Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Hugo Chavez’s Cheering Section Let us pause and reflect. The left’s favorite self-aggrandizing thug has shed this mortal coil. Hugo Chavez, R.I.P. All the country’s least-reflective and most-reflexive ideologues of the left immediately issued warm farewells — Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and, of course, the nation’s 39th president, Jimmy Carter. Carter praised Chavez for his commitment “to bring profound changes to his country,” which, by installing himself as the effective president for life, he certainly did. Carter noted his “fo...
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments whether or not voters need to prove citizenship to register to vote. What’s the big deal? Not requiring citizenship to vote could be good for the economy. Forget the curmudgeons and old fogies who see voting as a sacred act. Let’s make money off the allure of free and open elections. Many people already come to America to have children. Residential houses, or birthing barns, allow pregnant women from around the world to live here until their child is born. The child, of course, is automatically an Ame...
The powers in the other Washington appear to be aligning to reform our country’s immigration laws. It has taken awhile, but it is now time to make the necessary changes. There are an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in our country. While people may disagree on the ultimate solution, many concede that it’s not practical to deport them and not fair to leave them in limbo. Immigrants have been part of our history since our nation’s founding. To this day, the freedoms and promise of America continue to attract people in search of a bette... Full story
It is not just the winter of Republican discontent. It will in all likelihood be the spring, summer and fall, as well. The national party is leaderless and nearly issueless, but besides that, is thriving and in fine fighting trim. Once, taxes and national security were the party’s pillars, supplemented by domestic issues like welfare reform and crime and by symbolic issues like the Pledge of Allegiance and flag burning. Now, the pillars are in disrepair. Cuts in income taxes don’t have the same resonance because rates are so much lower than 30...
There is a lot more to government revenues than just taxes. There are those ubiquitous fees. Raising taxes takes some doing. Raising fees is a simple matter. In Washington state, raising fees has become almost an art. Most state departments and agencies raise fees without much difficulty and without much protest. State Senator Mark Schoesler wants to make the fees and the changes in fees more transparent. He authored SB 5751. It recently passed in the senate. Schoesler’s bill would require state agencies to publish all fees and make them a...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008. My Neighbor Tom I’ve been good friends with my neighbor Tom ever since he got his new bass boat. He and I have spent many pleasant hours sitting in that boat, sharing memories and speculating on how much fun it will be if we ever get the boat out of his garage. Tom purchased the boat the way most men make their important decisions: completely on impulse. As he tells it, it wasn’t his fault — his system was overwhelmed by all the watercraft at the boat show, until he simply... Full story
Oakesdale Now that I have fallen off the cliff I find that I have more time to reflect on just what our leaders have been and are doing for me and the rest of the citizenry. As opposed to getting our situation back on the right track regarding the economy, the lessening of wasteful spending, and putting people to work, the Democrats seem to be more concerned with gay marriage, and every person sporting a college degree and the Republicans with their taxes being raised to help pay the bill. Makes one wonder just how far they got in school, when...
Will the highly touted and successful slogan, “Pro-choice” (which was so effective in the losing battle over the Right to Life, itself) prevail in the controversy over legal gun ownership? Currently, owning a gun is the surface issue being debated at state and national levels in the United States of America. However, beneath that surface, the issue has been lurking on the international agenda beginning in the mid 1990s. Since then the United Nations has undertaken every opportunity to ram into law the “Small Arms Treaty.” It is designe...
In March 2010, governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, plus two territories and the District of Columbia endorsed developing and implementing a common core state standards for selected content areas for grades K-12. The CCSSI just happens to be supported by Achieve, Business Roundtable, U. S. Chamber of Commerce, The U. S. Army and a host of other business and educational organizations. According to the writers of the CCSSI, seven considerations (arbitrary) guided their development. Keep in mind that the standards...
In November 1982, our state’s unemployment rate peaked at 12.2 percent, the highest since the Great Depression. Interest on a fixed rate home loan was 13.4 percent, and an 11.5 inflation rate burned through our checkbooks. The economy was a mess. The impacts of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 hadn’t fully kicked in yet, and Gov. John Spellman (R) and the Legislature had repeatedly increased taxes and cut programs to balance the state’s budget. It was a bleak time: people were hungry and work was scarce. There w...
Some guys have it, and some don’t. I’m referring to that special quality that makes powerful institutions want to throw fistfuls of dollars at them in senseless acts of high-priced beneficence. Jack Lew has it like nobody’s business. You might think the bespectacled treasury secretary nominee is just another brainy budget wonk and miss the animal magnetism that makes his employers lose all sense of financial proportion around him, paying him astronomical sums, forgiving his loans and granting him generous golden parachutes. Yes, Jack Lew is a r... Full story
Community Colleges of Spokane is giving rural Whitman County another opportunity. Some years ago, the group offered classes at the Education and Training Center in Colfax. Most of the classes were academic in nature. Enrollment was low. The offerings at Gladish Center in Pullman were better received and supplanted the Colfax effort. Now, Community Colleges of Spokane is returning to Colfax. This new program, called ACT2, is intended for adults who are not necessarily interested in degrees and credits. ACT2 is for seniors, providing educational... Full story
The only purpose for this letter is to express some muses. I’m thinking of the benefits of having an optimistic President. He keeps telling us how great disaster is, how much things are improving, debt is no problem let’s see how high it can go. It reminds me of a poem I learned years ago. The optimist fell ten stories And as he passed each window bar He called out to his friends “All’s well so far” Jack Ensley, Colfax...
