Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1734 - 1758 of 3747
The deadline is looming. The Washington legislature is coming up against a hard deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Now, in its second special session, it has only until June 30 to pass a budget for the new biennium. If the second session does not result in a budget, then the legislators will have to meet for a third special session. The current session ends June 21. Even so, if a budget is not finalized by June 30, the state government may start to shut down. In fact, preparations for a partial shutdown are being made. The sticking point...
Recently, the Wall Street Journal editorialized that Connecticut’s elected officials are getting their “comeuppance” for years of absorbingly high taxes, failing to implement state spending constraints, and treating business as a bottomless well of cash. Just as Washington lawmakers are meeting in special session to balance the budget for the next two years, so are Connecticut legislators. While the differences between Democrats and Republicans over taxes are great in both states, Washington’s tax collections from existing sources are rising,...
Cemetery looked good During our visit to several cemeteries over the Memorial Day weekend the Colfax cemetery stood out. I appreciate all the work that was put into making the cemetery look so beautiful this year. Also thank you to everybody that put the flags up on Friday morning. I have three members of my family with flags there, and it was very nice seeing them fly Friday morning when I was there. Gwen Leland Goodman, West Richland Balancing Concept Here’s a balancing concept for you. For drugs that are used recreationally, the s...
We have seen the enemy, and it is the robot. A wave of fear over automation is driving dire predictions about robots rendering swaths of Americans unemployable and has created a vogue for outlandishly stupid policy proposals. A popular idea in Silicon Valley is for a so-called universal basic income -- the government would write everyone a monthly check -- to cushion the unemployment effect of automation (never mind that such a policy would itself have an unemployment effect). Bill Gates wants to tax robots, which makes about as much sense as...
I've wrestled with this my entire career: What do journalists do immediately after we're attacked while lawfully doing our jobs? It takes place on occasion. In this age of Donald Trump, it's happening more. Our president has turned long-simmering bad feelings about media into boiling hatred. We can consider the reasons in a moment, but the reality is that the nutcases are emboldened as never before to physically attack those who cover news in ways they don't like. I am pondering this again thanks to the attack by Greg Gianforte, who ran in a...
It turned out badly. Three men tried to protect two frightened young girls from a racist assault. They were on a light rail commuter train in Portland. The girls, both black with one wearing a hajib, were accosted by a man full of hate. Witnessing the tirade, other men moved to defend the girls. Suddenly, the confrontation turned ugly and violent. The attacker killed two of the men and injured the third with a knife, slashing his throat. This is not how the incident should have ended. The three good Samaritans ideally would have defused the...
As President Donald Trump returns from all the heads-of-state pageantry in far-off lands, he cannot distance himself from the piles of mess he's left back home. Just ask Richard Nixon, whose travels couldn't escape Watergate, or Bill Clinton, who had Monica Lewinsky and all the other petty scandals to preoccupy the swarming opposition and journalists back in the U.S. of A. Now, Donald Trump has Russia, an all-consuming national political issue, not just a geopolitical one. He doesn't have to travel to world capitals to face Vladimir Putin;...
The Turkish government is obviously familiar with the concept of "chutzpah," if not necessarily the word. Ankara summoned the American ambassador to protest allegedly "aggressive and unprofessional actions" by the Washington, D.C., police. Their offense? Intervening after Turkish security personnel mauled peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington. Video of the incident is jaw-dropping. About a dozen people protested Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- arriving at the ambassador's residence after a White...
Gazette Editor Three rookies will take seats on the Colfax City Council at the start of next year. Each applied for a seat that failed to attract other candidates. The three new council members and short-term appointee Sarah McKnight will make up a majority of the council. Public service can have its rewards, but it can also have its headaches. The number of late calls from residents who are upset and want something done about a problem, real or imagined, never gets on the public record. Colfax has had several episodes of rough going over the...
Shortly after I was commissioned as a second lieutenant, my brother-in-law, Jim, approached me and said that I would be in charge of a lot of government money. I told him that second lieutenants aren’t in charge of much of anything. He replied, “Not now but eventually you will be, and when you are, I want you to treat each dollar as if it were the one I put in.” I promised I would and tried to keep my promise the rest of my military career. Jim was not a rich man by any definition. He owned a dump truck and hauled gravel for county roads...
Recently, Washington state’s largest environmental, wildlife and natural resources agencies recognized 43 large forest landowners for their “exemplary efforts” to upgrade forest roads and stream crossings which improved salmon habitat and water quality. After investing more than $300 million collectively, these landowners rebuilt 25,000 miles of forest roads, replaced more than 6,000 in-stream barriers to migrating fish, and opened in excess of 3,500 miles of previously blocked spawning habitat. The recognition is a milestone in colla...
For the past couple of years, the most important word in American politics has been the worst -- "rigged." Emanating from slang back in the 17th century, developing into a description of financial fraud, and then branching out to apply to cheating in sports and elections, "rigged" had a breakthrough year in 2016, and it shows no sign of loosening its grip. It is a word of grievance and conspiracy. It is a word of institutional distrust. It is a word of larger forces beyond our control taking advantage of us. It is a word that says, "We wuz...
