Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1972 - 1996 of 3750
Over the last 35 years our family has vacationed at the same place on the beach. While the buildings have been refurbished, the complex remains largely unchanged. However, our entertainment has changed a lot. We still swim, jump the waves and build sandcastles, but our board games, puzzles and playing cards have been replaced with kids’ electronic tablets, smart phones and movies downloaded from the internet. We still take lots of pictures, but rather than taking them to film processing centers, we use cellphone cameras to instantly text and p...
Colfax Restrooms One of our great joys is to drive around the Palouse and sometimes beyond. One of the things that we discovered is that a number of the small communities that we visited had “rest areas.” Most of the time these areas were concentered right in the middle of town, for example, Tekoa and Palouse. In an opposite direction we stopped in the downtowns of Pomeroy and Sisters, Ore. all of these areas had grass, a community bulletin board of what’s happening, picnic tables and a trash can and, of course restrooms that were clean, well m... Full story
President Barack Obama is a lawyer, not a statistician, and it shows. After the controversial officer-involved shootings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Obama unloosed a series of statistics in his remarks in Warsaw, Poland, to show "racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system" -- in other words, racial bias by police, prosecutors and judges. Obama related numbers about disparate rates of police shootings, arrests and searches, among other things, without mentioning the single most important factor to...
Yes, there are several months before Election Day, and so many surprises that could upend things between now and then, but the way things look now, there is one safe observation about Hillary Clinton's huge credibility problem: It is not going away. Yes, her people will argue that after the decision to not indict, further discussion of her email blunders and evasions are "old news." Well, the old news is cumulative, and even though she escaped, perhaps barely, being formally charged with a crime, FBI Director James Comey outlined a scathing... Full story
The police in America are under attack. Three were killed last weekend in Baton Rouge. Three others were wounded. Just before this, five were killed in Dallas with nine other police and two bystanders wounded. Both attacks were pre-meditated ambushes. Beyond these physical attacks, the nation’s law enforcement is also under fire for what many think are questionable deaths of citizens by police. Two recent deaths at the hands of police in Falcon Heights, Minn., and, again, Baton Rouge have sparked outrage and protests. Police are accused of t...
Since the construction of Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams, Washington has enjoyed an abundance of low cost, reliable hydropower. It has been one key competitive advantage for energy intensive industries and now it is vital to our state burgeoning “clean tech industries.” Hydropower, along with nuclear, solar and wind, produces no greenhouse gases; however, solar and wind only generate electricity intermittently. Their production must be augmented by reliable sources which include those using natural gas. Washington’s Dept. of Commerce estim... Full story
Endorses Wilson Dave Wilson has proven to us many times that he is dedicated and is working hard daily. He talks to people daily, goes to many events to meet people and hands out brochures. Dave as an independent believes in investing in our country's future, through education, infrastructure and research as well as the development of clean energy resources that protect our environment. Dave knows that the government does have a role to play in building a strong economy and guarding its citizens against discriminatory practices or the abuses...
Two hundred and forty years before Brexit, there was Amexit, also known as the American Revolution. In terms of historical consequence, the Brexit vote and the American Revolution don't occupy the same universes, but they are connected by a belief in popular sovereignty and a refusal to be governed by a remote authority with only an attenuated mechanism -- if that -- for representation. In Brexit, the British people decided that their Parliament should trump the governing machinery of the EU, and in our Revolution, we decided that our Colonial... Full story
Before I'm finished with this commentary, I will have incensed nearly everyone. It's about guns. So let the fury begin: If I had my way, private ownership would be eliminated -- no pistols, no rifles, certainly no assault weapons, except in the hands of the military and law enforcement. End of story. Right now, the readers who adore their instruments of death are already seething and preparing their hateful comments and personal threats. But let's not leave out antagonizing those who advocate controls on the nation's private arsenal. Their...
Here is an eye opener. Three countries so far have issued official travel warnings about visiting the United States. Most often, it is the United States announcing warnings about foreign travel. Now, it is the other way around. The violence and racial tensions in this country have prompted foreign governments to warn their citizens about travel here. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Bahamas have issued specific warnings. Reportedly, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, China, Russia and Belgium have issued cautionary advisories. Basically,...
In the presidential campaign leading up to the November elections, hopefully we will hear about ways to “Make America Great Again!” One of the most effective strategies is to entice U.S. companies with foreign factories to relocate back home. Another is to encourage those who remained in America to reinvest here. Discussions about bolstering domestic production of goods and services did not start this year. They are largely rooted in our nation’s anemic job creation over the last decade. A “Reshoring Institute” launched in 2014 at the Unive...
Not to RR neighbors It has been brought to my attention that there has been a gentleman soliciting donations in support of a trail from Colfax to Pullman. He has been calling on Colfax businesses. I would like people to know he is not representing the local group of property owners who are fighting for our property rights. Larry Farr, Albion...
