Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1601 - 1625 of 3750
Colfax To the chopping block I was interested to learn from Pat Bates’ letter to the editor last week that the GOP’s tax plan will actually raise college students’ taxes. I am amazed that they would raise anyone’s taxes. So, I followed Pat’s advice and called my congresswoman and complained. They need to cut everyone’s taxes. So, I suggested that the GOP cut the rates even further … much further. They are only shaving taxes, not “cutting” them. They need to take taxes to the chopping block and seriously slash them. While they are at the choppi...
Roy Moore is the Steve Bannon project in a nutshell. For the former Trump operative, the Alabama Senate candidate's tattered credibility is a feature, not a bug. If Moore had well-considered political and legal views, good judgment and a sterling reputation, he'd almost by definition be part of the establishment that Bannon so loathes. Since Moore has none of those things, he's nearly an ideal representative of the Bannon insurgency. Events in Alabama make it clear that Bannon's dime-store Leninism -- burn everything down, including perhaps...
There's no such thing as the Hypocritic Oath, but there should be. Translated from the original Pig Latin, it is: "Be sanctimonious if you want, but don't get caught doing the very same thing you're so holier-than-thou about, otherwise it'll bite you in the butt." That is a very loose translation. Among those it has bottom-bitten is Sen. Al Franken. He goes first because we're related. We're friends, so anyone who's not happy with what I say here can rip me a new one. Al has been outspoken about female rights, but don't you know, he stands...
YYYY Church members and Whitman County members, you made “North to Alaska” successful!!!!! 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...
It is hard to imagine that sexual harassment would be condoned by anyone. A survey of this country would surely show that every American disapproves of it, no matter its severity. Being disturbed by it, at one time, would have been universal. Such an emotion would never have been questioned. Yet, now, the universality of this is in doubt. With the current overwhelming number of charges of sexual harassment being leveled against celebrities and politicians, a new attitude has been exposed. A few cases are clear. The allegations against movie...
I am a conservative; thus, I was pleased when the conservatives won in the last general election. I agreed with most of candidate Trump’s message but had serious doubts about the messenger. He got off to a horrible start. His tweeter made him look absolutely foolish. He made off-the-cuff statements without considering the ramifications. He made enemies that conservatives didn’t need. We are now beginning to feel the repercussions of his lack of diplomacy. He continues to be pillared in the press. Even Fox News is having trouble defending him...
Editor's Note: In 1978, I was hired by Crown Zellerbach. Part of my responsibility was to help with the permitting, incentives and public support for the $425 million modernization project at the Camas Mill. I left Crown Zellerbach with the takeover by Sir James Goldsmith in 1986. The announced shutdown of the communications paper arm of Georgia Pacific’s Camas pulp and paper mill maybe the harbinger of what’s to come. Consumers are buying less paper, production costs are increasing, and competition is fiercer. GP will lay off as many as 300...
Tax plan The GOP tax plan will crush the middle class, and it will decimate students’ educations. Cathy McMorris Rodgers won’t even address the bill with her own constituents. She certainly won’t address education because of the damage she is inflicting on our next generation. Currently, student loan interest deduction allows students to lower their taxable income by $2,500. Cathy supports a tax bill that will take away all student loan interest deductions. One student illustrated how, with the current plan at 15%, her yearly tax would be $4...
Ed Gillespie went from potential vindicator of Trumpism to "cuckservative" in the space of a couple of hours. The Virginia Republican, campaigning for governor in a treacherous political environment defined by an unpopular president of his own party, ran the only race he reasonably could. He distanced himself from Donald Trump personally, hoping to lessen his losses in heavily Democratic Northern Virginia, while hitting some Trumpian notes on crime and immigration to appeal to the president's base. Gillespie looked to be gaining fast on...
I've written facetiously before about a fictional nation, the Male Chauvinist Pigdom. Unfortunately, it's very real and not funny, unless you get your jollies from the stories that are emerging of the male pigs -- not all of us, mind you, but far too many -- who brutalize the females of our species. Day after day, plausible horror stories of sexual assault finally spew after festering for years. The lineup of alleged pervs reaches the highest levels of celebrity, presidents of the United States, powerful movie producers and so many performers...
Football is everywhere. Games are scheduled throughout the weekend. The much anticipated Apple Cup is on Saturday. WSU meets UofW in Seattle. It promises to be a hard fought game. As we know, football is not a gentle sport. Players are helmeted and heavily padded to withstand the physical contact. One would think that football is enough violence for most, but for most it is non-participatory. Not everyone likes to just watch. That is where Black Friday comes in. Those looking for more action can have their chance at contact sports on Black Frid...
There was a brief furor a week or so ago about our national problem with substance abuse. President Trump said that we are experiencing an opioid epidemic. He may be newly aware of this, but it is not new. We have had a problem with opioids for as long as I can remember. We also have a cocaine epidemic, a methamphetamine epidemic, and chronic misuse of prescription drugs. We have a long standing drug epidemic that continues to grow despite all efforts to suppress it. We have spent billions of dollars trying to counter the problem and have...
