Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Last week was tough on President Trump. Advance copies of Bob Woodward's new book were released. Then an anonymous letter was published in the New York Times criticizing Trump and declaring that some of his subordinates were actively trying to thwart his agenda. Woodward's book has been roundly attacked by some. Others declare that it is a truthful depiction. As for the anonymous letter, published as an op-ed in the Times, criticism is strong over some of the assertions and the fact the author is undeclared. A wild chase is on to name the...
Okeydokes The new digital Gazette. The PDF option is great. The individuals that remembered to put out the flags on Patriot Day....
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Arguably these are even worse times than the mid-19th century, when Charles Dickens wrote his "Tale of Two Cities." In the 21st century, we have effectively divided into two countries, separated by impenetrable fortifications. President Donald Trump heads up the hordes on the right. Those on the left are led by, well, actually they're not really led by anyone. That's a big part of their problem: All they really do is focus their utter contempt on Trump. He's constantly making that easy for...
History is usually airbrushed to remove a figure who has fallen out of favor with a dictatorship, or to hide away an episode of national shame. Leave it to Hollywood to erase from a national triumph its most iconic moment. The new movie "First Man," a biopic about the Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, omits the planting of the American flag during his historic walk on the surface of the moon. Ryan Gosling, who plays Armstrong in the film, tried to explain the strange editing of his moonwalk: "This was widely regarded in the end as a human ach...
When one approaches the Tri Cities, it is impossible to ignore Lampson International’s monstrous cranes in its Pasco assembly yard. Those gantries stand out like the Space Needle in Seattle and reach over 560 feet into the sky. Like the Space Needle, Lampson is built on a solid footing. Last month, Construction Review Online (CRO) ranked Lampson as the world’s third largest crane company. “Lampson International has been a world leader in the Heavy Lift and Transport industry for over 65 years...
I recently took my grandson back to the Midwest to get better acquainted with some of his relatives. He is only recently aware that he is related to a huge clan of Midwesterners. While there, I watched as two of my kinfolks debated whether or not Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to fill the opening on the Supreme Court. The debate gravitated to Roe versus Wade then moved on to the morality of abortion. One was adamantly pro-choice and the other just as firm pro-life. The pro-life asked me if I could think of any situation where it was OK to...
The Palouse Empire Fair begins its run today. This is a traditional event for the county. It is one of the few events that encompasses the entire county, and it has for decades. From all points of the county, youth bring their animals for judging and sale, crafters display their best work, bakers and canners vie for blue ribbons and all sorts of art and photography is hung for inspection and judging. The variety at the fair is wide and interesting. Also, booths are set up for politicians, political issues and commercial enterprises. And, there...
Okeydokes Our Colfax police officers for being so proactive & keeping our residence safe!!!!! The lovely beds at the Codger Pole. I’ve seen many visitors admiring them....
Others who were fortunate enough to experience John McCain, as I was, have offered their tributes to him, many more eloquently than I ever could. Still, I feel honor bound to try, because, throughout his life, McCain was all about honor. He was not a perfect man. As a reporter, I occasionally tangled with him, and he could display a nasty temper when crossed. But he also was very funny, quick with a devastatingly sarcastic quip. Although complex, he was simply the perfect example of a public servant who believed in public service. In other...
The Battle of Michigan Avenue is finally over, and it was won by the protesters. The lopsided fight between anti-war demonstrators and the brutish police force of Chicago's Democratic mayor Richard Daley the night of Aug. 28, 1968, in the midst of the Democratic convention, was a debacle for the left. The protests didn't stop the Vietnam War or the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, the sitting vice president who was much too establishment for the radicals. The event, broadcast on TV -- indeed, unfolding right in front of the...
With today’s tension and rancor, we need a dose of Yogi Berra’s wit and wisdom to put things into perspective. Let’s start with “You can observe a lot by just watching” because seeing what is happening now is very disconcerting. We need less sarcasm and to alleviate the vilification of one another that we constantly witness in the news and on social media. To quote Yogi: “It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.” Yogi’s humorous way of sizing up a sit...
For now I will let go Frank Watson's suggestion to ignore the rule of law in this country as espoused in his second to last sentence: "One thing, however I would not spend money on is a team of special prosecutors to investigate something that our president may or may not have done, and even if he did, may or may not be illegal." Maybe Cherie Patnode (Being Bullied) can help me with a problem I am having. How do I look on friends who support a man who has demonstrated a lifetime of no morals and no ethics, who seems to want to start wars with...
A lot has been written about Sen. John McCain since his passing. In many ways McCain embodied the United States itself, an embodiment captured by the word “resilience.” Neither McCain nor our nation was, or is, in any way perfect, yet both had the resilience to bounce back from mistakes and hardships. In his farewell statement to America, McCain wrote, “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals.” Many of those ideals took a while to manifest themselves, and many more are just emerging. In 1776, the Declaration of Inde...
