Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2050 - 2074 of 3750
For the last 20 years, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (D) has served Washington well. Now, he is retiring and leaving the state senate as he found it–a dignified place to debate and enact public policy. Owen, a former convenience store owner in Shelton, will not seek re-election. It will be the first time in 40 years that his name will not be on the November ballot. He was elected to the state house in 1976 and then to the senate in 1983. Owen is currently the longest serving lieutenant governor in the country; however, that is not the record in W... Full story
Incredible I have lived in Dusty for almost 17 years, a tiny little town right in between the two wonderful towns of LaCrosse and Colfax. When I was younger, I enjoyed riding to LaCrosse with my dad to run farm errands, searching for eggs in the park during Easter, swimming in the pool during the summer, and afterward enjoying a frozen treat from the store. Living on the family farm in Dusty, I have enjoyed getting to know neighbors who are now close family friends. While I may have a LaCrosse address, we are located in the Colfax School...
George Wallace knew how to handle the hecklers who routinely disrupted his events. "These are the folks," he declared at a rally in 1968, "that people like us are sick and tired of. You've been getting a good lesson in what we've been talking about. They talk about free speech but won't allow it to others." Wallace knew the protesters were priceless to him in stoking passions and drawing media attention. "They are on our payroll," he joked. George Wallace had unsurpassed skills as a popular agitator, but even he would have to admire how Donald... Full story
His horrified critics may ostracize him for being such a crass act, but many of Donald Trump's most bizarre pronouncements turn out be true. For example, he was ridiculed for having the chutzpah (look it up, Trump supporters) to insist that he was a "unifier." That, it turns out, is certainly the case. You know where I'm going with this. Contempt for Trump is as bipartisan as anything gets these days. Hillary Clinton, or her sound-bite scriptwriters, chastised him for his heated rhetoric as his rallies have turned increasingly violent: "If you...
The city of Colfax wants to establish a new parks district. The city parks and pool are currently the responsibility of the city. The proposed change would put the parks and pool in a new taxing district with its own board and financing. This is a new approach to funding and maintaining the city parks. Also new is the idea that the district itself could match the Colfax School District boundaries and not just the city’s. One impetus for the effort to form the district as a separate entity from the city is the age and deterioration of the c...
Get ready! More colossal container ships are coming. We got a glimpse of the future this leap year when the Benjamin Franklin sailed into Elliott Bay. Four years from now, hopefully, many mega-container ships will dock in Puget Sound waters. The Benjamin Franklin is the largest vessel ever to call at a U.S. port. It is longer than two Space Needles stacked on top of one another; wider than a CenturyLink Field and rises 20 stories high. In fact, when fully loaded it barely fits under San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and when empty its 1...
Not My Child! Not too long ago, my son, Casey was hurt in a car wreck, and as a prevention specialist, I was most interested in the prescriptions―specifically, the type and amount of pain medications the doctor was proposing to give Casey. To my dismay, he was prescribed a very large dose of pain meds. Casey and I agreed that this prescribing practice was excessive, and he probably wouldn’t need most of the pills. Truth be told, Casey said, some of the people he knew at work would gladly take the surplus medication off of his hands. From a doc... Full story
If there's anything we thought we knew about the GOP, it is that it is the party of Reagan. Paying obeisance to Ronald Reagan -- his memory, his accomplishments, his policies -- has long been the price of entry to Republican presidential politics. Yet here comes Donald Trump, who gives no indication of caring the slightest about Reagan's legacy, and he has rampaged to front-runner status anyway. It is like Trump set out to kick down the door of the House of Reagan and the structure teetered to the brink of collapse, more decrepit than anyone ha... Full story
This campaign makes life really easy for us pundits. We don't have to be very creative or entertaining. There's no way anyone could imagine a campaign as bizarre as this one. But this is a mixed blessing. Analysts are supposed to, uh, analyze. In doing so, we're endeavoring to provide perspective on what has happened and to offer insight into what can be expected. Tragically, none of us has any earthly idea how the campaign will turn out -- or, to put it another way, whether there is any chance that Donald Trump actually could be elected...
According to a CNN report, about half the political ads running prior to Super Tuesday 3 were anti-Donald Trump ads. The one that gained the most traction was about his attitude toward women. This commercial showed a variety of women simply quoting some of Trump’s more sexist comments. Reportedly, it has gained tremendous internet viewership and has been widely seen on television. The ad was just part of the “stop Trump” advertising intended to slow his campaign. It was said that if he won both Florida and Ohio on Tuesday the Republican race...
On March 1, the Wall Street Journal carried a sobering editorial that ought to force us to look behind the toxic presidential campaign rhetoric and ask two very important questions about how we position our nation to compete internationally. First, what really happens when our leaders impose punishing trade sanctions? Second, why are companies leaving America? Specifically, when Donald Trump “threatens to endorse 45 percent tariffs on Chinese and Japanese imports and promises to punish U.S. companies that make cookies and cars in Mexico,” as... Full story
Why Caucus? The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have showcased ideas and policies which will shape the future, but it is at the precinct level where the ideas that you support begin their journey to the Democratic Party’s platform. Washington Democrats have 109 delegates to send to the National Convention. Those delegates will not only elect the nominee, they will be debating the plans and ideas of the two campaigns. Delegates are allotted according to the percentage of Bernie and Hillary supporters who attend. So, if you would... Full story
Donald Trump will never be mistaken for a cosmopolitan, but he will bring a distinctively European flavor to the 2016 presidential election, should he win the Republican nomination. As in continental Europe, the two parties in a Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton race would accept the basic parameters of the welfare state, and the debate about the size of government -- so central to American politics for decades -- would fade to the background. No matter how appalled the left may be by Trump, his prospective takeover of the GOP would be a watershed...
