Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1677 - 1701 of 3750
I had a birthday last week the same day as the eclipse. It was kind of neat that most of America celebrated and looked skyward with anticipation during my birthday. Most of my many birthdays aren’t any big deal. They just come and go without a lot of fanfare. We didn’t celebrate birthdays much when I was a kid. We acknowledged them, but there were so many seats around our dinner table that we would have been celebrating much of the time. There is one, however, that stands out. It was my 28th. I was in Viet Nam flying Shadow Gunships. We had...
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took the highly unusual step over the weekend of publicly explaining why he won't resign. He responded to Yale classmates who had written an impassioned open letter urging him to quit in protest over what they called (ridiculously overstating their case) President Donald Trump's "support of Nazism and white supremacy." There was no reason for Mnuchin -- a busy man and one of the most important economic officials on the planet -- to bother replying unless he feels a little defensive. After Charlottesville, the...
So, we have the "alt-right," the "alt-left" and a president who is clearly not "alt-there." What Donald Trump is fast becoming is alt-isolated, as the accumulated disgust for his constant degradation of the office has boiled over. After days of vacillating, his news conference tantrum -- where he argued that there is a moral equivalence between Nazis, Klansmen and other violent white nationalist haters and those who fight them -- revealed the depths of his immorality, amorality or just plain stupidity. That was the last straw for many who had...
Hurricane Harvey smashed into the Texas Gulf Coast. The predictions were dire. Almost every hurricane computer model predicted the storm would make landfall and then stall out, drenching the coast and Houston in particular. The computers were right, although ‘drenching” is hardly the word for what is happening in Texas. Early on, it was estimated that 11 trillion gallons would fall on Houston. Some places have suffered from approximately 50 inches of rain in just a few days. And, the rains continue. As of this writing, the storm, after lea... Full story
The incident in Charlottesville is a tragedy. Most accounts blame the white supremacists. Their protest has been compared with KKK meetings at the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. It was a white supremacist who drove the vehicle into the crowd. A few reporters, however, attribute part of the blame to the counter protesters who expressed their views forcefully and physically. No one, however, has thought to blame the city leaders who decided to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee. It was a dumb decision. Lee is a national hero....
Recently, family, friends and dignitaries gathered at Hurricane Ridge near Port Angeles to celebrate the designation of the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness at Olympic National Park honoring Washington’s distinguished three-term governor and U.S. senator. Today, America needs a calming voice of reason – a steady and measured leader with the strength, experience and ability to unify our nation. Daniel J. Evans fits that mold. At 91, Evans is still spry and fit. His legacy is that he worked with Democrats as well as Republicans to get things done. The...
Inventory Have you ever looked at the buildings along Main Street in downtown Colfax and wondered about their history, their design, who built them and why? Maybe you own one of these buildings, work there, or shop there and would like answers. On Aug. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Center next to the county library, you can find out. The Colfax Historic Preservation Commission, in association with AHA!, an architectural history and archaeology firm, has conducted an inventory of the historic buildings in the Colfax business core and will be... Full story
Robert E. Lee wasn't a Nazi, and surely would have had no sympathy for the white supremacist goons who made his statue a rallying point in Charlottesville, Virginia. That doesn't change the fact that his statue is now associated with a campaign of racist violence against the picturesque town where Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. The statue of Lee was already slated for removal by the city, but the Battle of Charlottesville should be an inflection point in the broader debate over Confederate statuary. The monuments should... Full story
Finally President Donald Trump acknowledged in a statement that "Racism is evil," and described the "KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups" as "criminals and thugs." Put that in the "too little too late" file. It had taken two days before he could denounce the extremist bigots responsible for the deaths in Charlottesville, Virginia. Still, his immediate response was the one that matters, because it reveals what a toxic force he is. Originally he had condemned "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many...
The rush is on. Governments and public institutions are scrambling to remove Confederate war statues and memorials. It has been coming for a long time. Most recently, Confederate flags were removed from some public property in the south. The move has picked up dramatically as a result of the protests and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. That is where racial hate groups and counter-protestors clashed. One young woman was killed when a white supremacist ran her over with a car. The uproar only increased when President Trump first failed to... Full story
Massive forest fires in western parts of Canada and the U.S. are not only choking us with layers of smoke, but are cutting off lumber supplies around our country. The result is the cost of a new home is rising because of the growing shortage of framing lumber and laminated decking. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported combination of the wildfires and the 30 percent tariff President Trump slapped on Canadian lumber producers are causing lumber shortages and drove up the average prices on new single-family homes nationwide to $406,400 in May....
Qualified? Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers said at her Aug. 10 Town Hall meeting, “I support Donald Trump because, because, because he’s a disrupter and we need to change DC. I continue to support him.” When a later question about Donald Trump was asked, she said, “Donald Trump was elected POTUS. He won the election and I’ve already told you why I support him.” So, being a disrupter is McMorris Rodgers qualification for POTUS? Another woman recently disagreed with her when she said she thought the POTUS should be: “Someone who knows his...
