Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 3557 - 3581 of 3749
Business owners across our state don’t understand why elected officials are raising taxes and adding costs when employers are struggling to keep stores open, factories running and people working. They feel there is a “disconnect” between politicians and the people who send them to Olympia and Washington, D.C. They’re frustrated with the federal spending spree and the tax increases that will inevitably follow. They can’t comprehend the logic of running up our nation’s debt with little thought of how to repay it. If shop owners along Main Street...
SO ANOTHER St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, a time of sad memory for me. It was on the day after St. Patrick’s Day 1971 that somebody stole my 1970 candy apple red Mustang with white upholstery and 8,000 miles on it from where it was parked behind two State Patrol cars next to the Legislative Building. There was a green derby in the back seat I’d gotten at Sen. Martin Durkan’s St. Patrick’s Day bash the night before. The Legislature was, of course, in session and I had driven from my hotel to the Capitol Campus early in the morning t... Full story
++++ The coordinators and participants of the Rosalia Junior Miss program. It was a great show. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111...
Some years ago, long-time state representative and senator Eugene Prince complained about the lack of civility in Olympia. He lamented the disappearance of the time when people of good intentions fought vigorously over philosophies and issues while still treating each other with respect. The debates during Prince’s public service might have been heated, but after the votes were cast, members went back to work together on other issues. The lack of civility and respect in public debates has grown since Prince left office. It has been a growing p...
W. Bruce Cameron In my neighborhood, it’s best to be a dog — but isn’t that true of all neighborhoods? I never see dogs out raking leaves or fixing their screen doors. Instead, I see them wagging in ecstasy over finding an unclaimed stick: What an amazing world, there’s this stick sitting here I can just have for the taking! Want to stop raking leaves and throw it for me? Come on, don’t you want to be happy? Probably the most overjoyed dog on the street is my neighbor Bailey, a 4-month-old golden retriever who is always so excited to see me he...
Bad thing The City Council and Fire District #7 Commissioners are being pressured to call for a vote to annex the Rosalia Volunteer Fire Department into the County Fire District. Along with this proposal they also want the town to turn over to the County Fire District all equipment, supplies and assets from the Ambulance Service the Town and Volunteer EMSs operator to the County Fire District # 7 at no cost and no strings attached. This is a $300,000.00 plus asset that belong to the Town and its citizens and is monitored very closely to insure...
When Idaho Gov. Butch Otter published his “Love Letter to Our Neighbors,” he touched off a political firestorm asserting his state is better for business. Otter sensed a weakness in Oregon’s business climate after lawmakers raised taxes on businesses and the wealthy by $727 million. Nike founder Phil Knight called it “Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law II.” Perceiving Knight might be fed up with Oregon, Otter started putting incentives together to lure Nike across the state line. With Washington’s Legislature about to raise business taxes to bala...
IT WAS A SHOCK, really, to see in the listing of salaries for Gov. Christine Gregoire and her top nine staff members that every one of them made more than Gov. Al Rosellini and his whole office back in the 1960s. Gregoire’s salaries ran in February Building Insight, the publication of the Building Industry Association of Washington which was taking issue with the eternal sob story of needy state workers, over 20,000 of whom will get 5 percent raises this year despite the record unemployment and poor economy. The listing was by annual s...
The Gazette’s annual Ag Edition is included in this paper. It is in part a tribute to the farmers and ranchers who are the heart of this area. Historically, Whitman County has been farming country. It remains one of the richest dryland farming areas in the world, but, over time, the local economy has shifted. Higher education and hi-tech industries are becoming important factors in the prosperity of the county. There is concerted effort to diversify the economic and tax base away from agriculture. Still, agriculture is the county’s mai...
As a world-renowned writer and social commentator, I’ve often stated that there are some notable differences between men and women. Thus far, no one has come forward to prove me wrong. Nor, frankly, has anyone thanked me for this observation, though I shudder to imagine what the world would be like if I hadn’t pointed it out. Let’s suppose for a moment that a man and a woman, both single, come down with the flu on the same day, with the same symptoms. If they each kept a diary of their experiences, here’s how it might look: Woman: I ache al... Full story
Start over is not code for stonewalling health-care reform President Obama and Democrats in Congress say that starting over on health-care reform is akin to stonewalling. They are wrong, just as wrong as those who want to do nothing. The problem is there is too much testosterone flying around the nation’s capitol and Americans are tired of the antics and political gamesmanship. It’s time to give them all an ice cold shower and send them back to work. Reforming health care is not about social engineering; it is not about jamming an unpopular and... Full story
Seattle Times: A change in ‘left coast’ outlook? I’VE LIVED in Washington state long enough to remember when the Seattle Times was considered a conservative newspaper. Compared to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer anyway. I don’t remember exactly when it started going the other way. But it did, to my great disappointment. I knew the reporters and some of the editors on both papers, and found the P-I’s to be more liberal than the Times. Richard Larsen was probably the best known and most respected on the Times as their chief political writer. H...