Sure, he may be a racist, a misogynist, a dangerous demagogue who unleashes the worst instincts of scared, ignorant bigots, but there is one fact about him that suggests Donald Trump is not all bad: He has terrified his party's establishment. That is a good thing. These are the Republican muckety-mucks who for generations have been the paid protectors of their super-wealthy patrons, oftentimes resorting to a camouflaged version of the same ugliness. The difference is they've relied on polite code to exploit the intolerance. President Barack Oba...
Once again Colton girls took the state championship in 1B basketball. This is the school's eighth straight championship. The girls have not been unbeatable, but they have been unstoppable. In fact, they have lost one game in three years. “Unstoppable” is one word to describe the dynasty. Another is “dominant.” Remember, this is high school. Every year students graduate and others come in as freshmen. The team is not the same as the one which started the championship streak eight years ago. Each year the Colton team had a different makeup.... Full story
Converting animal poop to power makes sense, but today it is too expensive. The good news is it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and curtails odors from farms. Biomass is an important part of our nation’s effort to generate electricity from renewable sources. However, in Washington, where electric rates are low, it is difficult to make an economic argument using biomass to solely produce power. Our state’s forest products companies have burned wood wastes for decades as part of the manufacturing process. It is called co-generation. Pre...
The FBI wants access to the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, and Apple CEO Tim Cook is resisting and putting his refusal in apocalyptic terms. Should Apple comply with a judge's order to help the FBI, we're supposed to believe, it will have created the privacy equivalent of a doomsday device, making everyone vulnerable to the intrusions of government and depredations of hackers and criminals. This is trite marketing -- only Apple can save us from Big Brother, and by the way, please keep buying our phones -- masquerading... Full story
Here's why what Bernie Sanders promises is false: Because what he says is true -- the system really is rigged so he can't deliver. The wealthy in this country have a grossly unfair advantage because they can bribe our politicians to make sure the laws don't apply to them. Actually, they can use their financial advantage to buy the best of everything for themselves, whether it be tax shelters, medical care, lavish homes, education, you name it. They maintain their gilded existence through what amounts to bribery. They use their campaign...
The Republican race for president may be taking a new turn. Stopping Donald Trump is the new mantra. Trump won in seven of the states holding primaries on Tuesday. So many states and so many delegates were at stake that it was called Super Tuesday. Ted Cruz won in two. He was victorious in Oklahoma and his home state of Texas. Marco Rubio won one state. Quoting Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, Cruz called on the other Republicans still in the race to “come together.” He thinks that only by coming together can they hope to stop the Tru...
Public safety agencies across America face the same problems as other employers — finding enough qualified workers. The difference is our safety is increasingly at risk. Law enforcement leaders are working harder at recruitment, yet they are drawing fewer applicants. Big city departments are not alone. It is the same story in smaller communities such as Leesburg, Va., where the number of applicants dropped 90 percent over the past five years. A decade ago, the Seattle Police Dept. had 3,000 applicants for 10 openings. Now, there are 1,000 a...
Sharing the Palouse There has been heated discussion recently regarding railroad easements, rail banking and property rights. Here is my perspective. My wife Diane and I own about 3.5 acres in central Pullman, an area that’s never been developed, with only cattle grazing many decades ago. A major stream, Dry Fork Creek, passes through it. Our land is a wonderful amenity for Pullman residents to enjoy, so I constructed a quarter mile trail through the middle of it. The trail offers a pleasant and pastoral alternative to city traffic and the h... Full story
According to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the future of the republic teeters in the balance. Unless the United States Senate bows to the will of President Barack Obama and approves his replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, everything we hold dear will be lost. A refusal to get with the program, Warren insists, "would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that – empty talk." This is the twisted view now prevalent on the l...
This shouldn't be necessary, but apparently Republicans need a little constitutional review. So for Mitch McConnell and the rest of the partisans, let's turn to Article 2, Section 2, which is about the responsibilities of the president. Can all of us see it there, the part that reads "he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States"? Does everyone notice it says "shall," that it's not...
The current campaign for president is setting the tone for future political discourse. This campaign season has seen unprecedented personal attacks, dirty tricks and vulgar language. Truth and civility are notably absent. No candidate seems “presidential,” and both parties are guilty of the abuses. All this does not bode well for the future. One of the most disturbing comments to come out of the campaigning was, not surprisingly, from Donald Trump. It has not been widely reported. Put aside his comments about Hispanics or Muslims or the oth... Full story
Tribute to an old friend The other day as I was walking down the hall at the high school, I went by one of the opened doors to the gym and I noticed my old friend, Scooter Brannon, quietly seated on the bleachers. I looked at this as an opportunity to say hi and ask of his health. We shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and talked of the girls’ success on the basketball court. While sitting there and sharing I looked up to see that the whole girls’ basketball team had formed a tight semicircle around us and Carmen Gfeller had seated herself nex...
