Dear Editor,

Just left the commissioners meeting, an excursion into a fantasy world. Logic, common sense and the undeniable reality of the laws of the United States were cast aside and denied. In their place was an unbelievable assertion that if we prohibit deliberate, knowing violations of Federal Drug Laws, we might be sued by people in the illegal drug business. That right folks, we are not allowed to prohibit unlawful activity in Mineral County. Those pot-heads in Oregon, in collusion with an obviously complaint judge, did the unthinkable, therefore, we may not resist felony violations of Federal Law here. Hide the children, it’s getting crazy.

For reference to actual reality, please read the attachment below:

“The United States Supreme Court was held that the federal Controlled Substances Act validly prohibits local cultivation and use of marijuana under all circumstances (Gonzales v. Raich, 125 S. Ct. 2195 (2005)) and the federal Controlled Substances Act prohibits marijuana use, distribution and possession, and that no medical necessity exception exists to these prohibitions (United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, 121 S. Ct. 1711 (2001).”

Note the words: “ALL CIRCUMSTANCES” and NO MEDICAL NECESSITY EXCEPTIONS EXISTS”.

Watching commissioners show visible embarrassment, as they had to do in public, what was obviously agreed to in private, was so sad. I mourn for the good people of Mineral County.

Tom Bergeron Sr., Mina

Dear Editor,

Our family feels that it is best for us to make a statement regarding Ashlee Orndorff’s allegations in regards to the current situation and our daughter’s privacy and protection. Some of the recent statements that Ashlee has made vastly contradict information she has told us in the past, we have only had nothing but love for Ashlee and we are saddened and disappointed in her recent accusations. The most important thing is to protect our daughter and her siblings, and make sure they are mentally and physically okay.

Ashlee was always involved in our daughter’s early life; however, that relationship became strained seven years ago due to Ashlee’s unhealthy patterns as we witnessed and was communicated by her family. The broken promises to our daughter, by not showing up for planned visits ultimately is what led to our daughter making the choice to no longer communicate with Ashlee. The money Ashlee requested from the Williams family was always in our daughter’s name to provide support for our daughter, unbeknownst to us. We never requested or have received money from the Williams family to support our daughter. Our daughter’s abilities and basketball IQ is what will get her a scholarship and Matt has never inserted himself into that process, as we are her legal parents.

This has been a tough time for everyone, our daughter is dealing with things as best as she can. She has and will continue to have a solid relationship with Matt and his family (by her choice and our support), after interacting with him and his family, the things we have heard are the exact opposite. Our daughter and our family are in a better place with the Williams family in our lives. As parents we have supplied high levels of supervision with both of our children to protect them from any risk. We travel with our daughter to every game and/or tournament, as we did with our son when he was a minor.

This private piece of our lives is not easy for us to write, we are very sorry for Ashlee. No parents want to be in this situation, but what we care about most is the health and wellbeing of our daughter and all of her siblings. We hope people realize that there are kids involved and that social media can cause long term damage in people’s lives. Please keep in mind, even since Ashlee’s latest detox, she has communicated to our daughter via text messaging in a mean and harmful manner.

Our highest priority is protecting our daughter’s privacy and therefore we will not make any further statements.

David and Alicia Noble, Washington

Dear Editor,

This is about the cats and birds: My name is Will Jones but I prefer the nickname Long Shadow, for personal and sentimental reasons thank you very much. Anyway we have a choice and in my honest well thought out logical opinion only one. We can have the pleasant sounds of bird’s songs in town, or the screeching fighting sounds of the beasts we call cats. Make no mistake about it folks they have fangs and claws and camouflage coats and they blend in very well with the vegetation and shadows. They have the inherited instinct of the most predatory beasts I know of. They kill the humming birds easiest of all. They kill the baby chickens and rabbits. They even kill the benign and harmless lizards in town that eat all kinds of spiders and scorpions.

I highly recommend that all you kind hearted people who supplement those vicious yowling, screeching beasts with food, water and even milk. Turn your kind heart to the birds and put out bird seed. If you see one of those predatory beasts call Mineral County Animal Control and they will put a trap out for it.

Thank you very much

Long Shadow, Hawthorne