Democracy is too important to be left to the people. That is the global elite's collective reaction to Britain's vote to exit the European Union, which is being portrayed as the work of ill-informed xenophobes who never should have been entrusted with a decision of such world-historical importance. Judging by their dismissive tone, critics of Brexit believe that the EU's lack of basic democratic accountability is one of its institutional advantages -- the better to insulate consequential decisions from backward and shortsighted voters. Britain... Full story
Millions of Brits are petitioning for another referendum, a chance to reconsider their majority decision to exit the European Union. It seems that so many of those who cast their ballots to leave now admit that they did not have the slightest idea what the issue was all about, and that they were ignorant about what their vote meant. It is easy to chortle about that, to yuck it up over those stupid sheep so easily led into self-destructive behavior just because they were frightened and angry. They were easy prey for the demagogues, who prodded...
Last week, Idaho's new concealed gun carry law went into effect. Basically, anyone who is 21 years old or older and a resident of Idaho, can now carry a concealed weapon in the state. Few restrictions apply. The law does not require any permitting process. It does not require any training or education. Strangely, Idaho residents are still required to pass driving tests to operate a vehicle, and the state still requires licenses to even fish or hunt. Yet, as of July 1, there are no requirements for carrying a concealed weapon. Idaho residents...
Washington leaders need to keep an eye on South Carolina. It is a state which is becoming a strong magnet to attract business. A couple of years ago, the front page news was the competition between Seattle and Charleston to lure Boeing’s 787 assembly production. Now, it has grown to include international trade and the associated economic development and jobs. Washington and South Carolina are among our nation’s leaders in international trade. Our state’s ports process roughly $150 billion in imported and exported products annually and 40 perce...
The other side As always, there are at least two sides to every story and I would like to share my view concerning our mayor in Garfield. My wife and I have been residents of Garfield since 1971, and I was born and raised here. Being mayor or an elected official of any small town is not always easy, especially in this day and age. Most of the daily good things done by so many goes unheralded. But this is understood and not why people like our mayor do it. They do it because they (we) truly care about our towns and communities. When a few...
One of Donald Trump's political skills is giving widely condemned speeches. His post-Orlando jeremiad fit the pattern. There is something so inherently inflammatory in Trump's delivery that he could read the Gettysburg Address and some listeners would wonder how he could possibly say such a thing. The kernel of Trump's speech was rather obvious: "The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here. That is a fact, and it's a fact we need to talk about." The...
How low can we go? When it comes to politics, that's a question that has a new answer nearly every day. Each time we think our campaign seems to hit bottom, somebody starts digging us in deeper. And I don't want to tell you what they're shoveling, because, well, you know. So now we have Sarah Palin posting on Facebook that President Barack Obama is a "special kind of stupid." Mind you, that's Sarah Palin saying that. She was in a tizzy because the president has been restating since the Orlando massacre his frustration that we can't put some...
The Continental Congress declared the separation of the American colonies from British rule on July 2, 1776. The declaration was formally approved on that day. Many thought this would forever be a special day. Two days later the official declaration was presented. It is the one we know. The beginning of this document is famous: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station...
Thankfully, June 8 marked a milestone for Congress. Members came together and overwhelmingly approved a sweeping bill that regulates tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, from household cleaners to clothing and furniture. The legislation capped more than three years of arduous work by Republicans and Democrats and business and environmental leaders who systematically plowed through volumes of complex, confusing and sometimes contradicting state and federal environmental laws and regulations dealing with toxic chemicals. It...
Rejects Trump As a lifelong, Republican, I reject Donald Trump and what he stands for: racism, xenophobia, nativism and contempt for women, the disabled and other groups. Rather than adhere to our party’s conservative principles and state a clear program, he offers a vague vision of “making America great again” and simplistic slogans about “building a wall” and deporting millions of undocumented workers. He is demagogue who most thoughtful people will surely reject as president and Commander in Chief. At the minimum, who would want the count...
President Barack Obama desperately wanted to be a peacetime president, yet is ending his second term with Islamic terror attacks looming larger than at any time since 9/11. The tide of war isn't receding, as he famously contended in a speech on the Afghan drawdown in 2011; it is lapping onto our shores. The left hates the notion that George W. Bush "kept us safe," but after Sept. 11 – a plot set in motion before he took office – Bush prevented another significant attack the rest of his presidency, at a time when a follow-on strike here at hom... Full story
As I was watching the Tony presentations, where the remarkable musical "Hamilton" was showered with honors, I could not shake the feeling that Alexander Hamilton and our nation's other founders would be worried that this glorious experiment in democracy was being overwhelmed by hatred. It's not just the hatred of that maniac who, several hours before the awards telecast, had pretended he was an Islamic warrior as justification to massacre some of those whose alternative views of sex had apparently enraged him. As we all know, he chose a gay...
This is about crack art. No, it may not be what you think. It has nothing to do with low-rider pants. Crack art is small-scale urban art that uses imperfections in buildings and cracks in sidewalks as a starting point. It is sort of like graffiti, but smaller. And, it does not necessarily need a flat surface. Crack art can be found around the world. It is now just catching on in America. As stated in the story this week, Colfax may be the first to really promote and encourage the idea. A little creativity and just the right crack or... Full story