I would like to share nine solutions how government should work for all citizens of our United States of America: 1. The immigration problem: would have been solved if the wall had just been finished, but since ICE was told not to enforce immigration laws, it would only make sense to quit paying them wages and not claim a border, just put up signs going North, reading Y’all Come Back, Ya’heeya!! 2. Obamacare: Order the new...old...regime to get mandatory truth serum shots and return all of the taxpayers money Obama and company have squandered i...
Sometimes Plan B turns out to be better than Plan A. Case in point: our state’s association health plans. In 1993, Gov. Mike Lowry (D) wanted to help small employers offer health insurance. Too many could not afford coverage for their employees and their families. His idea — which was a template for President and Mrs. Clinton’s national health reforms — was a government mandate requiring all employers to offer a plan with the same benefits for all workers. It didn’t work for three fundamental reasons. First, the unions got the Democrat-controll...
I didn’t see anything in the newspapers I take about The Great Backyard Bird Count but it probably takes awhile to compile the results. The GBBC has been done in the middle of February for 16 years where volunteers go out nationwide and count and list the various wild birds they see over a weekend. It’s sponsored by Cornell University and the Audubon Society. It once in awhile makes news when somebody reports seeing a rare bird believed to be extinct and the bird watching community goes nuts over it. Especially if the reporter had managed to... Full story
The long-awaited sequester is upon us. As of this writing, it appears that Congress and the President will let the long dreaded spending cuts go into effect. The administration is predicting dire consequences if the automatic national spending cuts of $65 billion take place, but has done little to avoid them. The Republicans are now saying that letting the sequester occur will not be as bad as previously thought. Sixty percent of the nation says that this is ridiculous and that compromise between the parties should have been reached. The cuts...
Incomplete data The St. John post office is being downsized based on incomplete data. The postal service has admitted to the error but refuses to correct it. Inquiries from our three District 9 state legislators, Senator Mark Schoesler, Representative Susan Fagan, and Representative Joe Schmick, as well as County Commissioner Art Swannack have fallen on deaf ears. Their efforts are to be commended. Now it is time for United States Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers to step in and demand that the USPS, a government agency, put a hold on the...
When Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1942, it was called the “Eighth Wonder of the Modern World.” With its 151 mile-long reservoir and ability to produce 6,809 megawatts of electricity, no one could imagine a bigger or more powerful dam and no one realized the scope of economic development that low-cost, reliable hydropower would create. Actually someone did. China. This year, China completed its gargantuan Three Gorges hydroelectric project with triple the power generation of Grand Coulee. The controversial project is the largest dam in the...
When President Obama nominated Sally Jewell of Kent for Interior Secretary Feb. 6, you would think that he had located the real Wonder Woman. The 56-year-old CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) was “A Jewell of a Pick” for “the massive job that makes her, by and large, the landlord of the Western United States,” The Seattle Times gushed editorially. She was “an inspired choice,” echoed Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Former U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, longtime member of the House Appropriati...
Global warming is widely accepted as fact. Glacial snow packs are receding, and ocean levels are rising. Snowfall is diminishing. Dramatic weather events are becoming more frequent, be they blizzards or droughts. The seas are warming. According to Rutgers University, as reported by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press, average spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has shrunk by a million square miles in the last half century. Yet, in that same time, dramatic snowstorms have doubled. Call it what you will, but weather, by all...
From time to time, I like to leaf through my high-school yearbook, reflecting on the fact that the hair and clothing styles of the time made us all look like lunatics. In my own photo, my odd jacket and long, featureless haircut make it appear as if I’m hoping my class will elect me Bellhop of the Year. A friend of mine from high school recently visited, and we opened the yearbook to take stock of what we were like when we were young and clueless. “There,” my friend said, stabbing a picture with a finger. “You had a crush on her.” I didn’t ev... Full story
Destroying the USPS Postmaster General Patrick Donahue wants to destroy the USPS. He claims there is a “loophole” in the Congressional mandate requiring 6 day delivery. His suspension of Saturday delivery would have a significant negative effect on the Postal Service and millions of customers. This is just another misguided decision by the Postmaster General reflecting his policies of slash-and-shrink. This approach in dealing with the financial problems will doom the USPS to failure. He must continue working with Congress in removing the $5....
Washington missing out on tourist dollars When we moved from Montana to Olympia 35 years ago, we saw enticing television and magazine ads for our neighboring states, but none for Washington. Fast forward to 2013 and nothing has changed. It was puzzling then, but even more perplexing today, considering the money and jobs at stake. Tourism in our state is no small potatoes, it is big business. Visitors spent $16.4 billion in 2011 and accounted for 150,000 direct jobs, which is nearly twice Boeing’s workforce in our state. But our state invests n...
Marco Rubio’s bad deal In Washington, a new gang has been born. The Gang of Eight on immigration is here to tell us that we have succeeded in not enforcing the law so persistently and thoroughly that now we have to give up all pretense. The Gang of Eight, headlined by conservative star Marco Rubio, wants to amnesty the 11 million immigrants who are already here as a product of past nonenforcement in exchange for a promise of future enforcement. Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform resolutely refuse to say the word “amnesty.” They... Full story
