Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1079 - 1103 of 3750
Across the pond, London-based BP and Netherlands-headquartered Shell are looking to invest in innovative electric technology which is very good news. The two international oil giants, both of which have oil refineries in northwest Washington, recognize the growth in battery storage capacity. Their investments should bring down costs for consumers and bring ground-breaking technology to market quicker. Making electric cars and new batteries for homes and power grids is a major step toward...
Homelessness has been cussed and discussed with no solution in sight. With no viable plan most officials wring their hands and hope the problem will go away. The latest suggestion is to pay them a living wage. Thus the unfortunate street people could afford the requisite training to find jobs. I guess this is possible. The evening news interviewed an ex-homeless lady who received money from a private charity and was eventually able to open a coffee shop, thus, becoming a local success story. We sometimes forget that other countries can have...
A scam affecting some elite universities has revealed how far the rich will go to get their children in prestigious schools. Apparently, those with money have been working with a so-called charity to phoney up student admission applications. It is pretty basic. Parents can hire a company to get their kids in the school of their choice. This company has jimmied test scores, had surrogates take admissions tests, paid test proctors and bribed coaches. The super wealthy, of course, do not need such scams. they can simply buy the school a building...
Pet Peeves Winter and snow!!! Okeydokes The commissioners for placing a six month moratorium on marijuana....
Reform is inevitably a difficult process, and not just for the reformees. It's particularly painful for the reformers, no matter how meritorious their cause. Who would admit opposing fundamental changes to a health care system in this country that is glaringly overpriced and significantly underperforms? Who would resist efforts to rescue the planet from boiling away? As the reformers are learning, once they stop preaching to their own choirs and face off against those who benefit and prosper from the current setups -- like the insurance compani...
The race for 2020 is taking shape, although there are still significant unknowns, including whether Donald Trump will get a serious primary challenge. His fiercest Republican critics say, "Yes -- please, please, yes." They are probably wrong, and it's certainly nothing to root for. Trump's dominance of the party begins with his lockdown support of the right, forcing any primary challenger to the left. This isn't fertile territory. Self-identified moderates and liberals are only a fraction of the party, and it is grass-roots conservative...
Historically, international trade issues have galvanized our state’s congressional delegation. Many wondered if that would still be the case today. Fortunately, it seems to be. While Democrats and Republicans are at one another’s throats on most issues these days, it is gratifying when it comes to promoting our state’s products internationally, they coalesce. Boeing is our state’s largest exporter and has strong congressional backing when it comes to leveling the playing field with Europe...
I didn’t think it was quite time for political season, but it seems to have started. I was just sitting down to dinner when my phone rang. If it had been thirty seconds later, I would have let the answering machine take it even though I was expecting a call from my agent. The caller asked for my wife, and being well trained, I asked if I could tell her who was calling. I guess talking to my wife wasn’t the caller’s highest priority because he went right into his spiel. He started by thanking me for past contributions I have either forgo...
I should lighten up and tell a joke. The definition of insanity is doing something over and over, while expecting different results. Every year since 1915, we have tried drug prohibition; year after year, over and over, while expecting a drug free America. As of March 15, 2019, we will have tried it one hundred four times. But the problem has grown, and only the parasites have liked the outcomes. On March 15, 2019, we’re going to try drug prohibition for the 105th time! Even though we know that it will produce the same world of addictions a...
Gordon Forgey, in your editorial (“Free Speech?”, March 7, 2019,) you lament the poor reception of conservative ideas on campus. Could it be that, given the parameters of logic and reason, contemporary conservative theory has little to offer to the young, inquisitive mind? --Mark Olson, Seattle...
So the new Columbia County Sheriff is not going to enforce Initiative 1639 that 60 percent of Washington voters supported. Did he not take an oath to uphold the laws of the State of Washington when he was sworn in as sheriff? How does Sheriff Joe Helm get to pick and choose which laws he will enforce? Are he and other sheriffs in the state being intimidated by groups (i.e. the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation) that opposed Initiative 1639? Until and if the federal court finds the law unconstitutional, he should...
President Donald Trump has vowed he will soon release an executive order on free speech. Ostensively, the mandate would, among other things, deny federal funding to institutions deemed in violation of it. It has not yet been released, but reportedly the administration has been working on it for months. Free speech is the bulwark of American democracy. There are limitations. The classic and simplest is not to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. They go on from there. It is said that the reason for the order is to stop harassment of con...
Pet Peeves Misplaced priorities: Colfax School District more concerned with construction dates than student safety. Other schools closed. Okeydokes Those who clear snow from their sidewalks and those who clear their neighbor’s walks....
