Opinion

Those ridicuous government regulations – so unnecessary and so intrusively and maliciously involved in undermining the privacy people deserve. Those ridicuous government inspectors – so unnecessary and so intrusively and maliciously involved in undermining the privacy people deserve.

First, let’s say what this is not. It is not a call to defund the police and it is not stating Ray County does not need a secure and safe jail.

Fellow-citizens: I am very glad indeed to see you tonight, and yet I will not say I thank you for this call, but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. (Cheers from the crowd.)

Need to learn how to unclog a shower drain, jump-start a car, shave your face without bleeding to death or successfully address dozens of other practical adult daily activities? Rob Kenney offers this kind of basic “dad advice,” and millions are tuning into his YouTube channel “Dad, How Do I?” to hear it. Kenney, who promises his subscribers he’ll do “my best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do,” told Buzzfeed he began making YouTube videos after his 27-year-old daughter would call him “with countless ‘adulting’ questions.” “Every day she was calling me and … I thought, ‘What do other people do when they don’t have that resource?’ ” Kenney was painfully aware of what it was like to lack a fatherly resource.

In addition to the many and varied organizations that deserve credit for feeding people in need, including those in Excelsior Springs and Ray County, a shout out is deserved by 4-H clubs that have done the same thing.

To the editor: Two years ago, I launched a renewed effort to fight fraud and abuse in government by creating the Public Corruption and Fraud Division in my office. In every corner of the state, we’ve shown that exposing wrongdoing by public officials not only helps recover tax dollars for citizens; it (also) puts others on notice that corruption will not be tolerated.

Some asinine positions taken by most of the Republican-dominated Missouri General Assembly got resolved this year, when lawmakers agreed to collect online sales tax, raise the gas tax and approve a statewide prescription drug monitoring program.

Gatsby Day, not “Gatsby Days” this time around, brought out music lovers to downtown Excelsior Springs a couple of weeks back. The Mushroom Festival did the same thing for three days in downtown Richmond.

In April 2018, voters passed a 1% sales tax to be used for the funding of 911. The Board of Directors at the time pushed for a tax that would provide a secure, long-term source of income, which would be able to sustain Ray County 911 services, both now and in the future. This funding is used to meet payroll needs, maintain and update equipment, pay utilities, provide and maintain a building to house 911, and cover other expenses necessary for the operation of a 911 dispatch center. Each year, the Board of Directors is obligated by state statute to review and adjust the tax rate if income surpasses needs.