Mind you, I'm not anti-management. Some good leaders maintain thriving companies by inspiring a passion for a job well done in an atmosphere of confidence. Collaboration is their organizational approach, where praise co-exists with constructive criticism. The employees operate with a well-defined sense of mission, because it has been clearly communicated from the top. Then there are the bad bosses -- far too many of them. These are the ones who believe in a business culture of fear. Sometimes it's intentional, where the guy at the top gets his...
Poisonous Hemlock We have Hemlock growing all over the place here on the Palouse as well as in Whitman County. There are no funds supposedly according to the Weed office to fight Poisonous Hemlock from its continuous spread in our water ways. There are landowners, that do nothing in controlling it, and Poisonous Hemlock is spreading. This Poisonous Hemlock runs from Moscow along the bicycle trail to Pullman, Albion is covered in it; Union Flat Creek that goes past LaCrosse is thick with it. People here in Whitman County need to take care of...
Gazette Editor “Keep the McCleary Promise” was enclosed in a logo design which was included in an advertisement in Sunday’s editon of the Spokesman Review. In the center of the logo was “Education is a civil right.” The advertisement encouraged readers to join forces with local educators and voice support for public schools and support the state house budget by calling a legislative hotline. The bottom of the advertisement listed 26 educators in the eastern region school districts as sponsors. All were officers in Washington Education...
Every generation has at least one life-changing event that impacts the way they see the world. I remember every detail about the open house at Fairchild Air Force Base in 1980. My in-laws had been visiting for about a week, and I had talked them into staying an extra day to see the air show. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon. We had airplanes on display from bases all over the country. More than 10,000 visitors had just watched the Air Force Thunderbird’s show, when I noticed ominous clouds building in the west. The volcanic activity on M...
“America needs more welders and fewer philosophers,” proclaimed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential campaign. He hit the nail on the head without disrespecting philosophers. Industry News reported in 1988 there were 570,000 welders compared to the 360,000 in 2012. Considering the manufacturing and construction sectors have boomed in recent years, the growing shortage of welders is troublesome. Even worse, the American Welding Society estimates a 290,000 job deficit by 2020. This shortage is primarily due to the large num...
If you've only followed coverage of the Republican health care bill loosely in the media, you might believe that House Republicans, after much effort, passed legislation to deny people with pre-existing conditions health insurance. The issue of pre-existing conditions has dominated the debate over the GOP health care bill out of all proportion to the relatively modest provision in the legislation, which is being distorted -- often willfully, sometimes ignorantly -- into a threat to all that is good and true in America. The perversity of it all...
Mark down the first week of May in your scorecard. To the frustrated "do something even if it's wrong" crowd, that is when the Trump White House and the House Republicans actually got something done. They passed legislation that keeps the federal government running, which is generally regarded as not wrong, except for by some anti-government hard-liners. And they actually passed another important bill: one that would gut health insurance for millions of Americans. But hey, it was getting something done for the GOP politicians, most importantly...
Card of thanks This goes to all who voted for Donald Trump. THANKS A LOT!!! (said with extreme sarcasm). May God save the United States of America. Richard Stanton, Colfax...
It's still there. A large piece of real estate on the north side of the Moscow-Pullman Highway on the Washington side of the state line. It's pretty close to the expansive Palouse Empire Mall which runs along the highway on the Idaho side. Eight years ago, the piece of real estate was the focus of a retail vision: it would be the site of yet another shopping mall, but it would be in Whitman County. Stores there could generate retail sales tax income which would provide a welcome boost for the area's economy and inject sales taxes into the...
How Broke Are We? Every young man should own a motorcycle at least once in his life, and every aviator should fly in Alaska while they are still indestructible. Thus, after I retired from the Air Force, I moved to Anchorage and flew for a small, family owned outfit. It was fun, but the pay was next to nothing. In order to feed my family, I took the requisite exams and was certified as a financial planner. I hung out my shingle and offered my services in estate planning, investment guidance and debt counseling. The normal procedure for those who...
There was nothing pretentious about Mike Lowry. What you saw is what you got! Lowry was one of Washington’s most colorful governors. He served one term from 1993 to 1997. He died on May 1 at age 78. There was nothing subtle about Mike Lowry. He was not afraid to mix it up publicly nor put his political future on the line when he believed in a cause. For example, in 1993 Lowry pushed legislation dramatically reforming our state’s health care laws. He and his Democrat colleagues jammed a bill through the legislature requiring all employers to...
Return of liquor stores? A minority of Washington’s voters went to the polls in 2012. A majority of that minority voted to close the state liquor stores, and move the hard form of that drug into child accessible stores. It’s not going well. Remember those tiny bottles of liquor that airlines used to sell to their passengers? Tiny – several can be hidden in one of your socks – just the right size for a child to take. Sunset Mart in Pullman has an open display rack, right down to the floor – just the right level for a child – and right by th...
Republicans have put on a clinic on overpromising during the past several years. Even if you were paying only very little attention, you would have gotten the distinct impression over the past four election cycles that the GOP was unalterably committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare. It didn't matter what year the Republicans were running (2010, 2012, 2014 or 2016) or what presidential candidate (earnest, establishment-friendly Mitt Romney or bombastic outsider Donald Trump), repeal of Obamacare remained the consistent theme. The party...
