Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2402 - 2426 of 3750
There is a new look to Bavarian tourism these days. In the past, tourists flocked to Munich’s city square like Seattle’s New Year’s revelers at the Space Needle. They came to see the ancient Glockenspiel, a giant cuckoo clock on the city hall tower, and then dash to the nearby famed Hofbrauhaus for beer, brats and Bavarian music. Now the Glockenspiel has some real competition. It is BMW World, a mammoth, ultramodern, high tech new car showroom adjacent to the 1972 Olympic Stadium. It is so large prospective buyers can take a “Beamer” for a test...
Appreciated I read your recent article explaining the maintenance problems at the Colfax Cemetery - it was very much appreciated! Kudos, too, to the elected board members who have volunteered their time to correct the problems. I hope and pray that the new caretaker will be competent in his care of the improvements to the watering system recently installed. Rev. Russell D. Clark, Newport Dark money Last September not one Republican senator voted for a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Republican-leaning Supreme Court’s 2010 Citiz... Full story
Never before have so many people watched an expressionless woman in a nondescript outfit traipse through New York City. Millions of people viewed a viral video that showed the woman getting all manner of uninvited and unwelcome compliments during hours of walking in the Big Apple. The video was a brilliant stunt by the anti-street-harassment group Hollaback! and prompted the Great Catcalling Debate of 2014. The video was taken as an indictment of the boorishness of men, a charge for which millennia of human history had already provided more... Full story
I’m about to be perhaps the one millionth news type to comment on the passing of Washington Post legend Ben Bradlee. I’ll be one of the few who acknowledges that I didn’t know him very well, our conversations limited to a few encounters in the same green room, where we never got much past platitudes. I am, however, in full agreement with those who lionize him in death as the personification of the highest ideals in journalism. He was fanatical about building air-tight stories — nothing less, based on facts, tediously accumulated by hard wo...
(This column was previously published in the Gazette and is run again by request.) In 1968, an American infantry company was patrolling along a stream in thick triple canopy jungle. It was one of the countless operations that promised to make little difference in the Vietnam War. The soldiers were strung out along the stream, moving slowly and bunching up when those in front were slowed by the rocky stream bed. The soldier walking point left the stream to avoid some obstacles, followed a narrow animal path above it for few yards and turned... Full story
It’s often difficult to “connect the dots,” to show people how the global marketplace affects their daily lives. But plunging gasoline prices are giving Americans a first-hand lesson in the law of supply and demand. The law of supply and demand holds that when a commodity is in short supply, the price of that commodity goes up. When the supply of that commodity increases, producers compete for market share by lowering their prices. As a result, consumers benefit. That’s what happening with gas prices. The price of gasoline has been droppin...
Fabric Recently there was a two page story in the Spokesman Review regarding the winning record of Sue Doering and her magnificent volleyball success. Glad to see that it centered upon how through the years Sue and her many helpful assistants, usually her former players, had also helped. Sue has worked hard and, indeed, built from the ground up. By being in control from the beginning it makes a world of difference and she rightly credited the great support that she has received from the parents who have entrusted their daughters to her. She... Full story
When the Supreme Court rejected a petition to stop a Texas voter-ID law from going into effect for the midterms, the left commenced its wailing and gnashing of teeth. In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the law “purposely discriminatory,” and everyone piled in behind her with denunciations of the Lone Star State’s blatant racism. For the left, voter ID is tantamount to a poll tax. If so, the nation is awash in neo-segregationist election rules. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report on voter-ID laws, 33 st... Full story
In my opinion, far too many of those who live with me in Washington are jerks — duplicitous, self-important jerks. This does not include everybody; far from it. But the town is crawling with viciously ambitious sycophantic young people cozying up to the more-established officeholders, lobbyists, consultants and, yes, us media types, who hold on to their lives of unprincipled entitlement. Frankly, I think their pervasiveness has a lot to do with the disintegration of politics and government because they control the agenda. But here’s som...
Tuesday was election day. You might have missed it. Election day in Washington is not what it used to be. Not so long ago, voters went to their precinct polling places. There they ran through a gauntlet of precinct workers. Then it was off to the voting booth. A variety of contraptions was used, but invariably they offered absolute privacy. The last job was to personally put the marked ballot in a locked box. “I Voted” stickers were available. The precinct workers would then make sure the executed ballots, still in locked boxes, safely rea...
While the merger of United Airlines and Continental left a gaping hole at the ticket counter at SeaTac International Airport, frequent fliers are noticing an expansion of Delta and Alaska check-in stations these days. That expansion could mean a great boost to Boeing and Washington’s economy in the future — if state lawmakers hold the line on taxes and regulatory costs. According to airport statistics, those two airlines now account for half the passengers flying through Seattle, and they are expanding. Alaska and Delta have an interesting rel...
It wasn’t so long ago that Ferguson, MO., was supposed to be an American morality tale of racism, the militarization of police and all manner of other evil. For a few weeks in August, the attention of the national media focused on the suburb of St. Louis, and MSNBC practically broadcast nothing else. While the media long ago moved on, the protests have persisted, entering their late, decadent phase of self-indulgent triviality. Cornel West got arrested last week, and Al Sharpton is heading back to Ferguson at the end of the month to pump up a...
