Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Government leaders, doctors, and medical researchers worldwide are working feverishly to stop the spread of the coronavirus and keep it from becoming a global pandemic. Wuhan, one of China’s major transportation hubs whose population approaches 11 million, is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak which is spreading like wildfire. Wuhan was put on lockdown. The fear is widespread prompting China’s government leaders to build a 1,000 bed hospital within a week. Professor Shenglan Tang, an exp...
Mike Leach, Washington State University head coach for eight seasons, has left to be head coach at Mississippi State University. Good riddance. The football coach of any university is often the face of the football program, and more notably, the face of the school. As a recent graduate, I was always embarrassed by our choice of coach. Leach was dismissive, crass and rude to both his players and the press. At first when you see Leach in an interview, his monotone, expressionless responses are entertaining. When asked who would win in a fight...
Pardon my sharing a personal preference, but I don't give a rat's patootie about the opinions of some showbiz notables because, notwithstanding their star power, they usually don't really know what they're talking about. Once, I was covering a political story and a prominent actress who happened to be nearby decided that she would love to express her opinion, ON TV, and expected me to jump at the chance because she was a celeb. So she sent some lackey over to request that I put her on right away. When I politely declined, he escalated that to a...
Donald Trump isn't George W. Bush. That should be obvious to everyone by now, but his critics and even some of his supporters immediately acted as if it were 2003 on the cusp of the Iraq War when Trump took out Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. Suddenly, the neocons had cachet again (Vox warned that "the Iraq War hawks are back"), and we were about to launch yet another endless war. Trump's decision to kill Soleimani, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote, repeating a common refrain, "has brought the United States to the brink of...
Okeydokes! Thanks to all of the Colfax and outlying communities that came out for a great cause to make over 3,000 soup packets with Homestead Ministries....
Colfax Levy I want to encourage fellow citizens to support the Colfax School’s levy request. It is both a privilege and responsibility to invest resources wisely if younger generations are to serve well when their time comes. The proposal is deserving support for the following reasons: The levy is citizen driven. The levy committee represented not only parents, but farmers and tax-payers as well. Our students are achieving. Jennings Elementary and Colfax Junior/Senior High School have both received awards for high performance. Our c...
A year ago, much of America’s heartland was inundated by Missouri River flood waters. At least 1 million acres of US farmland in nine major grain producing states were under water. More than 14 million people were impacted. Damage exceeded $1 billion. With 11 dams on the Missouri, why was the flooding so severe? Why didn’t the dams absorb the excess waters? If dams are above the flooded areas. The last impoundment is at Gavins Point Dams in South Dakota and heavy rainfall and snow melts were dow...
I got snowed in last week. I was at our cabin on the Pend Oreille River where it was quiet, and I could do some writing with no interruptions. There was an unfinished poem running around in my head that I just couldn’t quite get a handle on. I don’t know about other people who write, but I tend to get random thoughts that coagulate in my brain until they take on a vague shape. These unfinished ruminations can keep me awake until I write them down, so I retreated to the cabin for a peaceful interlude to clear my mind. I had a lot of things tha...
Over 300 people attended a workshop in Lewiston on the Snake River dams. The meeting was designed to give various views on the future of the dams, fish runs and alternatives. The third and last of the workshop meetings was in Pasco. A panel representing different positions gave information on the subject. According to the report in the Lewiston Tribune, a number of comments revolved around developing a more cooperative stance between those advocating different solutions. A theme which developed was to try to work together and balance the...
The president is smack-dab in the middle of impeachment politics. Suddenly, he orders a bold but perilous military action. His defenders vehemently argue that petty politics is getting in the way of his exercising his hugely important duties as commander in chief. Donald Trump, the 45th president, ordered a fiery drone attack that assassinated Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's Quds Force. For decades Soleimani was the coordinator for Tehran's proxies and had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. While he was a hero...
In the torrent of idiotic commentary unleashed by the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Colin Kaepernick's deserves a place of honor. The NFL washout and Nike persona who makes sure the company doesn't produce any overly patriotic sneakers tweeted, "There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism." For Kaepernick, Soleimani is just another dark-skinned man brutalized by the United States. The Iranian terror master was, in effect, driving while nonwhite and paid the...
Support sought As the chairman of Citizens For Quality Schools, I would like to ask residents of the community to continue their unwavering support for the Colfax School District. Two years ago, we as a community stepped forward and voted to physically update schools and fix the existing roof leaks and the removal of asbestos. This bond project is on time and within budget and the finished projects to date are significant. Every two years, we as a community vote for a levy to fill the gap that state funds do not cover. State funding has been...
