Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 206
The Oregonian characterized the 2019 wildfire season as the “season that wasn’t!” That’s good news for west coast states; however, it doesn’t mean we are permanently “out of the woods!” Worldwide wildfires are down as well. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there were 6,000 fewer wildfires this year compared with 2018 and about 4.4 million acres were burned compared with roughly 10 million acres in 2017. The previous two years featured bad fire seasons in Washington, O...
Too often, elected officials overlook the cumulative costs of regulations, taxes and fees on taxpayers; however, it comes back to bite them hard when people move, or take matters into their own hands by initiative. Consider what is happening in high-tax and cost-of-living states, such as California, New York and Connecticut. Florida recorded the highest level of net domestic migration in 2018 and added 1.2 million people from other states since 2010. “Many Florida transplants are retirees and t...
Many years ago, a reporter asked George Weyerhaeuser, then CEO of Weyerhaeuser Co., why his company spent so much time and money informing its workers, public officials and people about its business of growing trees and converting those trees into lumber and paper products. His answer was simple, “People need to know what we do and why what we do is important to them.” He believed if people and elected officials understood Weyerhaeuser, they would make thoughtful decisions based on facts. To Wey...
Traditionally, media coverage of the Paris Air Show focuses on the battle between Boeing and Airbus over market share for newer large commercial jets. However, this year Mitsubishi shared the spotlight with its state-of-the-art “SpaceJet.” SpaceJet is not the latest aircraft to join British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital space fleet. It is a new regional passenger aircraft designed to compete head-to-head with Brazil’s Embraer E-175 for routes between larger...
Our nation is on an unsustainable borrowing trajectory and it could get much worse unless voters start asking politicians: “How are taxpayers going to pay for what they promise!” We now owe over $22.5 trillion to lenders of which nearly half are off shore. (China $1.11 trillion). At the rate which we are selling treasury notes, the deficit will balloon to $24 trillion by 2020. That means when the presidential election rolls around next year, each taxpayer’s share of the debt will be $183,...
Hopefully, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) will receive final permit approval so it can complete its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant currently under construction on the Tacoma’s Tide Flats. For background, LNG is natural gas chilled to a liquid state, (-260° Fahrenheit), for shipping and storage. The volume of natural gas in its liquid state is about 600 times smaller than in its gaseous state. The comparison is similar to condensing air in a beach ball to a ping-pong ball. In its liquid state, LN...
A few years ago on Labor Day, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee presented a compelling commentary on the need for employers and employees to set aside their differences and partner. That very same message should be heeded by our elected officials today. Easier said than done, especially in a vitriolic and politically charged atmosphere punctuated by an absence of listening and a profusion of people shouting at one another. Huckabee bashed those who detest unions and those who trash employer...
While drones are coming of age in firefighting, they are also establishing a foothold in restoring fire-scorched forests. Firefighting drones grabbed the spotlight last April 15 as viewers around the world watched Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris go up in flames. It has stood for over 850 years, through wars, natural disasters, and everything in between including the fire. At first, it appeared the iconic building would be completely destroyed; however, French firefighters used thermal vision...
More battery operated cars and trucks are making their way on to streets and highways, so why not trains? That may not be too far off if BNSF tests are successful. BNSF and Wabtec (formerly GE Transportation) are developing a battery-electric high-horsepower road locomotive--the type that moves freight trains between Seattle and Chicago. Once all the equipment and support systems are in place, the plan is to run tests between Stockton and Barstow, Calif., (350 miles) beginning in late 2020....
Sweden and Washington State are very similar. Both have strong “green” movements and are quickly moving to eliminate all carbon-emitting fuels from cars and power plants. The caution for Washington elected officials is not to jam through hastily mandated programs which have significant unintended consequences such as has happened recently in Sweden. Washington and Sweden are aggressively working to put more electric vehicles on the road. Transportation is Washington State’s largest source of gr...
In oil rich West Texas, shale producers and pipeline owner Williams Co. are fighting over whether new “burning off of natural gas” permits should be approved. It is a battle between companies which are usually aligned. Flaring happens primarily when there is insufficient pipeline capacity to carry natural gas from wellheads to natural gas markets. Allowing the gas to build up at the derrick is a serious safety risk. Even though Williams already has an extensive pipelines network in western Tex...
With all of the attention on the 50th anniversary of the Lunar landing, many are looking ahead to the next half century of space exploration. Of particular interest is returning to the Moon which may come as early as 2024. For example, Boeing is working on the replacement for the Saturn 5 rocket which lifted the Apollo space capsules into orbit. The centerpiece of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is the heavy-lift rocket being built to safely carry people and cargo back to the Moon and...
Shortly, after Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps on the dusty lunar surface, some comedian in our army unit at Ft. Knox, KY, posted a sign in our barracks: “Sorry, Drill Sgt., No Green Cheese!” Our basic training drill instructor was already “highly agitated” because President Richard Nixon ordered a “training holiday” so we could watch live television coverage of landing. On July 20, 1969, our unit was supposed to take what was called “Mil...