Twenty-five years ago, Business took a beating in Olympia. The swing to the left in the 1992 general election was swift and potent. It drove higher costs to employers and more government regulations. Warning: Today’s political winds are blowing in that same direction. In the 1992 election, Democrats across America scored big wins promising a new health care system and bigger government. Bill Clinton upset George H.W. Bush for president and Congressman Mike Lowry knocked off Republican Attorney General Ken Eikenberry for governor. R...
Before the Texas church shooter encountered any police officers, he was run off a highway and dead. He had been shot and chased by two private citizens who took it upon themselves to respond to a heinous crime when no one with a badge was anywhere to be found. The church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas is another heartbreaking chapter in the country's epidemic of mass shootings. Devin Patrick Kelley shot and killed 26 people and wounded another 20, accounting for nearly everyone in the small church. The senseless cruelty is hard to...
In 1968, Phillip Morris decided the time had come to market cigarettes toward women, who had begun to make discernible social progress and were finally moving away from the stifling ideal of the barefoot-and-pregnant child-raising homemaker role. They had started achieving a less restricted, independent role where they could choose to make their mark in the professional world. The cigarette manufacturer celebrated this new glimmering of freedom by creating a Virginia Slims brand that was promoted for women with the slogan "You've come a long...
#!*! People who put on a facade, months later their true character surfaces....
Don't turn on the news. Don't read the paper. It's depressing, it's disturbing, is it Las Vegas, is it Texas, is it Washington, D.C.? Is it a myriad of other places? Switch to sports instead. When we do change the station, why is the feeling often still there? In a time in which news in general is dark and darker, the extended trend of black sports uniforms could use a second look. Sports are generally fun and exciting for a society, a genuine bond among varied people. But now, in this particular era, to insist on continuing the 20-year-old...
Skewed editorial To be honest I am not sure where to start in regard to your editorial page on November 2, 2017 in the Whitman County Gazette. I am a frequent reader of your editorial comments, many times agreeing sometimes disagreeing but this most recent one was wrought with either errors or false statements that clearly were skewed toward your position on the matter. While I agree that the editorial section is not necessarily a journalist article, but it should be based upon facts from which a conclusion of agreement or disagreement can be...
The showdown between President Donald Trump and Sen. Jeff Flake turned out to be no contest. It wasn't Trump who was out of the GOP mainstream, but Flake. The Arizona senator supported Gang of Eight-style immigration reform, when immigration restriction is becoming a litmus-test issue in the party. He is a Goldwaterite, libertarian-inflected conservative, when the market for libertarianism within the party is limited and diminishing by the day. He is frankly anti-Trump, when Trump owns the party. Many Republican voters are fully aware of the...
Some will remember that Ronald Reagan used to describe the GOP as a "big tent," meaning it had room for a large spectrum of approaches to government, from nearly liberal to arch conservative. Well, his alleged "big tent" certainly is "past tents." The GOP range these days goes from hard right to extremist cuckoo bird. Anybody who doesn't stand for exclusion and protecting the rich at all costs is dismissed as a "RINO" -- a "Republican In Name Only." The "Conscience of a Conservative" has been gradually overwhelmed by the expedient of...
YYYY The new passing lanes on 195 north of Steptoe. Keep them coming. 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...
In the movie “Starship Troopers,” citizenship was a very special status. To earn citizenship, one had to serve in the military. Citizenship gave those who served the right to vote. In this science fiction story, the rights of citizenship were not given freely. Citizenship here does not have to be earned. For most, it is a birthright. And, on top of that, very little is asked of citizens. Some citizens who have given the most to the country are veterans. We should give them our respect in return. It is fitting that they are honored. Alt...
Defending Jacobs I would like to respond to the allegations about my husband, Ken Jacobs, against the trail in Rosalia. (Julie Griffin letter Oct. 26) Did she have a recording of that meeting that she remembers it so well? What I remember and know about my husband, is that he was always in favor of having the John Wayne Trail. My recall of that time is the parks department was trying to put through making the trail head for Rosalia, up on the hill between lst and 7th, open it up for horse trailers and campers. That was a bad idea. That is a...
The Kremlin knows a bargain when it sees it. We are supposed to believe that it bought the American presidential election last year with $100,000 in Facebook ads and some other digital activity. Frankly, if American democracy can be purchased this cheap -- a tiny fraction of the $7.2 million William Seward paid to buy Alaska from the Russians back in 1867 -- it's probably not worth having. The latest obsession in the Russian collusion story, the Kremlin's digital activity has generated headlines and put Facebook and all of Silicon Valley on...
Few in media have disparaged President Donald Trump more harshly than I have. But I and the rest of his critics need to be careful. If we want credibility, particularly with Trump always attacking us for "fake news," we must be painstaking as we do our jobs, particularly when a story seems too grotesque to be true. A case in point is the controversy over the call he made to Myeshia Johnson, the grieving widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four special operations troops killed by ISIS forces while on patrol in Niger. Prodded by...
