Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1102 - 1126 of 3750
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...
Okeydokes The plow crews! We live on Parvin Road and they do a fantastic job keeping our road clear. For neighbors on Southview who saved their elderly neighbors from the snow....
When it comes to stories, most of us prefer tacky over technical. Tacky trumps substance. Or these days, attack-y Trump deflects substance. That certainly could explain the decidedly non-substantive high interest in Jeff Bezos, one of President Tweet's favorite targets. (True, there are thousands of favorite targets on Trump's list.) Normally, Bezos does not generate sordid fascination. The founder of Amazon, he is the richest man in the world, and he does own The Washington Post, as any reader can tell you after being treated to that disclaime...
If Democrats are held to their own standards, then all three embattled state officials in the Commonwealth of Virginia should resign. Even if Gov. Ralph Northam didn't appear in blackface in an image in his medical-school yearbook, he confessed to once darkening his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. Attorney General Mark Herring, who called Northam's conduct indefensible, also used blackface once. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has been accused of sexual assault. If ever wearing blackface -- even in the 1980s, as both Northam and...
Sometimes you don't have to say a whole lot to say a whole lot. I support Colfax Chief of Police, Rick McNannay. --Ron Conrad, Colfax...
How refreshing it was to see the picture on the front page of the Gazette February 7, 2019 edition. A public meeting in the Steptoe school gymnasium was held on a floor that had been protected from damage caused by rocks, mud and water damage. My husband informed me that practice has been done since he was in school. He is now 81 years old. What a novel idea. Take care of what you have. I have read nothing that puts in place a plan that would maintain this $18.4 million remodel for 581 students at Colfax. A former school board member informed...
I would like to tip my hat to the Colfax High School staff and students for their generous hospitality in allowing the Southeast District 9 1B schools to hold their district tournament at the high school last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It begins as soon as you walk in the door and are greeted with a smile and assistance from Janel Stirling and the other office staff. Next, the willingness and flexibility of superintendent Jerry Pugh and principal Carrie Lipe allowed us in the school and let us adjust our dates when weather created a...
Frank Watson, in your opinion “State of Our Union," (WC Gazette, Feb. 14, 2019) you voice well-founded concerns about government intrusions in our lives. You state, “If the federal government can go beyond the Constitution to regulate abortions, it can go beyond the Constitution to regulate other matters. That's wrong.” Your reasoning would lead to the conclusion that we need a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the citizens' right to privacy. --Mark Olson, Seattle...
The circumstances leading to Amazon’s decision to scrap its New York City project are trends corporate leaders need to examine closely. There are cultural and political shifts in America which are changing the way business is done. Amazon walked away from its deal struck with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio which would create 25,000 new jobs and added $27 billion in new city and state tax revenue. In return, Cuomo and de Blasio, who actively courted Amazon, p...
It is still up in the air. The long awaited compromise to avoid another government shutdown is in the works. It is being cautiously called an agreement “in principle.” A tentative agreement may be a better description. As of this writing, stalwarts on both sides are not enthusiastic, but more main stream members of both houses of Congress have made progress in crafting legislation to end the threat of a second shutdown as President Trump vowed. The votes in both houses seem to be enough to bring the deal to the President. At this point, how...
Okeydokes Palouse mayor should school Colfax! The county commissioners, who trekked out to meet constituents at the Steptoe school, came to listen and not to direct. It was a very good meeting. Our lovely friend who gave us the beautiful copper stamped sign. Very grateful at Penewawa....
I know that the suspense has been unbearable, but I'm finally ready to make my announcement: I am not running for president. I realize that by doing so, I have aligned myself with 328,113,170 or so other Americans who also have decided not to run for president. We have much in common, including our shared contempt for nearly all of those, on all sides, who practice the dark arts of politics, most of whom are running for president. In case you were wondering why I found it necessary to announce that I'm forgoing an election campaign, it's...
Sen. Kamala Harris committed a most unusual gaffe at her recent CNN town hall -- not by misspeaking about one of her central policy proposals, but by describing it accurately. Asked if the "Medicare-for-all" plan she's co-sponsoring with Sen. Bernie Sanders eliminates private health insurance, she said that it most certainly does. Citing insurance company paperwork and delays, she waved her hand: "Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on." She met with approbation from the friendly audience in Des Moines, Iowa, but the reaction elsewhere was...