What happens in China, doesn’t always stay in China. In fact, when it comes to tough new garbage and recycling restrictions, they may migrate elsewhere sooner than you might think. For example, Shanghai is one of the world’s largest cities with 26.9 million people. It is suffocating under mountains of trash its residents generate daily. It lacks an effective recycling and disposal system. “Instead, it has trash pickers to sift through the waste, plucking out whatever can be reused,” The Economi...
When my parents graduated from high school in 1936, a college education was too expensive for the son of a copper miner and the daughter of a plumber. Eighty years ago, our country was in the middle of the Great Depression and teens took odd jobs to help put food on the table and pay the family bills. In those days no bank would lend money to college students. Following World War II, there was new hope for veterans. The GI bill paid for veterans to complete their college or trade school...
During World War II, the American GI earned the reputation for being innovative, adaptable and resilient. Nowhere was that more evident than the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. For example, Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, was assigned to drop paratroopers and land gliders behind the German lines on Normandy. They needed to secure roads and bridges for Allied tanks, artillery and supply trucks once the Nazi forces were dislodged from their beach fortifications....
Last January, Boeing was poised for another record year. The company’s order book burst at the seams. Things seem to be going Boeing’s way. In 2019, Boeing planned to step up deliveries of KC46 aerial refueling jets to the U.S. Air Force and the new 777 composite-wing jumbo jet was entering its critical test phases with plans to begin deliveries within the next two years. Boeing’s contracts for new aircraft climbed to 1,500 Dreamliners (787) and over 5,000 Max (737) jets. The company is capable...
On April 21, 1962, the Seattle World’s Fair opened. The “Century 21 Exhibition” ran for six months, drew 11 million visitors, turned a profit and left the Northwest with a wonderful Seattle Center. Well over a half century later, many of the fair’s landmarks remain and the Center’s 73-acres is a gathering place for people from all walks of life. It is Seattle’s Central Park. The Space Needle has become Seattle’s landmark. Conceived in an architect’s notebook, it was constructed in eight months...
There are dams that should come down and those that shouldn’t. Hopefully, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts its review of the 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, that will become abundantly clear. That review is expected to be ready for public comment in late 2020. Here is the difference. Demolishing the two dams on the Elwha River west of Port Angeles was a good thing. They were built in the early 1900s to bring electricity to the Olympic Peninsula at a time when s...
With the dust settling from the 2019 legislative session, the focus is assessing the impacts on taxpayers and our economy. Our state’s budget grew by a whopping 17.5 percent, which is one of the largest increases ever. Gov. Jay Inslee and his Democrat colleagues who controlled the legislature came to Olympia last January set on raising taxes despite higher than projected revenue collections. “Rather than looking for cost savings, lawmakers chose to raise more than $1 billion in new taxes ove...
Montana’s legislature took the unusual step of exempting older, less-valued mobile homes from property tax as a way to stem homelessness. The bipartisan legislation, which Gov. Steve Bullock signed into law last week, aims to keep people in their homes. It exempts mobile and manufactured homes worth less than $10,000 and at least 28 years old from taxation starting next year. In Montana, a state with just over a million people, there are more than 22,000 residences where owners are in danger o...
Imagine sitting home and learning Fortune Magazine just listed you among the world’s greatest leaders? That’s exactly what happened to Marilyn Bartlett who led the effort to save Montana’s state employee health insurance plan from bankruptcy. In April, Bartlett was ranked No. 16 on a list which featured global leaders including Bill and Melinda Gates, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Michael J. Fox and Apple’s Tim Cook. Our sixth annual leaders list is the home of the brave,...
People across our planet are increasingly aware of the growing amounts of trash floating in our oceans. While we are finding new ways to collect it, the more vexing problem is what to do with it. The garbage is accumulating in “gyres” which are large systems of circulating ocean currents, kind of like slow-moving whirlpools. Though the oceans are home to many gyres, there are five that have a significant impact on our environment. For example, our litter which makes its way into the open ocean m...
Before lawmakers wrap-up their work in Olympia, they should re-examine their hefty new state spending plan. The budget may not be sustainable even with a substantial increase in taxes. It may force legislators to return to the State Capitol to cut workers, programs and services; or, even hike taxes yet again. It has happened in the past. For example, in the early 1980s, Gov. John Spellman (R) and a Republican legislature were forced to meet in special session continuously to deal with rapidly...
Each year Americans throw away more than three billion batteries constituting 180,000 tons of hazardous material and the situation is likely to get much worse as the world shifts to electric vehicles. Everyday-green.com reports more than 86,000 tons of single-use alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D) are thrown away. They power electronic toys and games, portable audio equipment and flashlights and make up 20 percent of the household hazardous materials in our garbage dumps. Unlike composted...
