Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2006 - 2030 of 3750
Today, more millennials are moving back home even though the economy is improving and wages are inching upward. Recently, Pew Research Center revealed that a third of young adults today are more likely to live with their parents than they were before the Great Recession. Unemployment among young adults has been dropping since 2010, as has the number of millennials living independently. In 2007, prior to the recession, about 42.7 million individuals in that age group lived on their own. In the years in between, the population of 18 to...
Trail correction Thank you for the news article about the meeting June 5 in Pullman to discuss the fate of the Colfax to Pullman rail line. This line is out of service and has been since August, 2006, when fire destroyed a trestle just south of Colfax. However, there is one major flaw in the story. The article says the purpose of the meeting is to determine “the fate of the state-owned rail line corridor.” It further states “DOT owns the asset.” This leads one to believe the State of Washington owns the rails, the ties, the road bed and the... Full story
The upshot of the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump phenomena is that both parties are moving to the left. Sanders' and Trump's styles and affects are very different -- the rumpled, oddball lecturer in Socialism 101 vs. the boastful, power-tie-wearing business mogul -- but they have worked in tandem to ensure that the center of gravity in this fall's presidential election will be further to the left than it has been in decades. By seizing the initiative in their race from the beginning to what looks like an increasingly bitter end, Bernie... Full story
I wonder if the Democrats' plans against Donald Trump include reprising the "Daisy" ad. It was a major success in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson's campaign released it in an effort to portray Republican nominee Barry Goldwater as a dangerous wild man. It simply featured a 3-year-old girl innocently counting flower petals and ended with a nuclear explosion, then a voice-over: "Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd; the stakes are too high for you to stay home." The Democrats have made no bones about the fact they will hammer at Trump as an even...
The Memorial Day parades and speeches are over. From the wreath laying by President Obama at Arlington National Cemetery and the patriotic concert in the National Mall to all the smaller celebrations across the country, Memorial Day was commemorated in a traditionally patriotic manner. The importance and the sacrifices of our military were honored and recognized. Those in the military, especially in times of conflict, provide vital service to the country. However, since the initiation of the all-volunteer military, a smaller and smaller... Full story
The authors of The Federalist Papers neglected to explain the fearsome powers that inhere in the "Dear Colleague" letter under our system of government. It is the instrument by which middling bureaucrats impose their will on the nation, as the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education and the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice just did in the matter of transgender bathroom policy in our schools and colleges. The transgender edict is a perfect distillation of the... Full story
The good news this Memorial Day weekend is more than 38 million Americans are expected to travel, making the unofficial kickoff to summer this year the second busiest on record. AAA reports nearly 34 million people across the nation will be driving, which is up by 2.1 percent from last year. Air travel is expected to increase as well with 2.6 million Americans taking to the skies. AAA finds stable or lower costs for airfares, rental cars and hotels. Compared with 2015, gas prices average up to 50 cents a gallon lower. So what’s the bad news? T...
I'm certain I'm not the first to raise this question about the North Carolina anti-transgender law. We've all heard that the state now requires those who use public toilets, locker rooms and other male-female separated facilities to relieve themselves only in spaces designated for their gender on the day they were born: My question is, how will that be determined? Will there be potty police stationed at each entrance to check birth certificates? What if you're like most of us and don't carry your birth certificate with you? Then what? Are you...
The national holiday honoring those who served in the nation’s military is this Monday. It makes for a three-day weekend. This is the time veterans and active military are spotlighted. Nearly every city has some special ceremony to commemorate and honor veterans. It is also when politicians give tributes and announce undying support for them. Veterans are an easy mark. Everyone declares support for them. Most often that support dwindles and does not always translate into tangible help. The government connection to many veterans is the much m...
Now that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are certain to be the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates, it is time for them to deal with our national debt. Our nation is on an unsustainable borrowing trajectory. We now owe more than $19 trillion to lenders of which nearly half are off shore (including China). At the rate which we are selling treasury notes, the deficit will balloon to $21.1 trillion by 2020. That means when the presidential election rolls around in four years, each taxpayer’s share of the debt repayment will be $... Full story
Down through all the millennia that mankind has smoked tobacco, no one would have believed (or even imagined) that a battery-powered contraption with no tobacco would one day be considered a tobacco product. We've long had smokeless tobacco; now we have tobaccoless tobacco. This conceptual breakthrough is the work of federal bureaucrats who are bringing the regulatory hammer down on e-cigarettes in a misbegotten extension of the war on smoking. The Food and Drug Administration has issued new rules so onerous that they will likely suppress the... Full story
You gotta hand it to House Speaker Paul Ryan. He has successfully staked his claim to the moral high ground -- at least when it comes to his image crafting. So it shouldn't have been a surprise when he was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper whether he'd now endorse his party's presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, that he and his staff had prepared a ready answer: "I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now." Translation: What's in this for me? In politics, it's "whatever keeps me/us in power." Remember that as we ponder the...
President Barack Obama will be in Japan this month. While there, he will be the first U.S. President to visit the city of Hiroshima. Hiroshima was devastated at the end of World War II by the first atomic bomb used in combat. The city was virtually destroyed. Thousands of Japanese civilians died instantaneously. Thousands more died later of burns and radiation poisoning. After a second atomic bomb exploded over a second Japanese city, Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered, and the final phase of World War II ended. This was in 1945. No sooner had...
