Greg Walcher

In planning the nation’s 1976 bicentennial celebration, Congress made one of its dumbest-ever boondoggle decisions. Recognizing the near death of railroad passenger service since the 1950’s, Congress decided to spend millions turning the aging and crumbling Union Station into the National Visitor Center. But they missed the obvious red flag – the millions of visitors to the nation’s capital during 1976 would not be coming by train.

A lot of jokes about Elon Musk are making the rounds, in light of his new role in identifying government waste, fraud and abuse.

Alaska comprises nearly 20 percent of the entire U.S. at more than 665,000 square-miles, and is the richest state in natural resources.

In the 1950 movie version of Grimm’s Fairy Tale, the cruel stepmother scolds Cinderella, “You clumsy little fool – clean that up!” But, of course, it was the stepmother, not Cinderella, who made the mess.

An early lesson I learned as a young staffer for the late Sen. Bill Armstrong was the importance of careful consideration. He disliked being rushed into hasty decisions and developed a standard response to any demand for immediate action.