Let's be fair to Donald Trump. No, seriously. That's not a joke. When it comes time to judge the presidential candidates, we should remember what they say about geese and ganders, and apply the same standards to all members of this growing gaggle. Both males and females of this species should get equal treatment, in other words. That's where the fairness to the biggest goose of all comes in. A presidential campaign by anyone should be a brutal trial by fire. We hear nonstop from those who want Trump out of the White House that anything goes,...
Robert Kraft's name will now long be associated with one of the most despicable scourges of modern life, and rightly so. The New England Patriots owner is charged with soliciting prostitution at a Florida massage parlor busted as part of a sex-trafficking ring. Kraft denies it, although the police in Jupiter, Florida, say they have video evidence. The charges against him, and two other high-flying men from the financial world, represent an important front in the fight against sex trafficking. Authorities should be doing everything they can to...
November’s Camp Wildfire was California’s deadliest, killing 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes along with more than 500 businesses. The financial fallout is forcing PG&E, northern California’s electric utility, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is a catastrophe we all hope to avoid. The fire’s probable cause was overhead power lines coming into contact with nearby trees which is an ongoing problem for power lines attached to poles and metal towers. While we have located the ign...
I normally watch the news as I brew my morning cup of tea. As we were experiencing a significant winter storm, I was anxious to check school closures and road conditions. I was disappointed to find all news channels filled with Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony. I could either turn off the TV or watch the proceedings as I prepared my scrambled eggs with toast. I thought I could at least find out how Mr. Cohen got into so much trouble. After three cups of tea, I was left wondering why all the hype. I still don’t know what Cohen did wro...
The draft has had a tumultuous history ever since the draft riots during the Civil War. More recently, draft riots rocked the nation during the Vietnam War. Although the Selective Service mechanism for drafting citizens into the military has remained intact, it has not been used since 1973. That is because the country shifted to an all volunteer military. The draft is now back in the news. A judge recently declared the Selective Service all-male draft unconstitutional. The fact of registering 18 to 25 year old males is legal enough, but not...
Okeydokes The lady in the pickup who picked me up walking up the hill towards the hospital. Do a random act of kindness for someone....
It's already begun. With the first serious discussion of "Medicare-for-all," meaning government-financed health care, and with the introduction of the so-called Green New Deal, those on the right, and even those who get away with describing themselves as moderates, are flinging around the S-word like it's the ultimate pejorative. Oh F-word it, let's be clear: They're braying about -- gasp -- "SOCIALISM." To borrow from the "The Music Man," it starts with an "S" and that rhymes with "mess." So, what is this scourge? My online dictionary defines...
The day has arrived in the Democratic Party when Sherrod Brown is a kind of moderate. The impeccably progressive Ohio senator who has long occupied a spot on the left flank of the Democratic caucus is declining to sign up for the fashionable radical causes of the hour. Brown has not endorsed the Bernie Sanders "Medicare-for-all" plan that contemplates the end of private insurance in America, nor for the outlandishly expensive and eminently mockable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "Green New Deal." This marks Brown out from other Democratic senators...
I did not vote for Trump. Almost every day my choice not to elect him is vindicated by what he does and what he says. The worst fear I have is how he puts the U.S.A., our country, at risk. This is a so-called Commander-In-Chief who abruptly without consultation with the generals whom he says he respects, announced on twitter that America would be pulling our troops out of the fight with ISIS fighters. This is a President who said his number one job was keeping Americans safe, and yet he meets in secret with a hostile leader, Putin of Russia,...
The animosity expressed by tone of voice, facial expressions and questions about undocumented people (i.e. illegal aliens) at political meetings amazes me. I attended a 'Conversations with Cathy' meeting in Medical Lake in October 2018 when disdain for the undocumented was expressed by one woman who shouted out “Build that Wall” and others appeared to agree. On Feb. 21, I attended another 'Conversations with Cathy' meeting in Medical Lake. After Representative McMorris Rodger’s opening remarks, the first rather aggressive question was why t...
I went to college in New York. It was a long way from home, but West Point offered to let me play football in exchange for a quality education and a career. New York was quite a culture shock for a small town farm boy. The drinking age was 18; the voting age was 21, and the only thing that prevented us from smoking was the price of cigarettes. We did most of the stupid things that college kids do, but no one got hurt that I know of, and we didn’t break any laws. Times have sure changed. College kids are now deemed mature enough to vote at a...
Through out the country’s history, states have faced efforts to divide them up. A current movement is to split California into three states. Arizona, Maine and Michigan are just a few that have faced similar efforts in the past. Our own state, Washington, has over the years faced the threat of being split. The movement is fundamentally spurred by the overwhelming imbalance of population and the difference in political ideologies and life styles in those populations. A current effort is most visibly centered around a state representative from S...
