Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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With all the things going on on Earth, attention to the stars has been subdued. Elon Musk is trying to change that. At his launch site in Texas, he held a press conference to introduce his new SpaceX Starship, a prototype of a soon-to-be full scale version. This design is intended to fly passengers to the moon and beyond, then return them safely to earth. Musk, of course, is hyping his machines and their possible contribution to the future. Musk reportedly called it “the most inspiring thing that I’ve ever seen.” The real key to extended and e...
Let's take a break from our society's normal crudefest for a brief moment to honor civility. Cokie Roberts epitomized civility. She was no pushover -- far from it. When it was required, she was as hard as nails. In today's nasty society, she sometimes needed to be. But somehow, she maneuvered through all of our disagreements in ways that were entirely agreeable. Yes, I know: By now, you might be tired of hearing about Cokie from her colleagues and buddies. But Cokie's life is a symbol of what it will take to prevent the toxic atmosphere from...
Greta Thunberg needs to get a grip. The celebrity teen climate activist addressed the United Nations and excoriated the assembled worthies for coming "to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words." Someone may have stolen her childhood, but the guilty parties can't be found at Turtle Bay. A 16-year-old from Sweden, Thunberg thundered, "I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean," which would have been easy enough to achieve, beginning with not taking two weeks to...
Curry letter People have been identifying income inequality as one of the top three problems facing our country. Of course this means wealth inequality, but most are not wanting to acquire wealth for its own sake, but to smooth out the bumps from ridiculous medical expenses, etc. Frank Watson is wrong about $15/hr being a living wage. Maybe a single person could live on that, but not support a family. I have always been willing to pay more for goods and services so that employees can be adequately compensated. In this context, a statement I...
Assuming that reducing greenhouse gases are an ongoing challenge, we need government policies and the “political will” to turn our nation’s entrepreneurs and researchers lose to take risks and innovate. We must establish reasonable laws and regulations that also protect our environment and our citizens’ health and safety while providing jobs and affordable products----no easy task. Science Daily has published some promising research relating to carbon dioxide. Here are three examples: First, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech...
In the free bin at Main Street Books in Colfax, a few months ago, was a book with a picture of a building inside. “A Day In the Life of America” was part of a series that sent photographers across one land mass on one day to capture its essence. This was the United States on May 2, 1986. No people were in the full-page picture, just a building. How could that make the cut? The picture showed terraced glass floors and on each, a young tree. Trees growing on the sides of a building. The thr...
I always worry when people on one side of an issue praise a story I've done. Ideally, at least in the twisted mind of a journalist, all the parties should be upset. We should be viewed as equal-opportunity jerks. But if one side was filled with praise, was I being fair to the other side? And what does being fair really mean? Can it be defined that we need to bring a 50-50 approach to each report? Should we deliver only "he said, she said" reporting? Should we give equal weight to a known constant liar on one side and the occasional liar on the...
At least Bernie Sanders is an equal opportunity misanthrope. He doesn't like rich people, and it turns out he doesn't necessarily like poor people, either. At the recent CNN town hall on climate change, a questioner asked the socialist senator if he'd be "courageous" enough to endorse population control to save the planet. Sanders answered "yes," and then, after referring to abortion rights, endorsed curtailing population growth, "especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of...
Two weeks ago Gordon Forgey’s editorial was right on the mark. “Climate change is more and more a topic of conversation with those in a position to do something about it.” He called climate change “an idea and cause that will grow and force awareness upwards,” hopefully turning it into a national issue that “will be addressed at the highest levels.” His comments were prescient, but didn’t go far enough. What about addressing climate change as an international issue, requiring international action at the highest levels? This week we saw tha...
Many years ago, a reporter asked George Weyerhaeuser, then CEO of Weyerhaeuser Co., why his company spent so much time and money informing its workers, public officials and people about its business of growing trees and converting those trees into lumber and paper products. His answer was simple, “People need to know what we do and why what we do is important to them.” He believed if people and elected officials understood Weyerhaeuser, they would make thoughtful decisions based on facts. To Wey...
Minimum wage is an artificial restriction of the free market, and all restrictions of the free market come with unintended consequences. When I talk to small business owners in Eastern Washington, they are unanimous in their condemnation of minimum wage. They hire less people because wages are beyond their capability. Thus, their growth is hindered, and in some cases, success is unobtainable. I got my first job off the farm when I was 13 years old. I was a bag-boy in the local grocery store and was paid 75 cents per hour. A few months later,...
