Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2947 - 2971 of 3750
We all know about the nation’s weak economy and tough job market, but the prolonged recession is hitting high school and college students as well. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the number of high school students with jobs is at its lowest level in more than 20 years. In 1990, 32 percent of high school students held jobs, compared to 16 percent today. The anemic economy is largely to blame. According to the Washington Times, sectors that traditionally offer teens their first gig, such as fast-food chains, m... Full story
I HOPE the next debate engaged in by our two major candidates for governor has more I’s in it and less you’s and he’s. That is, I want to hear each, Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Rob McKenna, say “this is what I am going to do about job creation or education” or whatever rather than a lot of “You’re making promises you can’t fulfill,” Inslee to McKenna, or “He opposes tax reductions for any purpose,” McKenna about Inslee. Here’s some more out of their first debate in Spokane: Inslee, “I am concerned he will reduce environmental prot...
On Tuesday, an agreement was reached in the United States Senate to freeze the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford student loans. The expiration of that special rate program on July 1 would double the rates students would have to pay on new loans. The current rate is 3.4 percent. Should the program expire, the rate will jump to 6.8 percent. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are backing the extension of the lower rate. Apparently, both sides are satisfied, although some arcane accounting was used to achieve the agreement....
Big merchants won, and the family-values crowd lost, with the passage of I- 1183 which has dismantled the state liquor stores. Let’s look at one of the cheerleaders for the big merchants. On October 31, 2011, just before the election, Susan Fagan launched a column in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. She said, “As a Washington state lawmaker... I strongly urge a yes vote on Initiative I-1183. “Selling and promoting liquor is not a core function of government. I-1183 focuses the state’s role on regulation and enforcement, where it should be.” Su...
I MISS SLADE Gorton on the political scene. I wrote 122 columns about him during his 10 years in the state House, 12 years as attorney general and 18 years in the U.S. Senate. So it took me a long time to read the book about him, “Slade Gorton, A Half Century In Politics” by John C. Hughes, not because it was boring, which it was not, but because I knew most of the people in it and had to read every single page. I’m not going to review it. You can buy one for yourself like I did. I will recall some of my dealings with him. In fact, I didn...
During his term as Washington’s governor, Gary Locke’s mantra was “education is the great equalizer.” Locke, now the U.S. Ambassador to China, was correct, but in our country today education is becoming the great separator. Here’s the problem. First, far too many students drop out of high school—nearly 7,000 each day. That adds up to about 1.2 million students a year who don’t graduate with their peers. The consequences are clear. Forbes reports that in 2009, the average high school dropout made $19,540 a year, 40 percent less than their classm... Full story
Road facts I have lived in Whitman County since 1967. I have followed the functions of the county government. I find the county is very abusive to the residents of Eastern Whitman. I base my opinion on the following facts: Dry Creek Road updating: It took six years for the County to update this mule trail into a decent commercial road when they had 10 miles total roadway to update with no big bridges or serious cuts or fills to adjust. This roadway greatly enhanced the safety of commercial trucking to the river from Eastern Whitman. It seems...
Jeb Bush was on the Charlie Rose show last week. He was making the rounds of some talk shows, and Rose’s full hour was dedicated to him. Bush is the former governor of Florida. Both his father and his brother were President of the United States. He is a Republican and a conservative. Although deep in traditional politics, his interview was like a breath of fresh air. Bush discussed a number of issues. His responses in most cases were predictably conservative. Yet, in this age of high volume and low tolerance, Bush was temperate in his views a...
The economic news is bad. The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, less than half the expected number, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised down jobs figures for the two previous months as the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent. Amidst all the bad news, politicians are debating what the federal government can do to make things better. One suggestion is to stop making things worse. Two things slowing our economic recovery are uncertainty and regulatory overload. When employers are unsure of what will happen next or are overwhelme... Full story
IT MAY NOT be fashionable to say so these days, says the Wall Street Journal, but three cheers for the Senate filibuster. “This week the 60-vote requirement (to halt a filibuster and advance a bill) will once again help kill a nasty bit of legislating known as the Paycheck Fairness Act.” It did just that the other day, the final vote 52-47. Our own U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is in the front row of Democrats attempting to equalize pay between men and women. It’s brought up periodically because trial lawyers want it, says the Journal, since it is a...
A few short days from now the Palouse Empire Fairground will once again be home to an amazing array of abused exotic animals. The traveling circus that visits us here in Whitman County each summer is the Jordan World Circus. Dozens of U.S. cities and counties, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Austria, India, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Slovakia have passed measures to ban wild animals in circus acts. Other nations, including Britain, Norway and Brazil, are on the verge of doing the same. The Palouse is home to not one, but two major c...
There comes a time when enough is enough. No more excuses, no more delays. In 1986, hospitals, local governments, schools, small businesses and doctors were fed up with the high cost of personal injury lawsuits and liability insurance. They successfully lobbied for tort reform legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Booth Gardner. Fast forward to 2012 and you see that same tipping point with our public schools. Taxpayers are tired of hearing, “Just give us more money and we’ll fix our schools.” We’ve been there, done that and nothing...
SOMEBODY sent me a copy of a Facebook entry by one of her correspondents which offers “10 reasons to thank Obama.” I was sure the Facebook entry wasn’t original since practically the same list of reasons to vote for Obama appeared shortly thereafter in my local newspaper’s letters column signed by a Poulsbo man and letters responding to that have followed. I figure the list was hatched in Democratic talking points, which is the D campaign propaganda list available to Obama stooges, considering all had dates of inception which most ordinar...
