Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2897 - 2921 of 3750
The county may be considering getting rid of its expensive and recently activated New World accounting system. The proper response to this is, “Say, what! We just got it working.” The New World system initially cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it quickly became a nightmare of problems for nearly everyone involved. And, the costs kept soaring. Total cost of buying the software, getting customized patches, getting it on line, staff trauma and turnover and training comes to nearly $1 million. Now, it has been discovered tha...
Important job In time of need, we surely realize just how important our volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel are here in rural Whitman County. The response to successfully fighting our Elberton fire on Saturday was a cooperative effort of the Colfax, Garfield, Palouse, Albion, and Steptoe crews. They kept the fire from moving into the timber and saved the nearby homes and county park ground. In our rural towns, the numbers of volunteers for our fire and medical personnel are dwindling. We encourage people to consider training for thes...
The Writer’s Lack of Support Group W. Bruce Cameron Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. As a professional writer, I will do anything to improve my craft, as long as it doesn’t involve work. One of my favorite methods is to participate in a writer’s support group, wherein a bunch of dedicated and focused authors get together once a week to discuss baseball. We each bring samples of our current writing projects to the meetings, and occasionally someone will interrupt the flow of baseball talk to remind us that... Full story
Seattle City Councilman Bruce Harrell is proposing a new law that would prohibit employers from “discriminating” against convicted felons. The law would prevent any employer, whether they are a hospital, school or merchant, from looking at an applicant’s criminal record until late in the hiring process and, with few exceptions, would not allow them to reject applicants solely on their criminal history. Harrell believes convicted felons are less likely to reoffend if they have more employment opportunities. He told a television reporter, “Reci...
I HAD LUNCH with retiring Congressman Norm Dicks the other day which was a bit unusual since we haven’t exactly been buddies his whole 36 years in office. No, it wasn’t anything I wrote, although I have mentioned that when you’re talking to Norm he’s usually looking over your shoulder to see if somebody more important is coming along. But I have never questioned his ability and his dedication to his district. He’s smart, he works hard and he is much respected by his constituents and his peers. He has succeeded admirably in bringing home the bac...
Age Old Problems W. Bruce Cameron Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. Let me state for the record that I do not lie about my age — my age lies about me. My age has been saying that I’m too old to stay up until 3:00 a.m. at a Talking Heads concert, which is clearly not true. (Is Talking Heads still a group? Never mind!) My age says my knees can no longer handle a bumpy ski run, which isn’t true, either. My knees are fine — I’ve just come to believe that there are more fun things than skiing ... like, survi... Full story
Recently, Matthew Rose, CEO of BNSF Railway, visited editorial boards in Vancouver, Spokane, Seattle and Bellingham to talk about a variety of issues related to increased train traffic. However, the 800 pound gorilla in the room was not train traffic, but the commodity those trains would carry: coal. In Washington, coal has been shipped by train for decades. Currently, about three to four coal trains a day pass through Clark County. Rose said it’s hard to predict specifics at this point, but if proposed export terminals at Longview and C... Full story
HOW I MISSED National Dog Day Aug. 26 I don’t know, especially since I have a new dog. Well, he’s not new except in ownership. Jake turned 12 on Sept. 3. I didn’t really want another dog. Actually, I did after having to have Max put down because of a tumor that was pressing on his organs causing pain, followed by Daisy with a similar problem and Eleanor who turned out to have an advanced case of heart worms which her previous owner didn’t tell us about when we bought her. No more dogs, my youngest daughter told me, on account of she was the... Full story
The changing flags on Main Street in Colfax have caused quite a stir. In the past, the local VFW and American Legion posts mounted flags along the main drag in town for patriotic holidays. It was a lot of work. Most of the members were veterans of World War II, and the job of festooning Main with flags got to be too much for them. Later, Colfax resident Bill Myers voluntarily took over the job. He put the flags up and kept them up. As needed, he would replace them and clean them. It was essentially his own project, but he is no longer doing... Full story
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney tell voters they want manufacturers to stay in America and create new jobs. The president even promised an audience in New Hampshire that he’d create 4.5 million new jobs, half of those in manufacturing. Why all the talk about manufacturing? Our country is the world’s largest manufacturing economy with 21 percent of the global manufactured goods produced here. China is second at 15 percent, and Japan is third at 12 percent. U.S. manufacturing supports an estimated 18.6 million jobs, with one in six people employed i... Full story
Don’t cut it Thomas Thwait’s book, “Toaster Project” about building a toaster from scratch, is a great illustration of what a bright, motivated, hard working individual entrepreneur can accomplish. He mines for and produces his own steel, makes plastic from oil, smelts copper for electrical wire, and for thousands of dollars in about nine months, produces something resembling a toaster. It won’t make toast and just might electrocute you, though. The point? Without the foundation provided by our whole society, past and present, individua...
I’VE BEEN to a lot of political conventions in my day and long ago proposed the national confabs ought to be abolished, if not outlawed. They are deadly dull most of the time although I was there when the Republicans nominated Ford over Reagan who was given a consolation prize of making the closing speech of the doings, a speech so compelling you could see delegates all over the room looking at each other with that “We nominated the wrong guy” expression. I was there when Walter Mondale told Democratic delegates their taxes will be raise...
