is so much to become aware of and discuss with each other; more and more individuals and groups are at risk because of Trump actions. Instead of just making a boring list, and as a new mom, I want to do a deeper dive into a couple policy changes that are particularly relevant to school children.
Have you heard that Trump reversed policies that kept immigration enforcement out of schools (church and other sensitive locations)? This is highly disturbing to me.
How are you feeling about it? If you support this action, do you also support Trump’s Executive Order to keep proper history from being taught in school? The argument I’ve seen for that order is to protect our kids from big feelings regarding the reality of the quite atrocious and gruesome slave history in the U.S. Can we find some common ground here? We all want to protect our kids.
Let’s put a pin in the discussion regarding curriculum because the nuance of balancing history and feelings will be a tangent. But we do all want to protect our kids, right?
If for you that doesn’t extend to immigrant children, please for the sake of our citizen kids that will also be horrified by their classmates being pulled out of class and never seen again, let’s stand together to keep immigration enforcement out of school.
Shout it from the rooftops, make a social media post, email your representatives, talk to your children’s schools, get loud.
Kendra Wilson
Indian Hills