Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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The 2020 Toyko Olympics were billed as the “Hydrogen Olympics!” Then along came COVID and sporting events worldwide were put on hold. The summer games were delayed until 2021. Postponing the games cost Japan billions and thwarted its efforts to showcase the Japanese “Green Growth” strategies. Japan, like the United States, plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050. While countries like China are betting on lithium batteries, Japan’s centerpiece is hydrogen. As Japanese researchers develop n...
Over the last 40 years our family has vacationed at the same place on the beach. While the buildings have been refurbished, the complex remains largely unchanged. The exception was last year when the COVID pandemic shutdown travel and beach lodging. Over the years, 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 down loaded from t...
Everywhere I go, I start conversations about politics. In these conversations, people often ask me “What can I do to make a difference?” One elderly gentleman even told me, “I’m terrified about the fact I don’t get to vote again until 2024!” Friends, participation in politics isn’t limited to the four-year presidential race. There’s so much more that you can do. There’s so much more that you must do. Politics is an everyday sport. The short answer is “get involved and go to meetings.” Think of a...
The 2021 legislative session will go down in history as a precautionary tale of activist overreach and political capitulation as majority Democrats passed misguided, emotionally driven partisan bills that will put all of our communities in danger. While most would agree that addressing law enforcement training, tactics, and standards in a changing mental health landscape is necessary, the truth is, the pendulum swung much too far this session. Here's what needed to happen. Stakeholders,...
When the state Legislature convened for the 2020-21 session, the progressive left held a supermajority. The balance of power in the House was 57-41, and in the Senate was 27-20. The result was a massive onslaught of bills that were designed to completely destroy effective local law enforcement. The radical progressive folks of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) also known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), and supporting Seattle Democrats are imposing their disastrous and...
Washington citizens will soon see less money in their monthly paychecks unless they opt-out of mandatory long-term care insurance foisted upon them by Democrats in Olympia. No, this is not hyperbole. Not one House Republican voted for the legislation that passed in 2019 and goes into effect in January of 2022. Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, workers in Washington State will pay $0.58 per $100 of their earnings to fund the Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Program. Those who pay into the trust progra...
It’s shaping up to be the year for conspiracy fans. UFOs are confirmed by the U.S. military and now government censorship through social media platforms. “We are in regular touch with social media platforms … We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on July 15 during a press conference. She was speaking alongside Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy about information provided about COVID, treatments, and vaccinations. Psaki outlined steps the White...
As a pharmacist and pharmacy researcher, I watch cutting-edge medicines save and improve patients' lives every day. And I am the father of a daughter with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), which is an autoimmune condition that causes severe bowel problems, and potentially life-threatening bleeds. I've seen firsthand why it's important for patients to have access to a wide variety of treatments. UC often requires trial and error to find the right medication that works for the patient. I shudder to think...
Last month, South Kitsap School Board member John Berg introduced a resolution to prohibit classroom teaching of theories that promote racial hatred. For that he was called a nut. District officials said they won't be teaching critical race theory in the Kitsap schools. The teachers' union said the poor fellow must be watching too much Fox News. The Tacoma News Tribune made him out to be a conspiracy theorist, allowing its reporter to make the astonishing assertion that "no K-12 district in the...
Over the last 16 months, each one of us has suffered through endless chaos and uncertainty of COVID-19 and the seemingly endless monarchical restrictions affecting every facet of our lives. We've all borne witness personally in some way - sick and dying loved ones (not just from COVID), economic insecurity, long-term isolation from family, friends, church, and helping each other in time of need, loss of personal freedom, watching individuals and families struggle with job loss or the collapse...
The controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention over systemic racism (critical race theory) points to the politicized nature of Christianity from the beginning. The earliest issue was whether or not to fellowship with heathens. By the time of the Reformation, the church had been on a 1,500-year quest to amass wealth and influence in the world through political means. When modern nations enforced separation of church and state, the church found continuing self-importance by asserting the idea that it alone can provide for the success of...