Although others have written about the importance of vaccination in light of the measles outbreak in Southwestern Washington, our representative Joe Schmick believes that decision is best left up to parents and their doctors! He is known as the healthcare expert, so he must know that if people who can be vaccinated are not, like in Southwestern Washington, it can lead to epidemics. If only those who chose not to vaccinate were affected, that would not be such an issue. However, children younger than 15 months who cannot yet be vaccinated,...
America’s drift away from our market-based economic system is perplexing. Equally, mystifying is the new push to replace entrepreneurs with government bureaucrats in planning and controlling services and products offered to us--the consumers. Scrapping capitalism is a very bad idea. History shows that socialist and communist regimes dominated by strong-armed dictators, such as in Venezuela, and Soviet-style politburos are ripe for economic collapse and suppression of free speech and human r...
Along with millions of other Americans, I watched last week’s State of the Union Address. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. The President was uncharacteristically subdued. He didn’t pick any fights nor call anyone names. He was definitely un-Trumplike. The Democrats and the national press hate everything the President does, so it was no surprise when they discounted everything he said. Republicans, on the other hand, proclaimed it to be the best speech since Gettysburg. To me, it was kind of bland. One short segment...
After threats and counter threats, invitations and disinvitations, the State of the Union Address finally occurred. President Trump gave his speech from the House of Representatives Tuesday night. Behind him, Nancy Pelosi sat listening, sometimes engaged and sometimes reading from what appeared to be pages of future spontaneous remarks. Beside her was Vice President Pence, as always emulating the FIGI water girl. Not many State of the Union speeches are love fests. This could have been more tense than normal, but it wasn’t. In fact, the w...
There's an expression we hear or see all too frequently, one that is particularly odious: "collateral damage." Some military types, or civilian leaders who are pursuing their own ambitions, use that phrase to sterilize the death and maiming of innocents as battle operations rage nearby. In a less violent way, that same kind of offensive mentality permeates the rationalizations of too many political leaders. That is, if they even bother to think about the human consequences of their rhetoric or schemes to manipulate voters or to generate...
The fundamental offense of the Covington Catholic High School kids wasn't so much allegedly mobbing, mocking or getting in the face of an American Indian drummer at the Lincoln Memorial. It was wearing red Make America Great Again hats. That was the actual, incontestable conduct that created the predicate for the presumption of guilt and all the rest of the grief they've been subjected to since. For much of progressive America, if you are wearing the hat, you are suiting up for Team Racist. You are marking yourself out as a bigot and a goon. Yo...
It’s not likely they colluded. Yet on Jan. 31, publisher Gordon Forgey of the Whitman County Gazette and managing editor Devin Rokyta of the Daily News published editorials on the dangers of ignoring vaccinations. The reason? Washington State’s Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency because of a growing measles outbreak. In 1736 Ben Franklin lost a four-year-old son to smallpox. Recounting that event, the Washington Post quoted from Franklin’s autobiography: “I long regretted bitterly, and still regret,” Franklin wrote, “that I h...
Dear Editor, Frank Watson wrote a powerful column (1-31-19) regarding the prohibition of marijuana and other drugs. He said, "The argument that made the most sense to me was, 'What we are doing now isn't working.' " That's what I tried to say. --Wiley Hollingsworth, Pullman...
A lot is written about students exiting college saddled with hefty student loans; however, the impact on retired parents went largely unnoticed. Recently, Wall Street Journal writer AnnaMaria Andriotis reported Americans over 60 years old are coming out of retirement and going back to work just to pay for their children’s educations. On average, student borrowers in their 60s owed $33,800 in 2017, up 44 percent from 2010. Student loan debt for seniors rose 161 percent between 2010 and 2017. I...
Four Washington state counties announced they will not enforce Initiative 1639, and more may follow. I don’t understand. I was taught in high school civics class we are a federal, constitutional democracy. I remembered the words but didn’t quite remember what they mean, so I looked them up in the dictionary. The “democracy” part means we have the right to vote. In a pure democracy, citizens vote on everything. Any time there is a question, the people gather at the meeting place and vote on the issue. We have both too many people and too man...
Measles were officially eradicated in 2000 in the United States. The viral disease was a scourge for young kids, killing thousands. Since the concerted effort to vaccinate children, the disease in the states was eliminated, although it remained a virulent danger in other parts of the world. Recently, it has periodically reared its ugly head in the states. Now, multiple states are dealing with outbreaks of the disease. In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee has declared a public health emergency because of the number of cases in the southwest...
