Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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A report released last week by the Washington State Hospital Association indicates that virtually every hospital in the state is in financial trouble. (here) A recent survey revealed that hospital revenues were up five percent from 2021 to 2022, yet expenses rose 11 percent over the same time period. This is unsustainable. Several, if not many, hospitals are at risk of closing if these losses continue for another year. This includes both rural and urban facilities. Executives give a number of...
I officially began my internship at the Whitman County Gazette in January. I was 19 years old, a sophomore in college and contemplating what my future would look like. I came from Detroit to reconnect with my family and friends, explore and grow. Living in a crime-filled city like Detroit never had the glamor that Gotham did with its cape-wearing vigilantes. Just prior to the start of my internship, I had made the choice to consider the Army for the multiple benefits available toward my...
Mike Largent has put his personal life on hold in order to give Whitman County the expertise which we are used to. He has proved in the past he has all the qualifications Whitman County needs in a county commissioner. Whitman County is an agricultural-based county, and as such needs the leadership offered by Mike Largent, a lifelong farmer who well understands the challenges our county faces. Kelley Messinger Thornton...
I just listened to a campaign ad for Patty Murray, who is seeking another term as our senator. She stated she will fight for us for lower prescription prices, inflation, high gas prices, public safety and a cornucopia of problems we face daily. The senator has been in office since 1993. If she is re-elected, that means she has been in office for 30 years. With all of her experience, why is this the same message over and over with no resolution? More to the point, how did she allow all of these things to happen? I rarely hear that she is in our...
The back roads of the Palouse are beautiful this time of year. But there’s a lot more to see if you traverse them on a motorcycle. A couple weeks back, after looking at the cost of gas and the weather forecast, I rode my Harley-Davidson to work for the first time this summer. I don’t have a fancy bike; it’s a simple Sportster – no flashy chrome, no windshield or fairing, no saddlebags. It’s kind of a modern day version of the iconic Triumphs James Dean and Marlon Brando rode decades ago. Usua...
Surprisingly, recent U.S. Presidents and congressional Democrats and Republicans agree America’s economic and national security hinge upon tiny, yet powerful semiconductors. Semiconductor computer chips are the brains of modern electronics that operate our laptop computers, vehicles, and smart phones. They permeate every sector of our lives from farming and manufacturing to health care and public safety. They are embedded in our most advanced military equipment and weapons. Sophisticated semicon...
For people considering self-inflicted death, there is an opportunity of 10 minutes or less to intervene and potentially change that course of action. July 16 marked a milestone in the national mental health discussion with the roll out of the 9-8-8 call system. Previously, anyone in crisis was encouraged to call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). In 2020, Congress enacted legislation requiring the shortening of the crisis lifeline to 9-8-8 to make it easier for...
Agency rules pushed us into drug prohibition In his July 7, 2022 column, publisher Roger Harnack bemoans excessive “law-making” by agencies. I would join with him, pointing to the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914. Congress wanted to raise revenue by taxing the flow of narcotics from doctor to patient. Naturally, they assigned this revenue measure to the Treasury Department to administer. Evidently, the agency saw more growth potential in enforcing a prohibition than in just collecting a tax, because it inserted drug prohibition into the admini...
Did you know the governor’s office is currently negotiating pay and compensation with state employee unions for the state’s 2023-25 budget? What is on the table? Will the outcome of these secret talks be no tax cuts for Washingtonians but big inflation pay raises for government employees? That answer is currently a mystery since these government pay raise talks happen in secrecy without disclosure of the financial details until the deal is reached. Why is this secret process occurring? In 200...
A draft of the “Lower Snake River Dams Benefit Replacement Report,” requested by Washington’s U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee last fall, recently was released to the public. While intended to make the case for breaching the four dams between Clarkston and the Tri-Cities, the report ironically makes a good case for keeping the dams. The report estimates it will cost between $10-$27 billion to replace the benefits provided by the four dams. Knowing how government projects usually go ov...
While critics contend the U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting how the nation’s main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants was a “gut punch;” it wasn’t. The Court appropriately threw the ball back to Congress to rectify. By a 6-3 vote, the Court said that the federal Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming...
Gas can issues resolved by high gasoline prices I can’t believe it. The government bureaucracy has actually fixed a problem of its own creation. I’m talking portable gasoline containers here. As you are probably aware, the federally mandated gas containers are a mess. Literally a mess. A highly flammable mess. If you have used one of the new gas cans, you know what I mean. You cannot get gasoline into the things without spilling and you cannot get any out without three hands. When I was a kid in the 1950s, gas cans were simple and they wor...
I was happy to learn the San Francisco-based company Eat Just is planning to build the world’s biggest cultivated-meat factory in the U.S. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter. The planned facility will have ten 250,000-liter bioreactors, capable of producing 30 million pounds of protein every year. Despite such amazing progress in the private sector, more federal funding for cellular-agriculture research is necessary to help make cultivated-meat competitive with the price of its sla...