One of the highest rated television programs during Super Bowl week last February was “Undercover Boss.” According to the Nielsen ratings, it drew 6.8 million viewers. By contrast, the Greatest Super Bowl Halftime Shows had 5.72 million. Viewers’ watched CEOs leave their comfortable corporate offices, disguise themselves as workers, and risked the humiliation of doing something wrong. It is all about an awakening to what really happens on the company’s front lines. Too often people see “big bosses” as aloof and guiding the organization using im... Full story
The Transportation Safety Administration is again under fire. TSA is responsible for the security screening of passengers at airports. This is the same agency that hired security screeners who turned out to have ties with terrorists. Now the agency is catching heat again. This time it is for massive delays at some of the nation's airports. Lines are reportedly atrocious, backing up more than ever in the past. Travelers are getting frustrated and angry. In fact, many who arrive at airports more than two hours ahead of their flights are kept in... Full story
It's gotta be tough for a candidate to quit, particularly when running to be president. Suddenly the humongous ego trip is over. Gone are the days when your very presence is an event, where even the wealthiest and most powerful act like groupies, and doting aides are always fluttering and flattering. Being dumped out of that gilded cocoon is brutal. Very quickly you're alone in the humbling real world, as all the lackeys start licking someone else's boots. These extinguished stars who are shoved off the stage but are still longing for that...
Donald Trump is lucky in his enemies. Every time leftist protesters disrupt one of his events or stage a riot outside, he benefits. They aren't on the Trump payroll, but they might as well be. The protests are catnip to cable TV -- as if Trump needed any more free media attention -- and provide the perfect framing for Trump's message that only he has the strength to defy the forces of chaos and political correctness. At California campaign stops last week, anti-Trump protesters blocked a freeway entrance, stomped on and tried to overturn a...
Some say spring is the most wonderful time of the year in Washington when apple trees blossom, tulips bloom and colorful lentils carpet the fields on the Palouse. While the spring colors are eye-catching, it is in fall when our state reaps the benefits of our bountiful harvest. The Washington Policy Center (WPC) recently published a report detailing agriculture’s value to our economy. It is a joint effort with the Washington Farm Bureau to bolster support for farmers, ranchers and food processors. It is hard to succinctly summarize agriculture... Full story
Robert Osborne Day? May 3 is the 84th birthday of Robert Osborne. Mr. Osborne is one of the most well known film historians in the United States. For the past twenty years he has been the primary host on the Turner Classic Movie Channel. I just got back from a trip to Hollywood. The folks down there are doing things to celebrate Mr. Osborne’s amazing life. Mr. Osborne is one of the most famous people ever to have been born in Whitman County. What has his hometown done to celebrate his life? May I suggest that May 3, 2017, be proclaimed ... Full story
If you want real betrayal and towering egos, forget the presidential campaign; look no further than the gripping intrigue swirling around Michael Strahan's leaving his perch on the ABC "Live!" program that he's co-hosted with Kelly Ripa for four years. He'll move over full time to the network's slipping morning show "Good Morning America." All of this was engineered by duplicitous upper management, pardon the redundancy, behind the back of Ms. Ripa. As Bart Simpson would say, she had a cow when she heard the news, which was about the time it wa...
Harriet Tubman was literally a freedom fighter. The "Moses" of the Underground Railroad liberated herself and dozens of others from slavery over the years in a biopic-worthy life of bravery and idealism. She has now been selected to eventually replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, bumping him to the back in the worst defeat for Old Hickory since John Quincy Adams "stole" the presidency from him in 1824. The political imperative at work here is obvious -- find a woman, preferably a minority, to downgrade one of the dead white males dominating...
It was another strange week in the political arena. Ted Cruz, although then a distant second in the Republican race, named Carly Fiorino as his running mate and introduced her as the future vice president of the United States. It was a moment for serious policy discussion. Instead, she suddenly broke out in song, singing a little tribute to the Cruz family. This week Trump accused Cruz's father of somehow being linked with Lee Harvey Oswald and somehow being involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. His accusations are based on a...
Kirk Adams has earned the reputation as a visionary leader who gets things done for people with disabilities. Those qualities coupled with hard work and determination rewarded him with the nation’s top job advocating for the blind. In May, Adams, who grew up in Snohomish, becomes only the sixth American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) president since the nonprofit was formed in 1921. It is the organization where the legendary Hellen Keller’s archives reside. Carl R. Augusto, retiring AFB president, calls Adams “a brilliant strategist” and som... Full story
Another perspective The April 14 Gazette carried an extensive article liberally quoting three elected representatives from our district, Sen. Mark Schoesler, and Reps. Mary Dye and Joe Schmick, on their opposition to Initiative 732, scheduled for the November ballot. Although the article contains many misleading statements, one comment by Rep. Schmick deserves support: “I think every voter should be educated so they know what they’re voting for.” In that spirit, I’d like to offer some other perspectives. Initiative 732 is designed to make po...
Give Donald Trump credit for planning ahead. He is preparing to be a sore loser. Trump's complaints that he is being undone by a rigged system crafted by a corrupt Republican Party is the dress rehearsal for his campaign's closing argument should it come up short in Cleveland. Trump will, in his telling, have been stabbed in the back by insiders and be fully justified in wreaking a terrible revenge on the party that he briefly sought to lead. Facts and logic don't particularly matter to Trump or his mouthpieces, yet the "rigged" charge is...
