Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 3457 - 3481 of 3747
To the dogs There is a law in Colfax which requires dog owners to keep their dog on a leash or contained so it does not run. There is a problem in Hauser Heights with small dogs running around and leaving their mess in my yard and other yards as well. I am going to put a fence around my yard as soon as I can but in the meantime I am tired of picking up or walking in dog feces. I have watched the owner of one particular dog on a leash letting it do its duty in my yard, then leaving the mess for me to pick up. The surprising part of all this is t...
Over the next few years, your trusty incandescent light bulbs will become illegal. Didn’t know that? Don’t feel bad, few people do. Perfected by inventor Thomas Edison in the 1880s, the incandescent light bulb has been a shining example of American ingenuity and innovation. In fact, the light bulb is the very symbol of a good idea. Alas, after 130 years of faithful service, the incandescent bulb has been banned by Congress as energy inefficient. Beginning in 2012, 100-watt bulbs will be banned, followed by all others in 2014, although thr... Full story
“SAY, WHOEVER wound up with Helen Thomas’ old seat in the front row of the White House news conference room?” asks Sidney Pollack of Spokane. “Last I heard, there were several people and news outfits bidding for it.” My computer news source tells me that it’s in the final throes and may be done by now. It was between Fox News and Bloomberg News. Fox claimed it had a chit from the White House Correspondents Association because it gave up its seat to CNN in 2007 and was promised the next opening. However, Al Hunt made an 11th hour plea for hi...
#!*! Ya ...I’ll turn the lights out . . . but, I won’t take (the mayor’s) sign. #!*! Would they please take the city council and county commissioners too. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111...
At last, the county commissioners acted quickly and cooperatively. It was a unique situation. For the past months, they have been at loggerheads. Commissioners Greg Partch and Pat O’Neill have overruled Michael Largent on a number of important issues. Tensions and emotions have run high. So the recent smooth-as-silk votes were a surprise except for the fact that the votes were to protect themselves. Both Partch and O’Neill are facing recall action. As a consequence, Partch and Largent voted to provide O’Neill county funds for his legal defense.... Full story
My neighbor Tom is going on the “caveman diet,” which he believes will improve his athletic performance if he ever does anything athletic. “See, we’re surrounded by all these chemicals and processed foods,” Tom told me, so excited he momentarily stopped coating his hotdog with aerosol cheese. “But on the caveman diet, you go back to eating the way we did when there were dinosaurs roaming the land.” “I think if we had been around when dinosaurs roamed the land, they would be eating us,” I responded. “So, like, meat — cavemen ate meat,” he...
Ask any wildland firefighter and they’ll swear by their “pulaski,” a tool that combines an axe and a mattock (similar to a pickaxe). It was invented by U.S. Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski in 1911, one year after the nation’s largest wildfire nearly took his life and left him permanently scarred. While Pulaski is remembered for his firefighting tool, it was the pain and suffering he and hundreds of other firefighters endured that led to today’s workers’ compensation system. In 1910, Pulaski was a forest ranger in the fledgling U.S. Forest... Full story
ANYTIME I SEE the Washington State Democratic party, Washington Education Association, Washington State Labor Council and the Service Employees International Union joining in support of something coming up on the ballot, I know it’s something that’s going to cost you and me a bundle. They top the list of organizations ever ready to raise taxes to give handouts to everybody who wants one and will vote the Democratic ticket to get it, rather than fashioning government to fit current available revenue. Yes, everybody knows that the people wou... Full story
#!*! Would the last business in Colfax to close its doors please turn out the lights and take Mayor Becker’s parking sign with them? Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111...
For such a young man, he has had quite a run. Colton Harris-Moore, now 19, eluded police for two years. After walking away from a juvenile half-way house, he started a crime spree that started near Seattle and ended in the Bahamas. Moore evaded police in at least eight states. He has allegedly stolen a variety of expensive planes and boats during his exploits. The list of his suspected crimes is around 70. At one point, he left chalk drawings of bare feet on the floor of one of his crime scenes, thus becoming the “Barefoot Bandit.” His exp... Full story
Most parents of teenage daughters, hearing that Los Angeles parents Laurence and Marianne Sunderland stuck their 16-year-old daughter on a boat to sail around the world on a year-long voyage, thought to themselves: “A whole year without having my teenager screaming at me? Where can I get a boat?!” Typical parents are unable to afford the kind of yacht the Sunderlands used — you can’t just stick your kid on a rowboat and shove her out into the bay, as tempting as it may sound at times. For those parents, there is summer camp. And if you can’t af...
Our Korean host was an older man, well dressed and slightly balding. He had the gentle, scholarly appearance of the college professor he was. Professor Hyuk Rae Kim struck me as what the perfect grandfather should look like. There was a genuine humility about him as he welcomed the 38 teachers who were part of the Korean Studies Workshop. However, it quickly became apparent that this was a man of great strength, who was accustomed to being obeyed. His authority rang clear in his directives to those working for him and as he cautioned us on how...
