Results of this poll posted inside.

Thank you Jo for your timely letter. I agree the obscene profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies should be seized by the Health Reform Czar to pay for our right to public health care. Why should immoral advertising coerce us to pay till we bleed just so evil CEOs and lazy shareholders can smoke hundred dollar cigars and swill 40-year-old Scotch at their luxury villas.

Call your congressman and let them know that the bill they are voting on Friday shouldn’t be called cap and trade, it should be cap and steal. The Waxman-Markey Bill (HR 2454) is not a bill to clean the air or to clean water or to remove CO2 from the air, it is simply another route for government control and taxation.

Reader agrees with guest editorial

I just wanted to say that Jamie Bergsten’s article the other day on watching what you say in front of children and doing what is right in front of children, was right on and it’s one of the best guest editorials I’ve read in a long time. Keep up the good work, Jamie.

Letter to the editor very well said
I just finished the letter to the editor by Barton D. West. Very well said Mr. West, very well said.

For those people who are looking for something to do on July 4, there is a variety of activities to choose from in Pottawatomie County alone.
Shawnee’s 17th annual Red, White and Blue celebration is scheduled for Saturday evening at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center. The gates will open at 6 p.m., with musical performances slated by Uncalled Four and Randy Houser.

I’ve refrained from weighing in on the much publicized scuffle between an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and a Creek County paramedic last month.
The incident took place near Paden and the ambulance was carrying a patient reportedly headed to the Prague hospital.

A Shawnee family safely escaped an overnight house fire that heavily damaged their home on North Beard Street.

As America observed its Independence Saturday, Fourth of July celebrations were plentiful in the Tri-county area, from McLoud’s Blackberry Festival to Tecumseh’s Hometown Celebration and a patriotic boat parade on Shawnee Twin Lakes.
Celebrations continued during the day, but it was different story by evening.
Rain and severe thunderstorms approaching the area forced cancellation of Shawnee’s 17th annual Red, White and Blue Celebration at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center.
At About 7:15 p.m., Don Lynch, Shawnee/Pottawatomie County Emergency Management Director, said storms, lightning, wind and heavy rains were expected throughout the evening, so it wouldn’t have been safe to have the crowds outdoors. 

If you don’t know the definition of “lunker,” just ask a fisherman.
Most often used in connection with bass, the term is a badge of honor for a fish of exceptional size. Say “lunker” to an angler, and images are invoked of 10-pounders lunging at topwater plugs or inhaling slow-rolling spinnerbaits.
You want to go catch one, don’t you? Well, you won’t have to go far.

When you’re searching for a peaceful, quiet place to wet a hook, ride your horse or pitch a tent, look no further than central Seminole County.
East of the city of Seminole is a lake named for its biggest fan — the sportsman. Found in abundance at Sportsman Lake are the subtleties of nature and fish willing to bite.

When the middle-of-nowhere town of Woodward invited George W. Bush to its Fourth of July celebration, no one really expected the former president to accept. But he did.

Now this community of 12,000 is scurrying to get ready for what some locals are calling the biggest thing ever to happen to Woodward, a place where cattle outnumber people.

State Rep. Sally Kern has launched a proclamation for morality at a state Capitol rally where she was heckled by protesters who urged her to "love they neighbor."

Tecumseh's Hometown Independence Celebration

Photos by ED BLOCHOWIAK

If you don’t know the definition of “lunker,” just ask a fisherman.
Most often used in connection with bass, the term is a badge of honor for a fish of exceptional size. Say “lunker” to an angler, and images are invoked of 10-pounders lunging at topwater plugs or inhaling slow-rolling spinnerbaits.
You want to go catch one, don’t you? Well, you won’t have to go far.

Shawnee’s Todd Boyer, like most high school baseball coaches, is keenly aware of the value encompassed through summer league baseball.