It’s Kept Me Going
Retirement isn’t always a breeze, especially as you get older. As we age, health problems can get worse, income becomes more limited, and it seems like access to high-quality, affordable health care gets harder and harder to come by. That’s why, for me at least, Medicare Advantage has been a godsend.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced during a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association in New Mexico, June 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule. This outdated administrative rule contradicts the will of Congress and goes against the mandate of the USDA Forest Service to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands. Rescinding this rule will remove prohibitions on road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest on nearly 59 million acres of the National Forest System, allowing for fire prevention and responsible timber production.
The recent analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget regarding the 2025 Medicare Trustees’ Report highlights the looming challenges with Medicare and Social Security, but it only scratches the surface of the deeper fiscal issues our country faces. To understand the full financial reality, we must go beyond trust fund “solvency” and examine the actual commitments the federal government has made—and continues to make—without fully accounting for them. As the Congressional Budget Office has noted:
“In the public debate, ‘solvency’ means keeping the trust funds from exhausting their balances and ensuring the ability of the funds to finance promised benefits. Defined that way, however, trust fund solvency is not a meaningful measure of the government’s ability to meet its future obligations.”
In other words, solvency in this context is more of a political or legal benchmark than an actual measure of financial health.
Rep. Nick Archer, R-Elk City, and Speaker Pro Tempore Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, are praising the announcement that Dawn Aerospace will bring a new spaceplane, capable of flying loads to the edge of space, to western Oklahoma.
The Aurora Mark 2 suborbital spaceplane, which will fly from the Oklahoma Air & Space Port in Burns Flat, can carry payloads to the edge of space and return on a runway. Flights may begin operation in 2027.
Multiple media outlets are reporting President Donald J. Trump has announced publicly the conflict between Israel and Iran will be declared over by midnight Wednesday. Israel and Iran have agreed to a cease-fire, declaring the beginning of an end to what President Trump referred to as “the 12-Day War.”
“It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE … for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform just after 6 p.m. EDT.
The president wrote that both sides would wind down their final military operations within six hours and begin what he expected to be a “peaceful and respectful” cease-fire on both sides. After 24 hours, the conflict will be declared over, Trump said.
“Iran has officially responded to our obliteration of their nuclear facilities with a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered. There have been 14 missiles fired — 13 were knocked down, and 1 was “set free,” because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction.