For the people living in the Lewis-Clark Valley on the Snake River, Gov. Jay Inslee’s report on destroying four dams tries to offer some solace. After a “thorough review of relevant economic reports and conversations with experts,” the report’s authors have some ideas about how to offset the serious harm that would be done to the community. Reading the vague assurances from the report reminded me of another community hit by the harmful economic impacts of environmental policy: Grays Harbor...
“But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws…” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote that and more in his 19-page concurring opinion in the West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (Case No. 20-1530). The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the EPA cannot create over-reaching “laws” that bound entire industries; the ruling was released Thursday morning, June 30. The leftwing champions of so-called “climate change” reg...
Like the old Olympia beer commercials used to say, “I seen ‘em.” No, I’m not talking about “them there artesians” brewing beer in Washington state. I’m talking about “Squatch,” Sasquatch, Bigfoot. He was alive and well in Metaline Falls this past weekend at the annual Bigfoot Festival. The region’s most ardent Bigfoot believers headed to up the Pend Oreille River to investigate Sasquatch evidence, meet the “experts” and hobnob with likeminded individuals. I tagged along for a day. I was sure I...
Gov. Jay Inslee has repeatedly made it clear that he believes his spending priorities exceed any need to provide tax relief to help families deal with the impact of record inflation. On the same day Inslee declined President Biden’s call for states to provide some type of tax relief, the Democratic Governor of Minnesota was instead begging his Legislature to act. As reported by the Minnesota Reformer: “Gov. Tim Walz called on Republicans to return to the Capitol to sign off on sending $1,...
Regenerating millions of western forested acres scorched by wildfires is a Herculean task costing hundreds of billions. However, healthy growing woodlands are essential to reducing atmospheric CO2 and providing abundant clean air and fresh water for people, crops, fish and wildlife. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, nearly 3 million acres have already burned this year in the U.S. mostly in Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska. By year’s end, that total may exceed 2019, when over 5 mil...
On Saturday the 18th, I set out from my Main Street apartment in Colfax at 7 a.m. to the train depot for a speeder I would be riding to Hooper. I grew up in Lamont. As a kid, I would play around the old abandoned railroad tracks outside town. So, I've always held a fascination with the railroad. I reminisced as I walked, thinking about what it was like in college to ride the train to Chicago from the small railroad town my college was located in. I often miss the whistle of the train. As I appro...
Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray, both Democrats, issued a draft report which estimates that breaching the four lower Snake River dams and replacing their electricity and other benefits would cost between $10 and $27 billion. Meanwhile, the lone Idaho Republican, Congressman Mike Simpson, supporting dam removal — impoundments located in a neighboring state — is willing to pony up $33 billion tax dollars. That’s a lot of taxpayer money even today when President Biden and Congress toss around...
The message from voters was crystal clear, but elected officials apparently don’t want to hear it. In 2019, nearly 80% of voters in the city of Spokane approved an amendment to the city charter – in essence, a local constitutional amendment – requiring collective bargaining talks between the city government and unions be open and transparent. It’s a simple concept – since the salaries of government workers make up such a large portion of the city’s budget, taxpayers have a right to know how the...
Carbon tax may help alleviate climate change We just had one of our wettest Aprils on record. Yet, more than half of our state is abnormally or moderately dry and almost one-fourth in the grip of severe drought. Drought is expected here in Eastern Washington again this summer. What does it take to break the pattern of seasonal drought and wildfires in our state—and the northwest? In the face of climate change, we need a tool with teeth and plenty of punch, but also ready-to-hand and user friendly. Carbon pricing — charging fossil fuel com...
Jockeying up for the opportunity to ride with the John Wayne Pioneer Riders and Wagons last week excited me. I left home early in the morning, encountering the sweet smell of stables, wet fur and dirt. It was a drastic change from what I was used to smelling while in college in the "Motor City." The rain, however heavy, didn't phase me. That is, until the ground began to flood and I realized I could no longer tell if my Michael Kors rain boots were now filling with water or a mixture of water...
Prior to the corona virus outbreak, economies in the industrial world were moving along fairly smoothly-— reliable supply chains with “just in time” component arrivals, predictable product deliveries, low interest rates, little inflation, abundant reasonably priced energy, and an adequate workforce in seemingly peaceful world. It was a set up for a perfect storm! That cataclysmic eruption two years ago slammed countries worldwide just like what happened with World War I and the Spanish Flu m...
Following the recent tragedies, we have been hearing a lot of screeds against guns. But, the truth is, America doesn’t have a gun problem. It has a morality problem. It has a corruption problem. It has a cultural problem. Imposing more gun restrictions on law-abiding citizens doesn’t fix the problem. It is akin to placing a band-aid on a gangrene-infected limb. It makes it appear that something is being done but it doesn’t hide the stink. The sixth Commandment in the 10 Commandments is, “Thou shalt not murder.” Yet, if anyone should be so bol...