Really fed up I am really fed up with our political system. Starting with federal through state, county and city. It is hard to believe what our elected officials tell us. That what they do is best for their constituents. What these officials are doing is bohunk. My feeling is that our federal and state officials get elected only to fatten their own pockets. Maybe they want to change things when first elected, but are quickly bought off by the lobbyists. There is also too much “good old boy” politics. I’m not sure what our county problem is. M...
Facing a $3 billion budget gap next year, Gov. Chris Gregoire recently announced a renewed initiative to streamline state government. The governor created a 32-person panel to scour state agencies for efficiencies vowing, “There are no sacred cows.” Surprisingly, she suggested that our scandal-laden ferry system could be sold back to the private sector. In the wake of a high-profile investigation by KING 5 News that revealed widespread abuses by unionized state ferry workers, Gregoire raised the prospect of privatizing the state ferry sys...
MICHAEL HASTINGS seems to be making all the talk shows these days although on some he’s a hero and others he’s a rat. Hastings is the Rolling Stone reporter who wrote the story that got Gen. Stanley McChrystal fired. There is some disagreement over whether he went too far in taking advantage of being embedded with McChrystal’s staff and reporting how they trashed the White House, or McChrystal et al should have known better than to lip off in the presence of a reporter. There appears to be a consensus that somebody forgot to say, “That...
#!*! Dog walkers who use new Main Street bark for canine rest stops. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111... Full story
Both the Federal government and British Petroleum claim that they are doing everything possible to stop and ameliorate the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is drilling two new wells to cutoff the faulty one. The government has enlisted its resources, including the Coast Guard and National Guard. Hundreds of commercial ships and private boats are involved in the cleanup operation. Still the oil gushes, and still the oil spreads. The quantity of oil captured at the well head is far short of projections. The amount being skimmed and...
Rubber stamp Reasons for substituting the county’s Board of Adjustment with an outside hearing examiner for decisions on large scale corporate developments are: 1) Other counties do it; 2) Knowledge of environmental law may be required; 3) Members of the Board of Adjustment could become burdened and overwhelmed by a permit application of a major project; 4) Ensure that any single application would not clog the conditional use permitting system. (Gazette 6/17/10) My response to this reasoning is as follows: 1) Two wrongs do not make a right; 2...
W. Bruce Cameron I’ve read that the ancient Chinese art of feng shui can bring a sense of peace, well-being and positive energy to a home — same as beer. Curious, I arranged to have dinner with a feng shui master so I could interview him and write off the meal on my taxes. (He ordered a beer!) A serious, prepared-for-anything journalist, I took careful notes on a dinner napkin with the pen I borrowed from the waitress. Unfortunately, I left the napkin on the table, but I think I remember enough from talking to what’s-his-name to provide a tho...
In the 1970s, Washington’s public utilities embarked on an aggressive nuclear power building project managed by the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS). Unfortunately, the effort ultimately became known as “Whoops!” WPPSS planned to construct five generating facilities in our state to meet future electricity demand. However, when the core of one of the reactors at Three Mile Island, Pa. nuclear power plant suffered a partial meltdown, support for nuclear power waned. As a result of the Three Mile Island accident and the subse...
IT’S BEGINNING to look like Seattle police officers just can’t do anything right. What doesn’t make sense is why they never seem to remember that there is a high likelihood that whatever they do is going to be caught by a camera, either one on a police car or a building or in the hands of some witness. Cameras are all over the place now. I was against the cops in the kicking of the Mexican man on the ground, especially when a woman cop added a couple of kicks for good measure after the men got through. I was against the security guards in th...
++++ The city of Colfax for the nice landscaping on Main Street. #!*! People who walk their dogs and don’t pick up their poop! Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111...
The state remains in financial trouble. It has made spending cuts, raised taxes and juggled cash and assets from different funds to meet the crisis this year. Still, money problems persist. Another major crisis looms. This time the state needs to find an estimated $3 billion to balance its next budget. The state, promises Governor Chris Gregoire, will look at major reforms in the hopes of shedding the status quo of over spending and short revenues. Some ideas include privatization of certain state functions and the elimination of programs. Addi...
I always thought if you made something with a three-dimensional printer, you’d need to wear special glasses to look at it. I was wrong, though: A 3D printer can actually take something you designed on your computer and “print” the object out in hard plastic — such as, for example, a pair of 3D glasses. 3D printers give us what we’ve all been craving: another reason to talk to technical support. When you finally get the thing working, though, you’ll be able to print out your grocery list as a cube! When you look up directions online, you...
Have the facts I have read in the newspapers about a problem the Colfax City Council seems to be having. That is what this letter will be about. The Council seems to be unhappy with the Mayor and the city administrator. I have strong feelings about what is going on, thus this letter goes beyond the fact that the administrator is my son-in-law. As I understand it, there is the possibility that the mayor may let the Fire Chief go or change his position. Some of the Council members don’t want that to happen so they would like to fire the administr...