Thousands of painted plastic fish now adorn the concrete river fences in downtown Colfax. Many were attached to the fencing over the weekend by volunteers. The fish are in undulating lines giving color and a sense of motion to the decorations. A cadre of volunteers came from WSU in a community outreach project scheduled for two hours. The display is colorful and whimsical. The small individual fish shapes are painted in a variety of colors. Each is an individual work. Some are signed by the artist. The idea came from the Colfax Arts Council, an...
It's a good thing that President Donald Trump has spent time with WrestleMania. He obviously used that experience to finally muscle his way into the main event, when he had been body-slammed aside by the real reality of the devastation from Hurricane Dorian. Yes, I know "muscle" is probably not the first word you'd use when you think of the Trumpster, but there will be no fat-shaming here. Let's leave that to him. It clearly occurred to a few people in the White House, including the big guy, that during the network evening newscasts in the earl...
The fastest way to trend on Twitter, and not in a good way, is to say that the right to bear arms is a God-given right. Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer established this beyond a doubt in a Twitter thread in the aftermath of the West Texas shooting spree. He said that he wouldn't use "the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans." Progressives were aghast, and when actress Alyssa Milano objected, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jumped in to support Schaefer's argument (in less bombastic terms). The basic...
Chip chip chip away. Do you notice the chipping away of human rights of migrants and reduction of total number of refugees by the present administration? Day after day, it creates an even more cruel way to block asylum-seekers; the latest being the denial of refuges for Bahamians fleeing the ravages of Hurricane Dorian, and people living here sometimes for years, who require advanced medical care. This of course includes children being sent back to their countries of origin where there is limited access to medical care, a certain death...
Traditionally, media coverage of the Paris Air Show focuses on the battle between Boeing and Airbus over market share for newer large commercial jets. However, this year Mitsubishi shared the spotlight with its state-of-the-art “SpaceJet.” SpaceJet is not the latest aircraft to join British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital space fleet. It is a new regional passenger aircraft designed to compete head-to-head with Brazil’s Embraer E-175 for routes between larger...
I heard a news report last week proudly announce, “The economy improved last week fueled by consumer spending.” Consumer spending, or lack thereof may be an indicator of economic strength, but it doesn’t drive. It doesn’t fuel the economy. Military bases weren’t always welcome in some communities. When signs begin to appear saying, “Dogs and soldiers keep off the grass,” the Army would frequently pay their troops in two dollar bills. This flood of two dollar currency was supposed to demonstrate how vital the base was to the local economy. It w...
The climate change debate continues. Democrat contenders for the party’s nomination for the presidency presented their views on the problem in a long town hall on CNN last week. The proposals and the suggestions varied. The presentation was one of the most extensive reviews of options and ideas about combating climate change. The issue is taking a lead position in the upcoming campaigns. Few are discounting it as a “hoax” or “fake news.” Of interest are the efforts to get broad policies in place to help combat the perceived threat to the world...
I have gotten to the point that every time my cellphone blasts its generic ringtone, I assume it's a robocall. My algorithm favorites are the recorded voices that start out saying, "Can you hear me?" and then pause a few seconds before continuing. I've taken to filling that brief void with a Bronx cheer or some other obnoxious sound. Then I hang up. Sometimes, however, when I check for messages or run into a friend, he or she might say, "I tried to call you, but all I got was you making bad-taste sounds." Worse is when it's a business call or...
#!*! People who live in a farming community and complain about the train. #!*! County painting lane stripes and then filling potholes over the new paint. #!*! People who make U-turns on Main Street! #!*! Still no new trees on Main Street. Only more removed....
Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson has, to his credit, seized the initiative in the battle over whether Britain will truly exit the EU, and on what terms. But no one can know how this high-stakes gamble will turn out. Johnson just lost his slender parliamentary majority, and the prospect of a new election looms. If things break the wrong way, the winner could be opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, a throwback leftist redolent of the bad old days of Britain's self-imposed stagnation. It's hard to exaggerate the threat represented by Corbyn and Co....
Rights In response to Mr. Carl M. Ogren’s anti-gun rant in last week's WCG, please allow me to paraphrase Voltaire when he said “I wholly disapprove of what you say―but will defend to the death your right to say it.” Yes, I know there is some disagreement on whether or not Voltaire used those words or whether that was an attitude summary given by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906. In either case it was a noble ideal expressed well. My paraphrase…not so much. But here it goes anyway: I wholly disagree with what Mr. Ogren said, but with my “assault...
Our nation is on an unsustainable borrowing trajectory and it could get much worse unless voters start asking politicians: “How are taxpayers going to pay for what they promise!” We now owe over $22.5 trillion to lenders of which nearly half are off shore. (China $1.11 trillion). At the rate which we are selling treasury notes, the deficit will balloon to $24 trillion by 2020. That means when the presidential election rolls around next year, each taxpayer’s share of the debt will be $183,...