It is fair time! The Palouse Empire Fair begins today (Thursday) and runs through Sunday. The fair is one of the few local events that brings together people from all parts of the county. It is a true county-wide happening. Whether it is youth animal projects, flower displays, bakery entries or entertainment, county residents take part. And, of course, those just visiting the fair come from all around the county and well as from beyond its borders. A lot has changed over the years at the fair. One thing that has not changed is the...
The Bruce Identity Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. If I were going to steal someone’s identity, I’d pick Matt Damon. The guy is young, handsome and has a great career going for him, when he’s not stuck with the task of trying to find jobs for Ben Affleck. I’d do most of the stunts in my next movie (“The Bourne Omnipotency”), except for the ones involving movement. But this is all idle speculation, because I’m not likely to steal anyone’s identity — I have enough trouble being myself, I can’t imagine how h...
Cowan support The Lentil Festival was a memorable event for hoards of folks who dropped by. One important point was missed by all the coverage; Rich Cowan, Democratic nominee for the 5th Congressional District, stirred the big Lentil Pot from about 5:45 to after 6 p.m. Voters, Rich Cowan will stir up the do-nothing Congress. And our “Do Nothing but Pose” Congressional Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, was in Colorado posing. Please cast your vote for a business person who knows red tape, regulations and workers rights. We need Rich Cow...
President Obama’s national health care law was passed with lofty promises but no details. Few lawmakers read the 2,000+ page bill before voting on it, but supporters promised it would expand access to health care, cut health care costs and — most importantly — allow people to keep their coverage and their doctors if they wished. Those have turned out to be broken promises. First broken promise: You can keep your health plan and doctor if you like. President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that, if they liked their health plan and their...
“ADELE, ok, I’m a coward because this is anonymous, but your redundant and duplicitous opposition to Obamacare cannot go unchallenged any longer. My signature will not be affixed to this note because I don’t feel a need for a continued debate on this issue. I just want you to know someone has caught on to your hypocrisy. “Let me just say I do agree with you the basic framework of Obamacare is poor public health policy. You think it went too far. I don’t think it went far enough. I believe we should have a single payer system. The governmen... Full story
School days, school days. They are back. Most kids in the county are still fortunate to get their schooling relatively close to home. It has been no mean feat for county districts to maintain small schools in these changing times. In the past, Whitman County schools have met the challenges and led the way in innovative solutions. They were the first with cooperative districts where schools and facilities are shared between neighboring communities. Superintendents have been shared. Schools have joined forces to keep athletics and some other...
The Top Dogs W. BRUCE CAMERON Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. When I die, I want to be reincarnated as one of my mother’s dogs. It was hard for my parents when their three kids grew up and moved out of the house, especially since my older sister did it a total of eight times by the time she turned 30. My mom and dad professed to missing us because they don’t have good memories. What part of having kids did they miss — the work or the expense? Plus, I’d always understood that they felt they didn’t do... Full story
Unimpressive Attention Whitman County voters: The ballots for the Primary Election are counted and a minority of the minority moved their candidates to the general election. Yes, an unimpressive 40% of registered voters took the time to cast a ballot! Since 60% of you did not vote, please do not complain about the status of our governmental officials. My plea is to cast a ballot in the general election by November 6, 2012. Your citizen in disgust. Donald C. Orlich, Pullman Irresponsible The Food Stamp Program originated in the late 70’s for p...
Poland and the U.S. are like two trains passing each other in opposite directions. Poland broke the shackles of Soviet domination two decades ago with the rise of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity labor movement. Free for the first time since World War II, Poland cast off its yoke of government control and central planning in favor of an American-style free enterprise system. Today, Poland is the European Union’s largest eastern economy, the only member of the 27-nation bloc to avoid a recession in 2009. While most of European economies are in t...
ITEM—The Pentagon has started a program to develop and buy replacement Air Force One aircraft for presidential use after 2022. The first phase, costing $757 million for Air Force One and $1.84 million for a new helicopter, will focus on completing a market analysis and performance requirements, including whether to buy sole-source from Boeing, maker of the current Air Force One plane and helicopter or put it out to bid. The memo for the program does not specify the number of planes that may be purchased. COMMENT—If Barack Obama is reelected, th... Full story
Now that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has named his running mate, Paul Ryan, the 2012 campaign is off and running. It promises to be a contentious affair. The two parties seem to agree on only one thing: the country is in trouble and must be fixed. Yet, they violently disagree on what that fix is. The Republicans think they can save the country by cutting spending. As such, many programs are under threat of dramatic cutbacks. That is not all bad. It is not all good either. The Democrats, on the other hand, want revenue increases to eat...
What’s in there Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout it: Mitt Romney’s refusal to release any more of his tax returns. Wondering what might be hidden in there that could make suspicion less damaging than revelation? Pulitzer prize winning reporter David Cay Johnston exposes many of the most common and outrageous possibilities in his book, “Perfectly legal: The covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich—and cheat everybody else”. He’s as fun to read as Louis Grizzard or Bill Hall, with citations to support his case. It’s a book all o... Full story
President Obama’s national health care law, the Affordable Care Act, will extend health care coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans. But health care coverage isn’t the same as health care. The problem is a shortage of doctors. The New York Times reports that, just as the ACA is poised to add millions to the health insurance rolls, the U.S. is on the brink of a critical doctor shortage. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that by 2015, the U.S. will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed, a figure that will mor...
