Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2712 - 2736 of 3750
WELL, I GUESS Associated Press got tired of the national scandals that have occupied the headlines for awhile and decided to stir up the local pot instead. It decided to find out how much and to whom lobbyists were spreading good will in the form of free meals, drinks and golf outings for our state legislators. With the aid of some public radio stations, it perused the spending reports of the 50 lobbyists with the fattest expense accounts for the first four months of the year which means while the Legislature was in session. REPORTS to the... Full story
A great question facing America is the correct balance between security and personal privacy. Government should do what it can to protect the country from dangers and threats. The kicker, of course, is how far government can and should go to provide that protection. Right now a national debate is swirling over various federal programs that collect data on telephone and Internet communications in the country. Reportedly, the information collected has been likened to that found on telephone bills, not the content of those communications. Still,...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008. I consider myself multitalented because I can make toast. Whenever the family gathers for a big breakfast, I’m in my corner, cranking out the toast with such efficiency that people often comment on it. “All Dad ever does is make the toast, while we do everything else,” they’ll praise. “How’s the toast?” I’ll ask proudly. “Pretty good,” they’ll say. “Maybe a little too much butter.” “Too much butter, or is it just that you don’t like that much butter?” I’ll counter wisely, b...
Infrastructure worries I wonder if our representatives and senators in Washington, D.C. subscribe to the Gazette and other state newspapers. If so, I wonder if they read the editorials. They should, especially the last one about infrastructure you published in the May 30th issue. If our Congressional delegation does not get the paper, someone should clip that editorial and send it to them. Your statement is absolutely correct. Our infrastructure, our bridges are aging and failing, and their replacement is a cost we have to face, but better...
As lawmakers scramble to fund the state budget, some legislators and interest groups are targeting tax incentives designed to attract businesses and create jobs. Meanwhile, much-needed workers’ compensation reforms languish in the Legislature. Critics say that, in these tough economic times, we can’t afford tax incentives. The real question is, can we afford not to have them? And while lawmakers claim there isn’t enough time to tackle meaningful workers’ comp reforms, the truth is we can’t afford to wait when rates are set to spike for employer...
For decades, the Internal Revenue Service has been the country’s most despised federal agency. It is tasked with making sure everyone pays their taxes, and, in all of history, no tax collector has been loved. Yet, the IRS has further built its reputation by being harsh, unrelenting, unbending and heartless. If nothing else, the agency was known for tunnel vision, ignoring all but the tax laws. Its objectivity may have been its one redeeming characteristic. At least, everyone was treated equally. Recently, the agency was accused of using its p...
I WORRY more about earthquakes taking out bridges than I do about what happened with the Skagit River bridge, where a trucker with a too high load bumped the infrastructure and knocked a section out as if it were made of Legos. Actually, I’m paranoid about bridges. It’s been many years since I last walked across one, clinging to the guard rail, and every time I drive over one, I say a little prayer that I get to the other side before an earthquake hits. THE LAST TIME I wrote about bridges, I talked to Al Walley, the then bridge expert for the D... Full story
Enormous help The article about our daughter, Rayna Charles, was wonderful (May 16, Gazette). She is getting very excited about her People-to-People trip to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and England. She will be spending 19 days as a Student Ambassador representing the United States as well as Whitman County even though she is actually traveling with a group from the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. We would not have been very successful with the fund raising raffle we held without the enormous help of Mike Day (a...
There’s an old saying that oil and water don’t mix. That may be true, but apparently they coexist quite well. Traveling through Sweetwater in west Texas, you see an interesting mix of irrigated farming, cattle ranching, oil production and wind energy. Farmers draw water from wells to irrigate fields and provide drinking water for people and livestock. Scattered across those same fields are traditional oil wells that have been pumping crude since 1921. Less than 10 miles from Sweetwater is the Roscoe Wind Farm — 627 wind turbines standing in ir...
Quincy Jones and his brother Lloyd, ages 10 and 8, were the first kids to arrive in Sinclair Heights in Bremerton in 1943, he writes in his 2001 “The Autobiography of Quincy Jones,” Doubleday. Their father brought them by bus from Chicago to his new job as a carpenter in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . Their mother was institutionalized, in and out of mental hospitals and their lives for years. “For years we had been running from and with gangs,” wrote Quincy. “Finally we had graduated to our own turf. We took charge of everything in Sinclair... Full story
An AmTrack train derailed in the east when the rails split. A bridge collapsed across the Skagit River in Washington. A highway overpass in Missouri collapsed when two trains collided beneath it. All this in a few weeks. Since then, the word “terrorism” has been displaced by the word “infrastructure.” “Infrastructure” has been whispered in the past, but now it is getting the attention it deserves. America’s roads, bridges, rail system and water and sewer lines are getting old. Not to mention aging gas pipelines, such as the one that exploded...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I made up my mind to save the planet by taking a bus to the store, and let me tell you, that column was as exciting as a column about deciding to ride the bus could possibly be. Newspapers sold out around the world, and both the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns suspended operations for the day, stating that there was no point in making speeches if “Cameron is going to hog all the media with his wonderful bus stories.” Ever since I wro... Full story
Senior Projects In the midst of school bonds and education cuts our community is fighting to support our schools. Our daughter Camper, will graduate soon but first she must complete her senior project which she started last summer. Her inspiration for her project came from her grandmothers Iris Kramlich and Carol Jorstad who lost their husbands within months of each other and also Dalton DeeRoy who died in an accident some years ago. Both grandmothers were in support of Campers project decision. When times got tough, her uncle and aunt, Joe...