#!*! Since the city chopped down the river walk trees, the singing birds have left. YYYY Freshly graded county roads. #!*! County residents who print offensive signs to get driers to slow down. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111... Full story
The Colfax School District will run its new levy proposal in April. Its first levy attempt failed last month amid taxpayer dismay over the amount of money being requested and concern over other school issues. This time the district will ask for less, eliminating the cushion for loss of equalization money from the state. With the reduced request, the new levy proposal will be in the ballpark of past levies—levies that were overwhelmingly approved. At this point, many of the concerns voiced by community members and patrons of the district at t...
My father is a very active participant in passive television viewing. He watches a wide-ranging variety of primetime shows, such as “CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: Las Vegas” and “CSI: Pre-School.” He watches the news, he watches historical dramas like “Band of Brothers,” he watches horror shows like “American Idol.” And then, just to drive me crazy, he watches this fishing show I call “Two Smelly Guys in a Boat.” The plot of the show concerns two men who have been left out in the sun too long, bobbing around in a small boat, catching what I swear...
Water trail response In response to the articles “Fish and Wildlife eyes water trail for northwest county lakes” and “County parks board backs fish and game water corridor plan:” On February 23rd over thirty landowners of the Chapman Lake, Bonnie Lake, and Rock Lake area met to express their concerns over the acquisition of land by the Department of Fish and Wildlife and supported by Whitman County Parks Board. This is rugged land with very little accessibility to allow fire protection, rescue operations, and law enforcement to penetra...
These days, it seems like profit has become a dirty word. To hear some politicians talk, you’d think making money was a bad thing — and that those who do should be taxed and regulated to death. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Our economy is the best in the world because anyone can take a chance and start a business, whether it’s kids selling lemonade or Boeing delivering a 747. That’s why people flock to America! Profits also allow companies to do good things. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, private compani...
THE FIRST TIME I saw Alexander M. Haig Jr. was in 1979 when he came to Seattle to scout out his 1980 presidential chances. He did not turn on the Republican fat cats, though they were impressed by him. Haig, said one, “has the speaking ability of a Reagan, the intellectual capacity of a Kissinger and the poise of a Connally. But he’s a cold fish.” Cold indeed. He never mingled with the crowd. While the $100-a-platers sipped watered down cocktails at McGovern’s Music Hall at $2.25 a shot, Haig was at a private reception at the Washington Plaza f... Full story
So there she was on the television screen that Friday night. Sen. Patty Murray was being “interviewed” about the $35 million in stimulus funds which had been added to the pot for Spokane’s North-South Freeway project, probably the state’s longest still-in-the-works freeway project. The television reporters didn’t have much trouble tracking down their “news” story; Sen. Murray, and Gov. Christine Gregoire announced the day before they would be up on the Farwell Road overpass at 10 a.m. the next day for an “appearance”. It really wasn’t a n... Full story
Petition for Habeas Corpus filed on behalf of the teenage daughter, the “aggrieved party,” to compel the father, the “meanest man in the whole world,” to reverse his mandate of Cruel and Unusual Punishment, to wit: that the aggrieved party has to stay home and clean the garage when I promised I’d go with Whitney to the mall! The basis for this petition, which is like an emergency because Whitney is coming to pick me up in half an hour and I need to get ready, is first of all it’s against the Constitution. You can’t just announce on a Saturday... Full story
Too often, elected officials forget to connect the dots and do the math. Put another way, they fail to look at the complete picture and add up all the costs of government to taxpayers. It happened in 1993 when then Gov. Mike Lowry and state lawmakers increased taxes, enacted a pricey new health-care program, raised permit fees, and added more workers’ compensation and unemployment costs. In total, our state’s businesses faced $1.1 billion in new costs, half of which were tax increases. This year, Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers are staring at... Full story
“THIS IS DON Benton,” said the voice on the telephone. I don’t know that I was expecting a call. State Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver was the subject of one of the two columns I sent out last week to the newspapers that buy them and I was far from supportive of his announcement he will run against U.S. Sen. Patty Murray this year. State Democratic chair Dwight Pelz was quoted as saying Benton “may be the strongest candidate in the race so far,” considering the six others are unknowns without political experience. I questioned that, recalling the...
#!*! The red light runners in Colfax. Can’t you see?? The Colfax community is engaged in determining school funding after a failed levy. No pet peeves or okeydokes will be accepted on this subject. Issues of this kind should be addressed in signed letters to the editor. Signed letters to the editor, of course, are always welcome. Please resubmit comments on this subject as a signed letter. Send your Pet Peeves and Okeydokes to the Gazette P.O. Box 770 211 N. Main St Colfax, Wa 99111... Full story
The conversation has started. Monday night residents, parents and school officials met at the high school over the failed school district levy and future efforts to restore necessary funding to the schools. Many asked questions. Some expressed opinions. The audience was a varied mix of ages, interests and associations with the school. Also varied was the degree of support for the last levy effort. Yet, all there were intensely interested in what the next levy request would entail. The meeting was headed by Kirby Dailey in the name of a new...
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is bad managment My dad lived by the axiom, “You don’t rob Peter to pay Paul!” For our family, that meant mom couldn’t raid our piggy banks to buy something the family budget didn’t cover. It was hard for my mom, who was very creative when it came to borrowing from dad’s cash stash and putting it back before he noticed it was gone. In fact, she had everyone in our family involved in the ploy until one day dad checked his stash early and found some money missing. What’s going on in Olympia right now feels a lot like ho...
