Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 2932 - 2956 of 3750
In 1975, Central Washington University President Jim Brooks approached the Association of Washington Business with a concept of linking business leaders, teachers and high school students together to learn first-hand about what makes our free enterprise system tick. Brooks proposed that employers not only sponsor students and teachers but spend a week with them on the CWU campus. They would form 10-person companies, compete against one another in a computer simulation game and actually invent and market creative new products. That formula has w...
ITEM—Debate continues over how to punish Penn State University following release of the Freeh Report on the child sex abuse scandal in which it was found that top university officials, including beloved football coach, the late Joe Paterno, focused on protecting assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky to avoid endangering the football program. A decision is awaited from the NCAA on whether to cancel this year’s season or longer which would result in loss of millions of dollars amidst pleas that this year’s players were not part of the problem. COMMENT—I...
The country has been thrust into sorrow and grief over the mass killing at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. The death toll is 12. Another 59 were wounded, some critically. The ages of those killed run from six to 52. It all happened at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie last week when a lone gunman entered the theater and started shooting. Apparently, the shooter had planned his massacre for months, assembling an arsenal of weapons and ammunition and constructing explosive devices. He also had hoped to lure police into another killing...
Backs Tensfeld Whitman County is facing one of the most critical elections in a decade. The Commissioners’ seats for District 1 and 2 are up for grabs and the time is nearing for voters to decide who will lead our county in this time of economic uncertainty. With the Washington State Primary in sight, voters of District 1 will have to choose which two of the three will continue to the General Election. All the candidates have an interest in serving their citizens through dedication and hard work, but between the three I believe the man who best...
The First Healthy Day W. Bruce Cameron Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. The first day of any health regimen is always the hardest for me, because by the second day I’ve given up. The problem isn’t me, it’s my body. I set the alarm for an hour earlier than usual, figuring that the easiest thing to do is to start exercising before I wake up. My brain is the first to react. Brain: The alarm’s broken. We need to shut it off and call in sick. Me: No, let’s get out of bed! Eyes: It’s still dark outside. The...
Apparently, the battle for clean energy can be a very dirty business. For years, the Sierra Club has been waging an all-out war to end the use of coal. Dubbed “Beyond Coal,” the campaign includes a hit list of coal projects the Sierra Club is targeting, including “green” projects designed to reduce coal plant emissions to zero. The Sierra Club is getting help in its war on coal from the Obama administration. Not surprising, since candidate Obama famously warned that, as president, he would endeavor to bankrupt the coal industry. As The New Yor...
It is already time to think about the new school year. Families must get their children ready. That, as everyone knows, means clothes and supplies. It can be an expensive process. Getting the required school supplies can be a daunting exercise for some parents. Finding the different class-by-class and school-by-school requirements is not hard. Often, what is hard is buying them. This is true for parents in every school district in the county. According to the Colfax Chamber of Commerce nearly 30 percent of the children in the Colfax School...
MAYBE something’s been done that I haven’t heard about yet, but somebody missed or is missing a chance to make a bundle in San Diego. That’s where the collection of fireworks for the big Independence Day show all went off at one time in one gigantic explosion. It was all over TV the next day. I have yet to read what went wrong, just the disappointment of the crowd, which expected to see a half hour at least of timed fireworks and music to enjoy them with. My thought was boy what an opportunity for a tee shirt that has a picture on it of the e...
The 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the federal health care law doesn’t close the book on health reform. The court ruled that the individual mandate requiring everyone to purchase health insurance is constitutional because the fines for not purchasing insurance are taxes, not penalties. That may have resolved the legal issue, but it did nothing to make health care more affordable. How does ordering people to pay for something they can’t afford solve the problem? Despite its name (Affordable Care Act), the federal law focuses alm...
IT’S GOING to be awhile yet before there is a consensus on Obamacare. That is, whether it was a Democratic victory because it was upheld by the Supreme Court, thus improving the president’s chances for reelection, or a Republican victory because it turned out to be the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, providing ammunition for Republicans retaking Congress and the presidency as the only way to rid ourselves of an unpopular bill. Also, whether Chief Justice John Roberts is a statesman for casting the deciding vote affirming its con...
The Colfax Relay for Life kicks off this Friday at the Colfax High School track and runs through to Saturday morning. The Relay is a big, important event and has evolved over the years. There are more activities, more participants and far more money raised for the American Cancer Society than ever imagined possible at its inception. The event started with the inspiration of Karyn Johnson. She was a local wife and mother. She was also suffering from cancer. Karyn became the guiding light of the first Relays. Upon her death, she became the spirit...
Lives in danger Colfax pedestrians beware! Your life is in danger. It appears the pedestrians of Colfax have a bullseye on their backs. It does not matter if a person crosses Main Street in the crosswalk or the middle of the block, they are taking their life in their own hands. I have had to stop in the middle of the street to keep from getting hit by drivers who disregard the law. In the past two weeks I have been almost run over three times. First time was while in the crosswalk at Main and Upton. The female driver who was two blocks away...
Any realtor will tell you people looking to buy a home want good schools and safe neighborhoods. They also look for decent roads for when they head to the mountains or the beach during holiday weekends, such as Memorial Day or July 4. They want to know that if they are in an accident, someone will respond quickly to help them. While Washington needs more money to build new highways and repair existing roads, streets and interstates, one area in which our state excels is emergency response. In our state, if a vehicle is stalled in the middle of...