Auditor comments I need to comment on certain portions of an article in the 10/23/2014 Gazette titled “County makes cuts to balance 2015 budget.” The article states that the county commissioners spent close to two hours discussing my budget. It also states that I had not discussed the proposed staff addition with them; that there is an agency “evaluating the auditor’s department”; and that junior taxing district budgets will be incorporated into the county’s budget. Many times over the past two years I have discussed the need for additional...
Here’s a concept: Let’s come up with an idea that would make things worse even if it worked, which it wouldn’t. That would describe the proposal to prevent all people coming from the three West African nations devastated by Ebola — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — from entering the United States. The U.S., it seems, is also ravaged by a growing disproportionate hysteria about Ebola, and most of all by cynical politicians, largely conservatives, who are exploiting the alarm for a chance to score some points against the Democratic president...
Halloween is both one of the most beloved holidays and one of the most despised. Many people think Halloween celebrates the devil and all sorts of fiendish forces such as witchcraft and sorcery. They enjoin others to forego the costumes and the normal trappings of Halloween for a more spiritual approach. For others, it is wildly popular. Both children and adults celebrate with gusto. Sometimes, it becomes more than just knocking on neighbors’ doors for a piece of candy. Skulking and mischief, if not downright criminality, often mark the n...
November’s election needs to be about the people who are unemployed or underemployed and how best to increase wages. It worked for Bill Clinton."It’s the economy, stupid" was coined by Clinton’s campaign strategist James Carville in Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against President George H. W. Bush. In March 1991, days after the ground invasion to liberate Kuwait, 90 percent of Americans approved of President Bush's job performance. The following year when the economy soured and the President had to swallow his campaign promise...
Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2010. My face is a work in progress. Having grown an appropriate number of eyes, lips and noses, I’m now busily at work drawing lines to connect them all together. I’m also fond of developing what my dermatologist calls “squeamish basil cells.” (This may not be the precise medical term.) It seems there are places on my face that are considered bad neighborhoods, where tough cells hang out and frighten away healthy skin. To combat this blight, my doctor wants to use a technique... Full story
Place of residence In his October 19th article, Spokesman-Review writer Jim Camden put to rest the rumor that Cathy McMorris Rodgers does not actually live in Spokane. Like others, I have raised the question and so am glad to stand corrected; she lives in Spokane and rents out her house in San Diego. It is no wonder, though, that this myth grew. Cathy has seldom had public forums in the communities of the 5th. Even with record numbers of days for recess, vacation, campaigning and a three-day workweek, she is more likely to be traveling for poli...
Compared with President Barack Obama, even Jimmy Carter is John McCain. The former president practically synonymous with American weakness and retreat thinks Obama was too slow to act against ISIS and gives his current strategy only “a possibility of success,” provided it involves (unspecified) ground troops. When you are too passive for Jimmy Carter, it’s time for some soul-searching in the Situation Room. The late-1970s are calling and want their foreign policy back. The war against ISIS so far is desultory and occasional, a campaign of un... Full story
Given his low standing in the polls and the growing list of friends and foes alike who say he is too aloof and lacks the fire needed for leadership, do not be at all surprised if we suddenly see Barack Obama throw a temper tantrum in some very public place. There was a time when being described as “No Drama Obama” was a plus for him, as he very carefully cultivated an image of being the coolest guy on the planet. He was perceived as being above it all, not covered in the muck that defines politics. He was the Democrats’ rock-star candidate and...
For a while, Steve McGehee was living in Mexico. Now, he is back in Palouse. His return has marked new assaults on the Palouse City Council and, in particular, Mayor Michael Echanove. For years McGehee has been a thorn in the side of the city. He is his own version of Haunted Palouse. The crux of his complaints has been to question the mayor’s credibility with charges of corruption and mismanagement. Not having a local newspaper as a forum anymore, he has taken to driving around town in a truck with signs attacking the mayor. McGehee sees h... Full story
Since 1957, our Canadian friends and neighbors have celebrated Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Perhaps, this year we ought to join them. Given the good news of our state’s bountiful apple and cherry harvests this year, we could actually cook two turkeys–one with the Canadians on Oct. 13 and the other on Nov. 27 when our Americans traditionally get together. Here is why. Apples are the state’s largest agriculture crop. The Washington apple industry is expecting a record harvest this year, enough to fill 140 million 40-pound boxes...
No Labels My wife and I have been peripherally involved with No Labels practically since its inception, so last week’s column by Bob Franken about this organization struck a chord. One of the greatest contributions the United States has offered the world was the notion of truly representative democracy. Politics here have always been rough-and-tumble, but in the past, the good of the whole has usually triumphed. In today’s polarized political climate we seem to have lost our way. One of the ideals on which this nation was built–representative g... Full story
The latest episode of Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time” performed what was, in effect, an in-studio social experiment. It sought to establish, in a controlled setting, the answer to this pressing question: How long could Maher and atheist author Sam Harris talk frankly about the illiberalism of much of the Muslim world before actor and director Ben Affleck, also a guest on the show, accused them of racism? The result is in: Not very. In fact, almost as soon as Maher and Harris began to discuss how liberals are betraying their own convi... Full story
For the election geeks who are waiting for this year’s campaign October surprise, give it up. Another tradition bites the dust. For those who don’t eat, sleep and breathe politics, first of all, congratulations — and in case you need it, an explanation: The October surprise was the predictable startling development or scandal, timed by one side or the other to explode into public view in the last days before the election. It would dominate the headlines and be all that the voters would be thinking of as they headed to the polls. Unfortunately,...
