Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2410 - 2434 of 3750
In my opinion, far too many of those who live with me in Washington are jerks — duplicitous, self-important jerks. This does not include everybody; far from it. But the town is crawling with viciously ambitious sycophantic young people cozying up to the more-established officeholders, lobbyists, consultants and, yes, us media types, who hold on to their lives of unprincipled entitlement. Frankly, I think their pervasiveness has a lot to do with the disintegration of politics and government because they control the agenda. But here’s som...
Tuesday was election day. You might have missed it. Election day in Washington is not what it used to be. Not so long ago, voters went to their precinct polling places. There they ran through a gauntlet of precinct workers. Then it was off to the voting booth. A variety of contraptions was used, but invariably they offered absolute privacy. The last job was to personally put the marked ballot in a locked box. “I Voted” stickers were available. The precinct workers would then make sure the executed ballots, still in locked boxes, safely rea...
While the merger of United Airlines and Continental left a gaping hole at the ticket counter at SeaTac International Airport, frequent fliers are noticing an expansion of Delta and Alaska check-in stations these days. That expansion could mean a great boost to Boeing and Washington’s economy in the future — if state lawmakers hold the line on taxes and regulatory costs. According to airport statistics, those two airlines now account for half the passengers flying through Seattle, and they are expanding. Alaska and Delta have an interesting rel...
It wasn’t so long ago that Ferguson, MO., was supposed to be an American morality tale of racism, the militarization of police and all manner of other evil. For a few weeks in August, the attention of the national media focused on the suburb of St. Louis, and MSNBC practically broadcast nothing else. While the media long ago moved on, the protests have persisted, entering their late, decadent phase of self-indulgent triviality. Cornel West got arrested last week, and Al Sharpton is heading back to Ferguson at the end of the month to pump up a...
Auditor comments I need to comment on certain portions of an article in the 10/23/2014 Gazette titled “County makes cuts to balance 2015 budget.” The article states that the county commissioners spent close to two hours discussing my budget. It also states that I had not discussed the proposed staff addition with them; that there is an agency “evaluating the auditor’s department”; and that junior taxing district budgets will be incorporated into the county’s budget. Many times over the past two years I have discussed the need for additional...
Here’s a concept: Let’s come up with an idea that would make things worse even if it worked, which it wouldn’t. That would describe the proposal to prevent all people coming from the three West African nations devastated by Ebola — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — from entering the United States. The U.S., it seems, is also ravaged by a growing disproportionate hysteria about Ebola, and most of all by cynical politicians, largely conservatives, who are exploiting the alarm for a chance to score some points against the Democratic president...
Halloween is both one of the most beloved holidays and one of the most despised. Many people think Halloween celebrates the devil and all sorts of fiendish forces such as witchcraft and sorcery. They enjoin others to forego the costumes and the normal trappings of Halloween for a more spiritual approach. For others, it is wildly popular. Both children and adults celebrate with gusto. Sometimes, it becomes more than just knocking on neighbors’ doors for a piece of candy. Skulking and mischief, if not downright criminality, often mark the n...
November’s election needs to be about the people who are unemployed or underemployed and how best to increase wages. It worked for Bill Clinton."It’s the economy, stupid" was coined by Clinton’s campaign strategist James Carville in Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against President George H. W. Bush. In March 1991, days after the ground invasion to liberate Kuwait, 90 percent of Americans approved of President Bush's job performance. The following year when the economy soured and the President had to swallow his campaign promise...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2010. My face is a work in progress. Having grown an appropriate number of eyes, lips and noses, I’m now busily at work drawing lines to connect them all together. I’m also fond of developing what my dermatologist calls “squeamish basil cells.” (This may not be the precise medical term.) It seems there are places on my face that are considered bad neighborhoods, where tough cells hang out and frighten away healthy skin. To combat this blight, my doctor wants to use a technique...
Place of residence In his October 19th article, Spokesman-Review writer Jim Camden put to rest the rumor that Cathy McMorris Rodgers does not actually live in Spokane. Like others, I have raised the question and so am glad to stand corrected; she lives in Spokane and rents out her house in San Diego. It is no wonder, though, that this myth grew. Cathy has seldom had public forums in the communities of the 5th. Even with record numbers of days for recess, vacation, campaigning and a three-day workweek, she is more likely to be traveling for poli...
Compared with President Barack Obama, even Jimmy Carter is John McCain. The former president practically synonymous with American weakness and retreat thinks Obama was too slow to act against ISIS and gives his current strategy only “a possibility of success,” provided it involves (unspecified) ground troops. When you are too passive for Jimmy Carter, it’s time for some soul-searching in the Situation Room. The late-1970s are calling and want their foreign policy back. The war against ISIS so far is desultory and occasional, a campaign of un...
Given his low standing in the polls and the growing list of friends and foes alike who say he is too aloof and lacks the fire needed for leadership, do not be at all surprised if we suddenly see Barack Obama throw a temper tantrum in some very public place. There was a time when being described as “No Drama Obama” was a plus for him, as he very carefully cultivated an image of being the coolest guy on the planet. He was perceived as being above it all, not covered in the muck that defines politics. He was the Democrats’ rock-star candidate and...