We just celebrated America’s birthday. Actually, it was a theoretical birth only. Although the American colonies declared their independence from England on July 4, 1776, it took years to achieve that independence and years more to form the new country. Prior to 1776, tensions and violence between the colonists and England were already decades old, and armed conflict had already started. The colonists realized that trying to simply win concessions from the British by force would not be successful. The violence had taken too great a toll. Their...
GLOBAL warming is one of those topics people, particularly politicians and academics, like to be on the right side of, i.e., man is the chief cause of it and must be restrained or the planet will be unlivable, but there are a lot of things we aren’t being told or don’t hear enough about. Which is why I take the Wall Street Journal, the most liberal newspaper in the U.S., except for its editorial pages, God bless ‘em. About all the average American knows about electric cars is that they are being promoted as the solution to what do we do when...
We all know about the nation’s weak economy and tough job market, but the prolonged recession is hitting high school and college students as well. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the number of high school students with jobs is at its lowest level in more than 20 years. In 1990, 32 percent of high school students held jobs, compared to 16 percent today. The anemic economy is largely to blame. According to the Washington Times, sectors that traditionally offer teens their first gig, such as fast-food chains, m...
I HOPE the next debate engaged in by our two major candidates for governor has more I’s in it and less you’s and he’s. That is, I want to hear each, Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Rob McKenna, say “this is what I am going to do about job creation or education” or whatever rather than a lot of “You’re making promises you can’t fulfill,” Inslee to McKenna, or “He opposes tax reductions for any purpose,” McKenna about Inslee. Here’s some more out of their first debate in Spokane: Inslee, “I am concerned he will reduce environmental prot...
On Tuesday, an agreement was reached in the United States Senate to freeze the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford student loans. The expiration of that special rate program on July 1 would double the rates students would have to pay on new loans. The current rate is 3.4 percent. Should the program expire, the rate will jump to 6.8 percent. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are backing the extension of the lower rate. Apparently, both sides are satisfied, although some arcane accounting was used to achieve the agreement....
Big merchants won, and the family-values crowd lost, with the passage of I- 1183 which has dismantled the state liquor stores. Let’s look at one of the cheerleaders for the big merchants. On October 31, 2011, just before the election, Susan Fagan launched a column in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. She said, “As a Washington state lawmaker... I strongly urge a yes vote on Initiative I-1183. “Selling and promoting liquor is not a core function of government. I-1183 focuses the state’s role on regulation and enforcement, where it should be.” Su...
I MISS SLADE Gorton on the political scene. I wrote 122 columns about him during his 10 years in the state House, 12 years as attorney general and 18 years in the U.S. Senate. So it took me a long time to read the book about him, “Slade Gorton, A Half Century In Politics” by John C. Hughes, not because it was boring, which it was not, but because I knew most of the people in it and had to read every single page. I’m not going to review it. You can buy one for yourself like I did. I will recall some of my dealings with him. In fact, I didn...
During his term as Washington’s governor, Gary Locke’s mantra was “education is the great equalizer.” Locke, now the U.S. Ambassador to China, was correct, but in our country today education is becoming the great separator. Here’s the problem. First, far too many students drop out of high school—nearly 7,000 each day. That adds up to about 1.2 million students a year who don’t graduate with their peers. The consequences are clear. Forbes reports that in 2009, the average high school dropout made $19,540 a year, 40 percent less than their classm...
Road facts I have lived in Whitman County since 1967. I have followed the functions of the county government. I find the county is very abusive to the residents of Eastern Whitman. I base my opinion on the following facts: Dry Creek Road updating: It took six years for the County to update this mule trail into a decent commercial road when they had 10 miles total roadway to update with no big bridges or serious cuts or fills to adjust. This roadway greatly enhanced the safety of commercial trucking to the river from Eastern Whitman. It seems...
Jeb Bush was on the Charlie Rose show last week. He was making the rounds of some talk shows, and Rose’s full hour was dedicated to him. Bush is the former governor of Florida. Both his father and his brother were President of the United States. He is a Republican and a conservative. Although deep in traditional politics, his interview was like a breath of fresh air. Bush discussed a number of issues. His responses in most cases were predictably conservative. Yet, in this age of high volume and low tolerance, Bush was temperate in his views a...
The economic news is bad. The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, less than half the expected number, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised down jobs figures for the two previous months as the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent. Amidst all the bad news, politicians are debating what the federal government can do to make things better. One suggestion is to stop making things worse. Two things slowing our economic recovery are uncertainty and regulatory overload. When employers are unsure of what will happen next or are overwhelme...
IT MAY NOT be fashionable to say so these days, says the Wall Street Journal, but three cheers for the Senate filibuster. “This week the 60-vote requirement (to halt a filibuster and advance a bill) will once again help kill a nasty bit of legislating known as the Paycheck Fairness Act.” It did just that the other day, the final vote 52-47. Our own U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is in the front row of Democrats attempting to equalize pay between men and women. It’s brought up periodically because trial lawyers want it, says the Journal, since it is a...