Something exceptional has happened these past few days. It is not the three days of record-breaking temperatures hitting our state. We’ve been warned by forecasters for days that this was likely to happen. It was not exceptional that temperatures over 100 degrees had everyone talking about how they felt and how they tried to cope. It was very natural to talk about fans, air conditioners, and water. What was exceptional, in my mind, was how almost no one I heard say the two words that the Whitman County Gazette had also not used in its lead s...
The opinion published in the June 3 issue of the Gazette, titled ”Dangerous Rhetoric,” is what she wrote about mail voting criticizing Nancy Churchill’s concerns that vote-by-mail leads to voter fraud shows Ms. Vaughn either does not recognize the issues with vote-by-mail or chooses to ignore them. The days of the secret ballot are gone with vote-by-mail. First, there is nothing to prevent the person who opens and counts the ballots from looking at the name on the mail on the envelope and then looking at their ballot. The larger loss of secre...
I am writing in regards to your July 1, 2021, front page article titled "County, Conservation district at odds over Ewan flooding." I will first state the county is not in favor of flooding occurring at Ewan. Our public works and planning departments have attempted to work with Mr. Andrew Wolfe (manager of the Rock Lake Conservation District) and come to a reasonable compromise on the issue of tree removal in a wetland creek area. Mr. Wolfe is quoted as saying "The state statute ought to trump the county ordinance." However what is not...
Why are there power shortages, rolling brownouts and blackouts in the Pacific Northwest? One regional utility alone – Avista – had brownouts that affected 15,307 ratepayers on June 28, then 6,793 the next day, and another 602 on June 30. Other utilities had brownouts too. I know we’ve had a day or two of record-setting high temperatures. But that’s not an excuse to shut down power to residents and businesses here in Eastern Washington. Columbia River basin dams generate roughly 44% of the electricity in the entire United States. Our dams pr...
What if you worked for a local company that requires you to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and hazmat endorsement on your driver’s license? Job requirements – handle all kinds of hazardous chemicals, do any mechanical that comes up, rebuild pumps and sprayers, run a sandblaster, do all the painting, keep paper records, know all the tractors, worked 5-15 years … and don’t make the same as a new employee at Zip’s....
As I’ve been listening to the discussions around gay pride month, the argument I’ve heard that troubles me the most is the notion that we need to celebrate the LGBTQ lifestyle as a way to show love and inclusion to those who practice that lifestyle. However, is it really showing love to these individuals to celebrate a lifestyle that causes harm to themselves? Statistics have shown that homosexuality significantly increases the risk of venereal disease. As one example, 69% of new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. in 2018 were “gay and bisexual men,” ac...
This Sunday, our nation celebrates Independence Day. And on this 245th birthday of our United States, it’s important to take time to remember why we mark July 4. Sure we celebrate the holiday with barbecues and fireworks, parades, and apple pie. But that’s not what it is about. Independence Day is about freedom from tyranny. It’s about being able to own property, speak your mind, worship how you want, gather together, be protected from government corruption and overreach and, when necessary, def...
Where did the mainstream media report the major atrocities taking place in Israel and occupied Gaza? Of course, we heard about the bombing and destruction of the building housing Associated Press and Al-Jazeera and the numbers killed, but we haven’t heard much about the “roof knocking,” the killing of Palestinian doctors, the destruction of the COVID testing lab in Gaza, the “squatting” of non-Arab Israelis in Arab-Israeli homes in Jerusalem, and other human rights violations. One heart-wrenching story reported that every night an entire Pa...
America's research and development institutions have long been the envy of our competitors, flourishing at the top of global rankings. But our state-of-the-art innovation capabilities – responsible for bringing COVID-19 vaccines and countless other breakthroughs to market – haven't flourished here by happenstance. They have been nurtured over decades of smart policies, and those policies are now at risk. Current misguided efforts are unwittingly pushing the very ecosystem that lays our gol...
Over the past year, there has been a methodical and systemic assault on free speech across all media platforms. It's considered a great sport to accuse anyone who disagrees with the "expert" media narrative of supporting "conspiracy theories" and wearing "tinfoil hats." Many on the left thought this mockery was very amusing. But last week, new scientific evidence was released on three important issues-hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and the origin of the COVID virus. In a recent episode of "The...