With a steady stream of bad news stories about maimed soldiers, the Boston Marathon bombing and the house of horrors in Cleveland, it would be natural to despair for the human condition. What defect in the human character allows us to do such things? But the survivors of these terrible ordeals tell a different story, one of courage, strength, determination and hope. It is the story of the indomitable human spirit. Iraq war veteran Army Sgt. Brendan Marrocco lost his arms and legs to a roadside bomb in 2009. Not satisfied with his prosthetic...
THERE WAS “scattered applause but also bewilderment from many in the Los Angeles crowd” when Quincy Jones, at his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, said, “To me, that journey (in music) began in Bremerton. You know Bremerton. Washington, don’t ya?” Jones gave a long, emotional speech about his childhood here after his introduction by Ophrah Winfrey but the newspaper didn’t run any of that. It told of his hanging with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Lena Home, Ray Charles, Joe Louis and a lot of other greats when he bec... Full story
Memorial Day weekend will be studded with ceremonies, parades and memorials. It is an important national holiday and an old American tradition. The inspiration to create a day to commemorate those killed in the service of their country began to spread state by state after the Civil War. At first, it was called Decoration Day, due to the practice of decorating grave sites and memorials. The day was dedicated to war dead, but now it is more than just honoring our nation’s soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Gradually, the commemoration b...
Gather the patriots The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed! Things are very different now than they were in 1776 when we rose up in rebellion and made it our business to kill the legitimate law enforcement officers of the day. Back in the day, we had every kind of armament and weapons delivery platform that the government forces had: muskets and cannons; horses, wagons and sailing ships (battleships!). The British and Canadians referred to our battleships We referred to them as privateers, because they were owned by...
Air travelers received a bit of good news recently: A bill to put air traffic controllers back to work whisked through the House and Senate and flew into the White House for President Obama’s signature. Why the quick action? Millions of constituents were outraged with how the FAA handled a 4 percent budget cut mandated by the sequester. Instead of focusing on non-essential personnel, the FAA furloughed 10 percent of its 15,000 air traffic controllers each day, causing more than 40,000 flight delays and 1,900 cancelled flights, according to F...
CRIES OF “CRONYISM” went up when Clark County’s two Republican commissioners hired Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, for a fat government job without interviewing anyone else. But cronyism is to be expected in politics. It’s only natural for people who run for office to want to reward those who helped put them there by work or money. That’s why there is usually a house cleaning by a new president or governor or whatever. The question here, however, is what did Don Benton do to deserve it, except maybe cost the Republican party a U.S. Senate seat? I...
Some Americans have become paranoid about the motives and actions of government. Now, these very people are saying, “I told you so.” It turns out that the Internal Revenue Service is accused of selectively targeting politically conservative organizations seeking non-profit status. The charge, which surfaced in 2010, was repeatedly denied by the IRS, but, according to recent revelations, the IRS did, in fact, target these groups. Government is supposed to be objective and impartial. It is supposed to serve all the people equally. Nothing cou... Full story
Time for change During the last few years in medical and media discussions an interest in concussion and its implications for our youth has increased. Locally, a recent visit by an invited speaker brought in by Washington State University has stimulated many in the medical community to further evaluate concussion education and programs. I recently attended the annual PAC-12 medical meetings and concussion was the topic of focus. Concussions in our youth are common. Medically, we know that an adolescent who sustains a concussion is at an...
Even some of its strongest supporters now say that the federal Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is going to be a train wreck. The question is, what are we going to do about it? According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, cost estimates for Obamacare’s new entitlements — the Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies — have doubled since it was signed into law in 2010. The CBO originally estimated the cost at $898 billion from 2010 to 2019, but this estimate included only six years of spending, since most of the provi... Full story
Abraham Carpenter Jr., a farmer in Grady, Ark., has more insight into human nature than the average sociologist. “Anytime you are going to throw money up in the air,” he told The New York Times, “you are going to have people acting crazy.” Carpenter is quoted in an astonishing 5,000-word Times expose on the federal government’s wildly profligate program to compensate minority and women farmers for alleged discrimination. The government rigged the game against itself and in favor of anyone claiming taxpayers’ dollars. The enormous scam was se...
The United States Senate in a bi-partisan vote passed the on-line sales tax bill. This would require all retailers to collect and pay appropriate taxes to the states from where the merchandise was purchased. Currently, if an out of state customer buys on-line and the seller has no physical presence in that state, sales tax is not collected. Big national companies, such as Walmart and Target, with locations in every state, do charge and collect sales taxes on Internet sales, but most do not. Supposedly, for any purchases made that are not charge...
Research needed Having read the article Extremes Of Opinion by Gordon Forgey in the April 18th edition it appears Mr. Forgey either completely missed the point the Brocks were trying to make or used them to try to sensationalize a point. If Mr. Forgey had taken the time to speak with the Brocks I venture he would have been hard pressed to attach Extremist opinions to them. His article would have then been written to build on their attempted communication that 1) Yes we are over taxed and 2) Yes we need to return to a govt of the people, by the...
