Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2552 - 2576 of 3750
Appreciation The elected and appointed officials of Whitman County appreciate the citizens of Whitman County for their support on Proposition #1, Whitman County’s Levy Lift. The close election demonstrates the need for a proactive approach as we move forward. We as county officials will continue to find efficiencies and strategically plan for long term infrastructure needs. Whitman County elected and appointed officials Daylight savings We are getting ready to return to Daylight Savings Time. The first time I can remember doing this was d...
The Obama administration says that we need to end what it calls “the era of austerity” in Washington. Notably excluded from this admonition is the one department of government that is actually experiencing austerity worthy of the name. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel unveiled a military budget that will reduce the U.S. Army to pre-World War II levels. The spin is that this will be a smarter force better suited to 21st-century challenges, but everyone knows that it is all about accommodating the trillion dollars in defense cuts adopted during the...
Like anyone, my life is governed by certain principles. Among them is the steadfast belief that one should always aim low to have any chance at all of avoiding failure. It’s an article of faith, or actually, an article of a lack of faith. Whatever, it would follow then that even in this age of obscene financial inequality, those few who hold power and riches would be anxious to throw a crumb to those at the bottom. Never mind any sense of altruism, which is obsolete these days, but a tiny act of generosity might keep the rabble from getting r...
Martin Hall, the multi-county facility for incarcerating juveniles, is in financial trouble. Simply put, not enough juveniles are being sent there. A consortium of counties is trying to solve the problem. The answer is simple: Incarcerate more kids. Follow a long-held government tradition: Go for the money. One classic example is the state of Washington a few years ago during the budget crisis. After years of criminalizing marijuana, the possibility of getting income from taxing marijuana sales prompted some legislators and government... Full story
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2009. Last week, I explained that despite the fact that I had poured (plainly labeled) bird seed into a (universally recognizable) bird feeder in order to feed (well, duh) birds, a lawless squirrel had invaded. This so intimidated the local birds that they weren’t landing in the feeder, though I suppose they might also have been put off by the way my dog and I kept noisily charging out the door to curse at the squirrel. In the face of this injustice, I felt I had no choice but to...
Proud mama As I was hanging up my son’s Garfield-Palouse Letterman’s jacket this morning and washing his basketball jersey for the last time this season, I began to reflect on how much time and effort not only he, but his family, friends and fellow community members have invested into this basketball season. Starting back in the early fall, as the leaves began to turn and the football games were coming to an end, my son and his teammates were gearing up for another season on the court; planning their approach to the game, ordering their tea... Full story
The activist Florence Reece wrote the union ballad “Which Side Are You On?” in the midst of Kentucky’s so-called Harlan County War in the 1930s. Posed this question by the United Auto Workers, employees of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn., plant answered that they don’t want to be on the side of a union that is slipping into irrelevance. Once a 1.5 million-member behemoth, the UAW has seen its membership decline to a fourth of what it was in the late 1970s. Everything had lined up for it in Chattanooga. Not only was VW officially neutral,... Full story
Death struck Highway 195 last week. Two young women were killed. Two others were injured. Nothing good can come out of such a tragedy, unless it reminds us to drive as if our lives and the lives of others depend upon it. Despite its neglect, there is still magic in the Codger Pole. Take another look at it. It deserves better....
I’ve described politics as the dark side of government, but, as usual, things have gotten worse: Politics is just about all there is to government these days, certainly on the national level. The sad election choice for Americans has degenerated into “Pick Your Poison.” Republicans largely offer a field of bizarre extremist candidates who not only should be laughed off the stage, but shouldn’t have been in the theater in the first place. They are enabled by Democrats, who are so inept that they waste every opportunity to advance their progressi... Full story
Night of Champions One of main things that attracted my husband and I to the Pullman-Palouse area was the wonderful environment it provides for raising children. Although when we arrived in the area, we weren’t parents yet, we knew that we wanted to start a family soon. In addition to the great parks, family-welcoming events, and high-ranked schools, we were aware that there is a fantastic organization that helps children with disabilities - Boost Collaborative (then called Early Learning Services). Of course, we never expected that we would n...
The Party of Less Work The Democrats once styled themselves the party of workers. Now, they are the party of people who would have been workers, if it hadn’t been for Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office released a new analysis of the economic effects of the health-care law that estimates that it will reduce the number of workers, in effect, by 2.5 million in 2024. This unleashed a torrent of arguments from the Democrats implicitly denigrating the value of work. Perhaps not since Southern “fire-eaters” attacked Northern “wage slavery” in... Full story
Profane Foreign Relations Call it “gall” or “brass” or “chutzpah,” whichever you prefer, but the State Department has an abundance of it. At State, there’s quite a bit of embarrassment over a surreptitious recording that’s gone public of a telephone call between Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary for European Affairs, and the U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine. They were discussing possible intervention in a crisis there, where Russia was successfully muscling its former satellite away from the European Union. During that four-minute cha... Full story
A sudden thaw last week caused flooding around the county, but town, city and county resources quickly sprang into action along with countless volunteers. An isolated, dramatic event was the sudden explosion of water in Colfax, flooding a good part of the business district and snarling Highway 195 traffic. Crews and volunteers worked to lessen the damage by clearing drains and diverting the water as much as possible. Property damage occurred, but it was less than what one might have expected. This emergency was over almost as quickly as it...