A recent letter titled “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (Spokesman-Review, 9/2/18), that erroneously concludes “This tax cut benefits the middle class”, is a classic example of grossly misleading statistics like those used by Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The letter misleads by comparing percentage cuts rather than absolute dollar cuts. In absolute dollars, a larger percentage cut of a relatively small number (middle class income) is much smaller than a smaller percentage cut of a huge number (top one percent income) Thus the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center...
Frank Watson ("How to Improve our Country" Aug. 30), you make an excellent suggested use of a windfall, using it to increase the development of alternative energy sources and more fully recyclable packaging. However, you lose the argument by suggesting we stop investigating the alleged undermining of our democracy by our current president. Without a fully functional democracy, we would be far less likely to achieve your sustainability goals. Toward the democracy goal, as reported in last week's Whitman County Gazette, the Pullman Chapter of...
Long-serving Senator John McCain died Saturday. His death was anticipated. He had been suffering from brain cancer for months. A week of remembrances is underway. A memorial service is planned for Saturday with his burial on Sunday. Among others, both former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will give eulogies. Both defeated McCain in his bids for the presidency. This in itself says a lot about McCain. He was revered by many. He was respected by many more. Most importantly, he worked with politicians in both parties. He was also...
President Donald Trump was bitterly disappointed that he was forced to cancel his ego trip down Washington, D.C., streets. The parade of U.S. military units was to be his biggest display yet of people marching in lockstep, bigger even than any gathering of Republicans. He really wanted to stand on a reviewing stand as the troops and hardware did their thing below -- just like they do for Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and the others he wants to emulate -- but the disclosed cost of $92 million for this Defense Department dog and pony show is...
John Brennan may not know it, but he is acting in a drama scripted and produced by Donald J. Trump. As Eli Lake of Bloomberg perceptively observed, President Trump isn't trying to silence Brennan by revoking his security clearance, as the former CIA director's defenders insist, but elevate him as a foil. Trump couldn't hope for a better poster boy for the so-called deep state than a former CIA director who immediately began to sound like a commentator for MSNBC upon leaving government -- and, indeed, signed up as a commentator for MSNBC. It...
Pet Peeves The people that tell us what to do and try to control us, ran our debt up to 20 trillion. County allowing junk vehicles to sit on county road/right-of-way for weeks, months and years, doing nothing about it. Okeydokes Nice paint job at Les Schwab....
When does the bullying end? When did we start living in a time where it was okay to call people who don't agree with you names and judge them before you know them? How are we supposed to teach our youth that bullying is not okay when all they have to do is open the newspaper and see Trump supporters being called names? I am fortunate that my job lets me work with all walks of people. I am honest when I say that I have never refused to help someone based on their race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or their political views. I was...
While waiting outside the Spokane Valley City Council in July, I met an elderly woman who was very proud that she grew up in Idaho and now lived in the Spokane Valley. We had a brief discussion about immigration, and she just couldn’t understand why all the migrants were coming to the United States with their children. “Why don’t they just stay in their own countries and fix them, instead of coming here?” she queried. I responded by asking her, “Well, why do you think they come here?” and she said that they want our stuff. Later, I thought of...
Unlike more progressive cities with established goals and realistic expectations, Rosalia has been hobbled for years by questionable financial expenditures that may not have received the much needed input of interested town folk. This has resulted in wasted effort, ill conceived and executed building projects and a general feeling of discontent by locals. Several recent examples come to mind such as the loss of critically needed parking to host tournament and large function events that only the school facilities can accommodate. This needs to...
Last April, Washington wheat, apple and cherry growers hoped U.S. and China trade negotiators would resolve differences and prevent imposition of damaging tariffs on our state’s leading crops. Unfortunately, that did not happened and the costs are adding up. Thousands of Washington farmers now find themselves on the front lines of a battle between the two largest economies in the world. Here’s what has happened so far. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34...
A friend and I were engaged in a bit of fanciful wishful thinking the other day when he asked me how I would improve our country with a hundred million dollars or so. I quickly ran down the list of national problems we are rapidly leaving for our grandchildren. A hundred million wouldn’t do much for the national debt, so I scrolled down to our utter dependence on fossil fuels. I’m not concerned that our oil and coal reserves will run out in my lifetime, but the supply is finite and will eventually be depleted. In the long term, we have onl...
The wonders of television news programming surfaced again last week with "the girl who was pushed off the bridge." The episode rocketed to the national news level when a cell phone video showed a young girl hesitating about leaping off a bridge and then being pushed. Jordan Holgerson, 16, sustained five cracked ribs and a punctured lung when she hit the Lewis River in the Vancouver area, and Taylor Smith, the girl who allegedly pushed her, has been charged in Clark County with reckless endangerment. The intent here is not to dimish the impact...