The recall effort to oust Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, came to a head Tuesday. Running to replace him was Tom Garrett, a Democrat and mayor of Milwaukee. In the simplest of terms, the recall and subsequent election was a contest of the Tea Party against public workers and unions. On Tuesday, Walker’s recall was rejected. He received almost 54 percent of the vote. Apparently, voters like what he is doing and want their leaders, as he said, to stand up and make tough decisions. Walker had tried to solve the state’s budget cri...
Activists waging a national war on coal have turned their sights on the Pacific Northwest, targeting proposed shipping terminals in Washington and Oregon that would export coal to China. They’re aggressively lobbying federal officials to change how these projects are evaluated. If they succeed, our economy could become a casualty of the war on coal. Currently, such projects undergo a rigorous environmental review known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) involving months or even years of public hearings and analysis by federal, state a...
IT WAS A MIGHTY cheap price paid by the Rutgers college student who drove his roommate to suicide by rigging the computer webcam in their room so it could be turned on remotely for viewing from elsewhere. What Dhartan Ravi wanted to see and have others see with him was a homosexual encounter between Tyler Clementi and another male. Three days after Clementi found out about it, he jumped off a bridge. Ravi was called a cyberbully who didn’t like gays. He was convicted by a jury of anti-gay intimidation, invasion of privacy and several other c...
The people have spoken, and, on Friday, hard liquor will no longer be sold by the state. It will henceforth be sold by private retailers. The network of state liquor stores has been closed, and new retailers are preparing for business. The change is the result of Initiative 1183. It was passed by popular vote with the help of a lot of money from hopeful booze sellers. The most prominent of which was Costco. Aside from the changes in distribution and retailing, another dramatic change is expected: The historically high prices for hard liquor in... Full story
May Day success May Day Committee chairmen Chris Cochran and Connie Kriebel did a wonderful job to make our May Day festival last weekend in Garfield a real success. I don’t remember a parade being that long in a long time, and I’ve been around quite a while! We were given a beautiful day with many happy memories. Darlene Perkins, Garfield Kudos Kudos and praise to Huber Action Freight for speaking the truth with their latest sign. They have taken a stand and for this they deserve applause. We should all as Christians speak and use the tru...
When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, our environmental problems were easy to see: factories belched black smoke, leaded gasoline fouled our air and water and rivers were so polluted they actually caught fire. Today, 42 years later, much has been accomplished. Our air is clearer, our rivers are cleaner and aquatic life is thriving in our streams and estuaries. We have made so much progress that the remaining issues are literally microscopic, measured in parts per trillion. Today, science is the key to establishing if a... Full story
THERE’S something really wrong in this country when we have so many people out of work and unable to realize the American dream of owning your own home because of sky-high prices, yet we have a president jetting all over the country day after day meeting and dining with people eager and able to pay up to $40,000 for the privilege. Barack Obama picked up $15 million at one of those $40,000 a plate feasts at the home of actor George Clooney, and during that same weekend ate in Seattle with 50 couples who forked over $35,800 apiece and sat down at... Full story
Despite the solemnity often attached to it, Memorial Day is a good time to smile. In my case, one reason to smile is dear Auntie Grace. I would visit her often at her beach house. Sometimes a cousin would join us. Neither of us were yet in school. Auntie Grace would wake us just as the sun was rising and send us off fishing at the public pier by ourselves. She gave us a drop line and a quarter each. We’d fish for a while and then go to the bait shack and buy our very own cup of hot chocolate. We always got a fortune back in change. These w... Full story
Complete Shock I’m writing this letter in response to the certified letter I received from Office of the Chief of Police about the Colfax Municipal Code 10.18.040 (Junk Car Law). The letter I received was a complete shock to me, as no one has previously contacted me about the vehicles that I legally purchased and I believe are legally parked on my legally purchased property. According to the letter vehicles are junk cars if they meet three of the following criteria: 1. Is three years old or older, 2. is extensively damaged; such damage i...
In 1942, the completion of Grand Coulee Dam was hailed as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Seventy years later, most of us aren’t aware of what that dam or the others on the Columbia River continue to do for us. To commemorate Grand Coulee’s completion, the Bonneville Power Administration commissioned legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie to write songs praising the dam that harnessed the mighty Columbia River. Guthrie toured the region from the Bonneville Dam to Grand Coulee, and within a month he had written 26 songs, the most famous of whic... Full story
I’M MORE than a little suspicious that Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, among others, knew in advance that the President was on the verge of leaping aboard the gay marriage bandwagon. Biden kicked it off on Meet the Press with “Men marrying men, women marrying women and homosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.” The next morning Duncan voiced his support for gay marriage over MSNBC, followed by Caroline Kennedy, co-ch... Full story
The upcoming county commissioner elections have generated a lot of interest. Challenges to the two sitting commissioners whose terms are ending this year have been expected for some time. This week is the official filing period for candidates seeking office, and so far two candidates have filed to run against Commissioner Greg Partch. Commissioner Pat O’Neill is expected to have at least one challenger. Commissioner Michael Largent does not come up for reelection for two years. For several months, three candidates seemed likely challengers t...
