Dear Editor,

State should not give, get nothing in return.

Do you know that 10 barrels of oil a day at $100 a barrel is worth $365,000 every year? We (in the United States) buy over 2,000,000 barrels of oil from Canada every day. How much is Canada's oil worth?

How much do the Canada Oil Sands producers expect to receive for their 900,000 barrels a day?

The TransCanada pipeline company plans to transport Canada's oil across western South Dakota and the United States via the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline.

Dear Editor,

February is National Wise Health Consumer Month. Are you a wise consumer of health care?

This certainly may be a good time to consider the importance of being an informed, and involved, health care consumer by learning more about a personal health record. The myPHR® website (http://www.myphr.com) brought to you by the American Health Information Management Association has lots of helpful information.

A personal health record, or PHR, is a tool that you personally use to document and maintain information about your own health care.

This is a violent country.

Why are we surprised at the violence in Arizona? We are a violent country. When the first white man landed on this continent, gun in one hand, Bible in the other, they slaughtered the people who had lived on the land for centuries and moved westward, killing Indians and stealing their lands.

Even South Dakota has been touched by violence. In 1890, in the Wounded Knee massacre, an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops.

The South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has awarded a grant to the Haakon County Public Library.

The program, Reading Group Toolkits, assists small rural libraries with their reading groups. According to standards used by humanities programs, the Philip area is considered an underserved community.

The library was able to acquire a grant from the Humanities Council that provides up to 30 copies of the book being discussed in a community book club program.

As of January 3, April (Clements) Schofield has been the student teacher in Jayne Gottleben's first grade class in Philip Elementary.

Schofield's own elementary was done at Haakon School District's Elbon and Enterprise country schools, which are now closed. In 1998 she graduated from Philip High School. "Growing up, teaching is what I always wanted to do, then after graduating from high school I didn't know what I wanted to do," admitted Schofield.

Within 13 months, she completed an office technology program at Western Dakota Vo-Tech.

Members of Philip's Scotty Philip Memorial Celebration committee met with the organizers of the wagon train part of the event on the Fort Pierre end, Thursday, January 27.

A broad range of topics were discussed and some decisions were finalized. In attendance from Philip were Doug West, Chip Kemnitz, Ron Larson, Mary Burnett and Glenn Parsons.

"It was a very productive meeting," said Parsons. "Everyone is pulling for the same goals and will have a great working relationship.

Since 1989, originally created for the South Dakota centennial, the memorial at the north end of Center Avenue in Philip displays the names of individuals and families who have contributed and are contributing to this area's legacy.

The Lasting Legacy was created through the initiative of the Philip Chamber of Commerce. According to the initial policy statement, the structure is a "memorial to the pioneers, past, present and future, who have contributed, are contributing and are likely to contribute to the quality of life in this area.

On their home turf, the New Underwood Tigers took a beating from the Philip Scotties, Thursday, January 20.

Philip 7 14 12 17 = 50

N.Under. 9 10 6 14 = 39

The Scotties gave up the first quarter by a basket, though come halftime they held a six-point advantage. Doubling their opponent's third quarter score, the Philip team commanded a safe lead. The fourth quarter was the highest scoring one of the game by both teams, but still went to the Scotties.

The Philip Scottie boys' basketball team hosted the Bennett County Warriors, Saturday, January 22.

The class "B" Scotties kept the first quarter balanced with their class "A" opponents. Then Philip played a roller coaster game, diving down to just a four point second quarter and rocketing back up to a 24-point final quarter.

With about two minutes remaining in play, the Scotties had closed their once substantial deficit to a 52-55 score. With less than half a minute before the buzzer, they put a tie of 55-55 on the scoreboard.

The Scottie boys' basketball team were the guests of the White River Tigers, Tuesday, January 18.

Philip could not keep up with their opponents' offense, which sailed ahead with a game total of 15, three-point buckets. Both teams showed an increasing effort through the first three quarters, though the Tigers overshadowed the Scotties.

The Tigers, though holding a comfortable lead, racked up 21 fouls and had one player foul out. Not until the final quarter did Philip make any head way, but nowhere near enough.