The first thing to know about the instantly infamous "anti-diversity screed" written by a Google software engineer is that it isn't anti-diversity or a screed. The loaded description, widely used in the press and on social media, is symptomatic of the pearl-clutching over the memo, which questions the premises and effectiveness of Google's diversity policies. The document was meant -- before getting splashed on the internet -- as an internal conversation-starter. The author posits that innate differences between the sexes may account for the... Full story
At the beginning of my reporting career, I covered a federal judge hearing a civil suit against National Guardsmen several years after the Kent State killings. The judge refused to allow transcripts of grand jury testimony from earlier criminal proceedings into evidence. Grand juries are supposed to be secret, he ruled, and allowing their deliberations into the record would mean they'd become public. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on one's perspective -- I had gotten my hands on the transcripts from sources I won't identify to this... Full story
On Monday, a total eclipse of the sun will darken parts of the country. The “path of totality” will be just south of us. It will cross onto the continent north of Newport, Ore., and will continue across the country to South Carolina with a 70-mile wide swath. The “path of totality” will pass over 14 states. In Whitman County, we will see a partial eclipse. The eclipse here will be more than 90 percent of a total eclipse. Interest in the event is high. Some airline flight plans have been changed to give passengers a glimpse. A special Amtrak tra...
Over the years my old body has been misused to the point of abuse. Although I am no stranger to operating rooms, I have put off having a foot repaired until I could no longer wear a shoe. I finally allowed the surgeons to do their magic early this week. As I lay there waiting for the anesthesiologist who was caught up in morning traffic, I pondered the issue of health care in America. Over the last eight or nine years, the news has been full of plans and counter plans to fix the medical care problem. Having nothing else to do but think, I...
So far this year, a trio of unexpected deaths has shocked Washington business and agriculture. Melanie Dressel, Ron Reimann and Jeff Brotman leave behind large shoes to fill. They came from vastly different backgrounds and political perspectives, yet it was their diversity, ingenuity and drive which makes our state and nation great. Last February, Melanie Dressel, president and CEO of Tacoma-based Columbia Bank, suddenly died of heart disease. She was 64. She was born and raised in Colville, a small farm and timber town, but stayed in Seattle... Full story
Venezuela is a woeful reminder that no country is so rich that it can't be driven into the ground by revolutionary socialism. People are now literally starving -- about three-quarters of the population lost weight last year -- in what once was the fourth-richest country in the world on a per capita basis. A country that has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia is suffering shortages of basic supplies. Venezuela now totters on the brink of bankruptcy and civil war, in the national catastrophe known as the Bolivarian Revolution. The phrase is the... Full story
Maybe Donald Trump needs help with his cognitive ability. That might explain his need to assign derogatory labels before recalling someone's name. Perhaps that's why he refers to "Crooked Hillary" Clinton. Same for "Little Marco" Rubio, or "Lyin' Ted" Cruz. Given his obsession with CNN, you'd think he wouldn't need "Fake News CNN" to jog his mind. Another possibility is that he's plain old nasty, that he just needs to bully people, particularly those who might scratch his incredibly thin skin. Our president has such a fragile ego. That's...
“Back to School” sales are on around the county, not to mention the country, and they have been since the early morning hours of July 5. For the Fourth of July is the new end of summer – or it just seems like it. Once upon a time, such as not that long ago, “Back to School” sales didn’t appear until mid-August. Now, these sales come on strong a month earlier, draping thoughts of school over the height of summer. It gets to August 1 and it feels like summer is over. Thoughts of Halloween now, anyone? This development surely grew out of the Chri... Full story
In 2014, President Barrack Obama opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways. This year Oregon lawmakers, much to the chagrin of Washington drivers and truckers, unilaterally took advantage of the new funding opportunity. Before adjourning in July, Oregon’s legislature passed an ambitious $5.3 billion comprehensive transportation plan. To fund it, legislators raised fuel taxes, increased registration and title fees, created a new payroll tax, added taxes on auto and bicycle sales, and placed tolls on Portland metro a...
When did diversity become a positive attribute? How is it beneficial to celebrate our differences? I have a good friend who is an ordained minister, and I was honored to be invited to his ordination. Although everyone there spoke English, the ceremony included prayers in nine languages. The Lord’s Prayer was recited in Navajo. Personally, I like the Lord’s prayer and find it uplifting, but when read in Navajo it is simply noise that has no meaning to me. I’m sure that the prayers recited in Chinese were similarly meaningless noise to the lone...
VA funds research Thank you for publishing a high quality newspaper that is interesting and informative. However, in a recent Gazette opinion piece, "The Cost of Healthcare," Frank Watson has at least one of his assertions wrong. Mr. Watson states, concerning the Veterans Administration system, "They do good work, but, they don't fund research." The VA's website, the VA Office of Research and Development, lists 11 VA research programs, including a program that shares VA research with outside researchers. Mark Olson, Seattle...
The ascension of Donald Trump was supposed to change everything in the GOP. As it happens, perhaps one very important thing hasn't: The Republicans may well still be The Stupid Party. That Obamacare repeal has one or maybe two feet in the grave, depending on how you're counting, is testament to jaw-dropping disarray and bad faith. On the cusp of a historic failure, the party has begun the finger-pointing, and it's hard to argue with any of it. The establishment is right that Trump is incapable of true legislative leadership. The Trumpists are r...
It was the end of 2012. The country was courting fiscal and political disaster. The Obama-administration Democrats were at an impasse with the adamant GOP contingent on Capitol Hill. At the last minute, or so it seemed, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Vice President Joe Biden: "Does anyone down there know how to make a deal?" Biden was precisely the one to approach. He had spent 36 years in the Senate, and countless days and nights negotiating compromise with McConnell and the Republicans. The answer to McConnell in 2012 was... Full story