For a while, Steve McGehee was living in Mexico. Now, he is back in Palouse. His return has marked new assaults on the Palouse City Council and, in particular, Mayor Michael Echanove. For years McGehee has been a thorn in the side of the city. He is his own version of Haunted Palouse. The crux of his complaints has been to question the mayor’s credibility with charges of corruption and mismanagement. Not having a local newspaper as a forum anymore, he has taken to driving around town in a truck with signs attacking the mayor. McGehee sees h...
Since 1957, our Canadian friends and neighbors have celebrated Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Perhaps, this year we ought to join them. Given the good news of our state’s bountiful apple and cherry harvests this year, we could actually cook two turkeys–one with the Canadians on Oct. 13 and the other on Nov. 27 when our Americans traditionally get together. Here is why. Apples are the state’s largest agriculture crop. The Washington apple industry is expecting a record harvest this year, enough to fill 140 million 40-pound boxes...
No Labels My wife and I have been peripherally involved with No Labels practically since its inception, so last week’s column by Bob Franken about this organization struck a chord. One of the greatest contributions the United States has offered the world was the notion of truly representative democracy. Politics here have always been rough-and-tumble, but in the past, the good of the whole has usually triumphed. In today’s polarized political climate we seem to have lost our way. One of the ideals on which this nation was built–representative g...
The latest episode of Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time” performed what was, in effect, an in-studio social experiment. It sought to establish, in a controlled setting, the answer to this pressing question: How long could Maher and atheist author Sam Harris talk frankly about the illiberalism of much of the Muslim world before actor and director Ben Affleck, also a guest on the show, accused them of racism? The result is in: Not very. In fact, almost as soon as Maher and Harris began to discuss how liberals are betraying their own convi...
For the election geeks who are waiting for this year’s campaign October surprise, give it up. Another tradition bites the dust. For those who don’t eat, sleep and breathe politics, first of all, congratulations — and in case you need it, an explanation: The October surprise was the predictable startling development or scandal, timed by one side or the other to explode into public view in the last days before the election. It would dominate the headlines and be all that the voters would be thinking of as they headed to the polls. Unfortunately,...
For years, the French have had the Foreign Legion. The Legion is a band of volunteer soldiers separate from the army which is available to fight anytime and anywhere. Mystery and lore have surrounded the Legion for more than 150 years. Supposedly, the Legion was primarily made up of criminals and misfits. Most Legionnaires are not even French citizens. They come from all parts of the world. Many are strictly mercenaries. An all volunteer, international and separate fighting force may not be a bad idea in this age of ISIS and other terrorist...
Entrepreneurs helped make America great. Many of the “big businesses” we know today started in the imaginations of immigrants who came to America, the land of opportunity — a place of boundless possibilities where your station in life didn’t matter, a land where hard work, innovation and perseverance held the key to the American dream. The story of M&Ms is a good example. Today, we know the Mars Company as a global giant marketing its candy and products in 100 nations. But it didn’t start that way. The Mars Company was founded in 1911 in Tacoma...
I’m associated with a group called No Labels. You might have heard about the organization. It’s methodically trying to construct an environment that will encourage members of both parties to collaborate, to see past their rigid positions that have left the federal government largely paralyzed. Frankly, that approach is a no-brainer, but still a huge task considering the hateful venom that passes for political debate these days. But this is not about No Labels. This is about all of us. We need to rethink just what is acceptable in public con...
Remember Mary Mallon? Perhaps you’ll recognize her moniker: Typhoid Mary. She was a carrier of typhoid fever although she never was ill with the disease. Mary worked as a cook in the early 1900s. Although she showed no symptoms of the disease, she infected others. Once the link between her comings and goings and new cases of the disease was recognized, she was warned against working as a cook. She refused to accept the prohibition and was locked up for three years. Released, she changed cities and her name to avoid the authorities. The d...
The good news is we are developing new life-saving medications every day. The bad news is they are very expensive and paying for them could bankrupt our health care system. For example, Avastin, which is prescribed to treat a number of cancers, costs $100,000 a year per patient. Soliris, used to treat a rare blood and kidney disorder, costs almost $410,000 per year. The latest medication drawing attention is Sovaldi. While highly effective in curing patients with chronic hepatitis C, it costs about $1,000 a pill or about $84,000 for a standard...
During the past few weeks, two sets of initials have dominated the news — ISIL and NFL — and the casual listener would be hard-pressed to decide which is more odious. It’s a wonder that President Barack Obama hasn’t pledged to bring NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to justice. Such is the weight the press has put on the NFL’s punishment of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for punching his then-fiancee that Denis McDonough, the president’s chief of staff, had to weigh in on “Meet the Press”: “We all know Ray Rice being suspended indefin...
EMS Team at work Yesterday I witnessed a great group of men and women from our community, our EMS team, mostly volunteer. These folks descended upon our football field to give of their training, expertise, aid and comfort to a young jr. high football team lad who had broken his arm. They did an extraordinary job, they were very officious, paid attention to detail and were quite professional in their dealings with the victim and the gathering crowd. Please remember that this “team” is composed of our friends and neighbors who give freely of the...
It’s become quite the thing for celebrities, or even semi-celeb journalists, to let us in on the dark secrets of their lives. Whether it’s coming out as gay, confessing past drug use, revealing they’ve battled severe anxiety, you name it, it’s become trendy to reveal something or other that’s deeply personal. A big one currently is that he or she was abused. Frankly, my response usually is a big “Thank you for sharing,” by which I mean, “Who cares?” You’d never see me dishing about my private shame. Until now. I can’t go on any longer without...