The Seattle Times headline said it all: “Obama running out of reasons to reject Keystone XL.” For five years, the Keystone XL pipeline has been mired in studies, red tape and delay. Now, the State Department has released its final report, concluding that the pipeline would have little or no environmental impact. The State Department has jurisdiction because the pipeline would cross the U.S. border, carrying 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Western Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with an existing pipeline to refineries in Tex... Full story
Why would anyone think it was a big deal when scientists announced a few weeks ago they had determined that humans carry genes of Neanderthals? Was there really any question? The evidence is everywhere. It's certainly obvious when we observe the hunter-gatherer predators who run roughshod over each other in the political world. It would be a mistake to stereotype Neanderthals as grunting lunklumps. In fact, some of them appear quite suave. Mike Huckabee, for example, was outfitted in knuckle-drag recently when, before a Republican audience, he...
The preliminary election count was tallied Tuesday night. The next count will be Friday. Even so, most issues can be declared successfully passed. Every Maintenance and Operations levy for every school district on the ballot passed comfortably. Not one ran into trouble with the voter. Voters in the county long ago wanted more for their schools and have traditionally given them extra, local funding. Also on the plus side, the Whitman County Library District and Pullman Regional Hospital levies passed with substantial positive margins. Still up...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2009. I was once asked during a job interview, “If you could be anybody in the world, who would it be?” I replied honestly, “My 5-year-old son.” The same interviewer, reading from a list of questions, also asked, “If you could be any kind of animal, what would you be?” I guess I was supposed to reply “panther,” a sleek predator hunting for prey in the corporate jungle, or maybe “eagle,” soaring regally, taking in the big picture and yet able to instantly spot trouble on the ground... Full story
Wrong word The January 30, 2014 Whitman County Gazette had a front-page article about the Open Letter to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers that appeared in the January 14, 2014 Spokesman-Review. Whether because of a typo, poor telephone connection, or whatever, I was misquoted on page 2 in that the word “earns” was replaced by the word “is”, with the result that the sentence does not make much sense. The sentence should read: “An African-American with an A.A. degree earns pretty much the same as a white person with a high school diploma,...
An enterprising Associated Press reporter put the cost of the recent $1.1 trillion dollar federal spending bill in perspective. At 370,445 words long, it works out to just under $3 million per word – and it funds government operations only through September. Congress begins a debate on increasing the debt ceiling again this month. The amount of money the federal government spends – some say overspends – is so enormous, so massive that the average person simply cannot relate. We have no personal experience with numbers that large. This tax s...
In this age of vicious political fighting, it may seem a bit counterintuitive, but sometimes bipartisanship can go too far. We witnessed a bit of that on the Sunday talk shows recently when the chairs of the two congressional intelligence committees, Mike Rogers, the Republican who heads House Intelligence, and Democrat Diane Feinstein, who runs the show at Senate Intel, displayed a little bipartisan McCarthyism. Yes, that’s harsh, but isn’t that what we call public smears based purely on innuendo? Rogers showed up on “Meet the Press” and whi... Full story
Tuesday is the last chance to vote. It is also the last chance to support the county and give it a much needed financial boost. A “yes” vote for Proposition 1 will do just that. The county needs voter approval to lift its levy lid. That means it wants voters to allow it to collect more in revenues. This is an unprecedented request for the county. The amount the county is asking for is not great. If approved, the increase would generate an estimated $745,000 more in 2015. Residents are well aware of the county’s financial situation. It has g...
Editor's Note: The following column was originally published in 2009. I recently stumbled across one of the great literary works of all time: Betty-Anne's Helpful Household Hints, Vol. 1, by Betty-Anne Hastings (Ventura, 1983). I did some pretty extensive, high-level research into the author (I Googled her name), and the only thing mentioned is this book. Judging by her photograph, however, back in 1983 she was a young, attractive woman with skin so smooth botox would only give her wrinkles. Her advice is priceless. Having trouble keeping your...
Wonderful Whitman County has an excellent library system supporting 14 branches throughout the area. Let's help keep it that way and vote to restore 7 cents to its levy rate, returning it to 50 cents per $1,000 of property value. The library has a wonderful staff. They are willing, friendly, and knowledgeable in helping anyone who might need assistance. Wanda Alderman, Steptoe, Friend of the Library Grateful Whitman County Library depends on tax funding, Friends of the Library, donations, grants and many partnerships to provide the very best...
The movie "Lone Survivor" didn't get any major Oscar nominations. If it had, perhaps it should have been nominated for Most Unlikely Politically Incorrect Picture of the Year. It's based on the true story of a mission in Afghanistan that goes disastrously wrong. A four-man team of Navy SEALs hunting down a Taliban commander is stumbled upon by a couple of goatherds in the mountains of Kunar province. Deciding to let them go, even though it will compromise them, the SEALs are subsequently outnumbered in a fierce firefight. Three of them are kill...
He may have gone to Harvard Law and all that, but President Barack Obama's grasp of lessons learned from history leaves a little bit to be desired. He was certainly off-base when he tried to justify the National Security Agency's massive surveillance by citing the Revolutionary War group Sons of Liberty and member Paul Revere: "At night, they would patrol the streets, reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America's early patriots." It's not often I quote Sen. Rand Paul, but he did have a terrific response on... Full story
