As a longtime HCN subscriber, I want to congratulate Ray Ring on winning the (George) Polk Award (I just got your e-mail notice of the award at The Chadron Record, where I am editor and publisher). “Taking Liberties,” his article on the Libertarian election initiatives, was a great example of how even a small paper can produce excellent journalism, and scoop the media giants. Nebraska was the target of one of the initiatives that Ray wrote about, a state spending cap, and I have no doubt that the attention generated by his article was a big reason the measure was defeated.

Thanks to High Country News for being an inspiration to those of us who work in small-town community journalism.

George Ledbetter
Editor and publisher
The Chadron Record
Chadron, Nebraska

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‘Taking Liberties’ on the High Plains

by George Ledbetter, Editor, publisher and The Chadron
Record, High Country News
March 5, 2007

<h1>‘Taking Liberties’ on the High Plains</h1> <p class="byline">by George Ledbetter, Editor, publisher and The Chadron<br /> Record, High Country News <br />March 5, 2007</p> <p>As a longtime <i>HCN</i> subscriber, I<br /> want to congratulate Ray Ring on winning the (George) Polk Award (I<br /> just got your e-mail notice of the award at <i>The Chadron<br /> Record</i>, where I am editor and publisher). “Taking<br /> Liberties,” his article on the Libertarian election<br /> initiatives, was a great example of how even a small paper can<br /> produce excellent journalism, and scoop the media giants. Nebraska<br /> was the target of one of the initiatives that Ray wrote about, a<br /> state spending cap, and I have no doubt that the attention<br /> generated by his article was a big reason the measure was defeated.</p> <p> Thanks to <i>High Country News</i> for being<br /> an inspiration to those of us who work in small-town community<br /> journalism. </p> <p><b>George Ledbetter<br /> Editor<br /> and publisher<br /> <i>The Chadron<br /> Record</i><br /> Chadron,<br /> Nebraska</b></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=189112">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">'Taking Liberties' on the High Plains</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-341/taking-liberties-on-the-high-plains/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=112799&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-341/taking-liberties-on-the-high-plains/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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