Employers are looking at additional benefits to help workers who are stressed out over paying rent, transportation and food, and student loans. Even though job numbers and wages have increased, too often there just isn’t enough money to make ends meet, particularly in high cost-of-living cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle. The anxiety is particularly high among millennials, people born between 1980 and 1994. They struggle from paycheck to paycheck. For example, young t...
The assassination of Iranian general Oassem Soleimani has caused fear in America. The threat of a war with Iran has been openly discussed. As a result, the internet is abuzz with concerns that the military draft will be reinstated should the situation become worse. It has been a long time since the draft was relied upon. For decades the country has maintained a volunteer army. It is unlikely that the draft would be reenacted in this situation, but so many are concerned that the Selective Service website was overwhelmed and crashed. Obviously, t...
OK, zoomers: Here is your trigger warning. What was the name of Roy Rogers' horse? The answer is Trigger. You were warned. For those who are wondering who in tarnation is Roy Rogers, he called himself the "King of the Cowboys" and was one of the big stars of Western shoot-'em-up movies. Those films really contributed to the cultural mindset that has made us such a gun-totin' country today, which results in one assault weapon massacre after another. If you're wondering who zoomers are, they make up Generation Z, and have barely made it out of...
Never before has a boon to public health been met with such hysteria and ingratitude. Vaping is almost all upside in comparison with traditional smoking, a wanton destroyer of health and lives, and yet the nation is in the grips of a panic about e-cigarettes. In a rarity for the Trump era, the anti-vaping sentiment jumps traditional geographic and political bounds, running from the oval office to San Francisco, from President Donald Trump to his most fervent enemies. Trump has announced a proposed Food and Drug Administration ban on flavored...
Undocumented The House Executive Rules Committee (HERC), in accordance with the HR 4642 decree to continue the work of the House of Representatives while the House is adjourned or out of session, has purchased an investigation and report from the private investigation firm of Rampart Group LLC to determine whether Representative Matt Shea has engaged in, planned, or promoted political violence; identify the extent of his involvement with individuals or groups who participate in political violence; and assess the level of threat of political...
With the new decade comes an international air pollution regulation which hastens the switch from high sulfur fuel oil to either diesel or LNG in ocean-going ships. The mandate drops the sulfur content from 3.5 percent to .5. While that number sounds trivial, it applies to 62,000 vessels worldwide. Ship owners and environmental regulators battled over the sulfur limit for years; however, starting on Jan. 1, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) implemented it as promised. It has a dramat...
The bowl season is about over. The last game is Jan. 13, so we will have to watch the pros until February sometime. After that our TVs will be football free for eight months or so. WSU lost to Air Force in the Cheez-it Bowl. I didn’t even know there was a Cheez-it Bowl. There are so many now I have lost track. I remember when going to a bowl was a very big deal. Now all you need is a mediocre season to qualify for a big pay day. The Rose Bowl paid $66 million last year. This year should be even bigger. Even the relatively obscure Cheez-it B...
The new year is a time to reset priorities and agendas. It is time to step boldly into new goals and new enterprises. Gone is 2019. 2020 offers a fresh start in many ways. It has been said recently that 2019 was the year that climate change deniers were pushed back from the forefront and that awareness of the process the earth is going through in regards to climate change is more firmly established and accepted. This acceptance is one heck of a start. But, if that is so, what now? The next 10 to 20 years will be of worldwide importance in...
I don't know if they take attendance in schools anymore. Maybe surveillance cameras, facial recognition and all the other high-tech intrusions make it unnecessary, but back in the day, the teacher would always start out with the roll call. You were expected to announce "here" when your name was called. But there was always one guy who would say "present," just to be different. There is also one in the House of Representatives. Actually, Tulsi Gabbard is not a guy at all; she's a congresswoman, an alleged Democrat from Hawaii. When it came time...
President Donald Trump's impeachment letter to Nancy Pelosi is nothing if not sincere. The missive establishes, if there were any doubt, that Trump hates impeachment with a passion, and he expresses his contempt in his own inimitable voice -- scornful, hyperbolic, colloquial, on brand (Russia Witch Hunt, Do Nothing Democrats, etc.) and, above all, aggrieved. We've never had a president in the modern era who has actively cultivated an image of victimhood, a posture that once would have been considered whiny and weak, but that Trump has, through...
