Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1532 - 1556 of 3750
Headlines are one of the fun and challenging aspects of the newspaper business. They can be flashy, fun, intense, somber or alarming. Reporters and editors are constantly faced with the question: what should I use as the headline? Sometimes you start with one headline and by the time the article is in print, the headline is something else; usually better or more fitting. There are many potential headlines that are not seen by the public because the news staff changed it before publication. Here's one headline you will not see in this's week's...
Do good military commanders make good education leaders? That is a question which Montana’s Higher Education Commission will answer in the coming years. However, if the new University of Montana president follows the pattern set by former Seattle Public School Superintendent John Stanford and Clark College President Bob Knight, the answer will be a resounding yes. Seth Bodnar, 38, is the youngest UM president since World War II. He started in January. He doesn’t have the coveted title “Ph.D.” His key academic credentials include Rhodes and Tru...
Appreciations On behalf of all of us at Whitman County Library, I want to express our sincere appreciation to local voters for restoring the library’s tax levy rate. I also want to thank the many businesses and individuals who’ve donated and volunteered over the years. We are honored to serve you from 14 countywide locations, online and through outreach programming, but it definitely wouldn’t be possible without generous supporters like you. Thank you for helping WCL make a positive difference in our communities and in the lives of the peopl...
The Pentagon has confirmed that it is in the preliminary stages of planning a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue -- one of President Donald Trump's fondest desires. Trump was, understandably, impressed in a visit to France last July by the pageantry of the Bastille Day parade. The parade dates back to the 1880s. Nothing the United States comes up with will match its resonance or its beloved, unifying nature. Trump's motivation for ordering up a parade anyway is pretty obvious. He likes big, brassy displays, and he gets a kick out of...
There are so many problems in making a charge of sexual misbehavior and even more starkly when it comes to accusations of domestic abuse. Not the least of this is when Person No. 1 (usually a woman) points the finger at Person No. 2 (usually a man). When the man denies the allegations, we often are left with uncertainty over which one to believe. That's exactly what the administration faced with two key people on the president's staff -- Rob Porter, the man who handled all the presidential paperwork and the most-classified material, along with...
Since when has mass murder been a political issue? Last week, 17 students and staff were gunned down in a Florida high school. Others were wounded. The shooter was an expelled student with a long history of troubled behavior. Apparently, the FBI was warned about him. Local social services and local law enforcement knew of him because of multiple contacts. Despite this, he was able to purchase a semi-automatic assault-style rifle and carry out his killing spree. Since that horrific day, a cry has gone out that this should never happen again in...
Have you carefully checked your utility bills lately? Most people don’t unless they are monsters like the ones for garbage in Scranton, PA, and Los Angeles. In Vancouver, WA, our garbage and recycling bill now has an added 3.6 percent refuse tax. It costs us $1.29 more every two months. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, in Scranton, residents started receiving a $300 annual trash collection fee which is a 68 percent increase since 2014. In LA, an assisted-living operator’s bill was less than $500 a month, but jumped to who...
History lesson Frank Watson should open his history book. He's upset that states are in rebellion against the federal prohibition. Does he disapprove of the Tenth Amendment, States' Rights? He's disturbed by the high rate of black market drug deaths, by the appearance of supervised injection sites, and the notion that drugs are trending toward legalization. (Safe Injection Sites, 2-8-18) His misguided fears cry out for a much needed history lesson. I intend to show that the elevated rate of addictions, and the elevated rate of black market...
No matter the criticisms directed his way by Republicans, Robert Mueller should count himself lucky: He's not Ken Starr. The punctilious, mild-mannered independent counsel appointed by a three-judge panel in the 1990s, Starr investigated all manner of Bill Clinton scandals, most spectacularly the Monica Lewinsky affair. As a former D.C. circuit judge and U.S. solicitor general in the first Bush administration, he had struck no one as a goose-stepping lieutenant in the sex police, or a partisan fanatic likely to be driven by sheer hatred to...
I covered Capitol Hill during my CNN phase, which was quite a while ago, but to this day, I have friends who are veteran members of Congress and, more importantly, members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. These are Washington "friends," which is to say that when I'm reporting on them, they're often adversaries. In return, they don't give me any sort of favored treatment, particularly those on the two intelligence committees. Any conversation about the super-classified material they routinely see as they conduct their oversight...
Governor Jay Inslee is pushing for a carbon tax in the state. His proposal is intended to raise $3.3 billion over four years. This would significantly increase costs to consumers. Electricity rates could increase 4 to 5 percent, natural gas could increase 9 to 11 percent and gasoline might jump as much as 9 percent. The carbon tax, it is said, would cut greenhouse emissions and put Washington in the lead for fighting climate change. In the first years of the tax, however, the new revenues would not go to mitigating climate change. The bulk...
I voted for initiative 502 in 2012, not because I wanted to legalize marijuana, but because what we were doing wasn’t working. I thought it inconceivable that the US government would allow any state to openly ignore federal law. At best, I was hoping for a wake up call, and Congress would recruit some very smart people to find a solution that worked. I thought the worst case would be for the state to be forced to cease and desist such that we would revert to the status quo. I was wrong, the worst case was that the states were allowed to r...
In Olympia, Gov. Jay Inslee is pushing lawmakers to enact a new tax on carbon gas emissions before the legislature adjourns on March 8. Inslee wants Democrats, who now control the legislature, to approve a $20 metric ton levy. He says it is necessary to combat the effects of climate change and would start in 2019. There would be no corresponding tax offsets as provided in British Columbia and under I-732 which is the ballot measure Washington voters rejected in 2016. Nor is there a cap on future tax increases. The additional money would go to...
Added benefit Many folks have written in already with great reasons to support the County Library levy and school levies that are on the ballot in this election. I want to add my voice to theirs, and to urge your readers to consider the added benefit we all get from a healthy library and robust schools: a lower crime rate. As the County's prosecuting attorney, I've seen the evidence that proves that money invested in schools and libraries, and programs to keep our kids pointed in the right direction, is also an effective tool in fighting...
President Donald Trump has had impure thoughts about special counsel Robert Mueller. That much, we know. The New York Times reported that Trump asked White House counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel. When McGahn resisted, Trump backed off and left Mueller in place. Talking their clients out of bad ideas -- especially impulsive clients likely to blunder into gross mistakes -- is what lawyers are supposed to do. The Trump-Mueller episode is like the "Saturday Night Massacre" if Richard Nixon had merely thought about firing Archibald...
"If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell." We can thank Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer Carl Sandburg for that bit of wisdom. It's standard operating procedure for trial lawyers and certainly for politicians, both of whom could be best described as "anti-poets." It's clearly a way of life for the most obscene practitioner of these dark arts. I refer, of course, to the table-pounder in chief Donald Trump, who...
It was spectacular. In fact, it was as spectacular as in the old days. Elon Musk, famous billionaire visionary, pulled off a coup that could change the world. On Tuesday, his company SpaceX launched what is reportedly the world’s most powerful rocket. It was a successful launch. Then, to cap off the achievement two of the three boosters successfully returned to earth landing upright and undamaged, ready for reuse. The third, programmed to land on a barge in the ocean, failed and crashed into the sea. The point of returning the boosters for m...
I wrote a letter to the candidates during the 2008 campaign. I outlined my three biggest concerns for the future of our country and asked for their position on these issues. I received no response from McCain but did get a note from Obama requesting a campaign contribution. Little has changed in the past ten years. Politicians still ignore input from the voters. I dug into my old files and retrieved the letter to compare it with my current list. I found that my number one fear for our country’s future hasn’t changed. My second concern is now...
Enriches lives I am writing in support of the Whitman County Library levy. Our Whitman County Library enriches lives in many ways. With 14 branches throughout the county, WCL offers programs for all ages, including preschool storytime, after school events, teen nights, summer reading, as well as informative speakers sponsored by WCL through Humanities Washington. Other services offered include internet and Wi-Fi hot-spot access, computer help, services to daycares, senior facilities and home bound residents. I appreciate the convenience of...
Chuck Schumer started a government shutdown he couldn't finish. The New York Democrat, among the shrewdest operators in national politics, stumbled badly because he succumbed to the siren song of the anti-Trump resistance. He believed that any charge could be made to stick to President Donald Trump, no matter how implausible, and chose the dictates of an inflamed Democratic base over common sense. His embarrassing climbdown after a short, mostly weekend shutdown shows the limits of the resistance. Yes, an anti-Trump midterm wave appears to be...
You are probably asking yourself, "What was that all about?" Just because the government shutdown ended shortly after it began, it doesn't mean that it won't happen again in just a few weeks -- and it definitely doesn't mean that our great leaders in Washington covered themselves in glory. Quite the opposite. They can't even guarantee that they can handle their most rudimentary job, which is to keep the federal government functioning. When all is said and done, the bulk of the debate was about who would be held responsible for this debacle. It...
#!*! People who don’t say “thank you.” #!*! Neighbors who don’t take care of their own yard and expect neighbors to rake leaves for them. Send your pet peeves and okeydokes to Whitman County Gazette P.O Box 770, Colfax, WA 99111 or drop them off at the Gazette office...
All the attention has been on President Donald Trump recently, and very little attention has been paid to Hillary Clinton. She, of course, ran against the president. Right up to the counting of the votes, all the smart money was on her. She was predicted to win and become the first female president. We all know that didn’t happen. Many Americans were furious over the loss and claimed that Trump was not a legitimate president. Many Clinton supporters will never forget her loss, and some of the attacks on Trump simply may be because he beat h...
Too often, virtues and accomplishments of quiet leaders go unsung. Such is the case with John Spellman, former Washington governor and King County executive, who died on January 16 at the age of 91. Now many friends, colleagues and adversaries from both political parties extol Spellman’s courage, integrity, leadership, humility, tenacity, wisdom, inclusiveness, helpfulness and civility----all values of a strong and effective leader. John Spellman was the right person for our state during some of the most difficult times we faced since the Great...
A need As graduates and residents of the Colfax School District, we would like to encourage voters to support the Colfax School District ballot measures on the Feb. 13 ballot. There is a need to maintain and improve the structures for the future to benefit our students and our community. The measures will not only provide for new roofing, but also HVAC improvements and security upgrades. We will not only be protecting our investment in our schools, but also further ensuring the safety and security of our students. Dan and Lorraine Fulfs,...
