Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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WELL, AFTER TWO years, the tennis ball known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has finally landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. We may know in June, we may not know until the end of the year or we may have to wait until 2015 to learn whether it will remain the law of the land in whole or in part. Obamacare, the linchpin of President Barack Obama’s legacy, was passed on March 23, 2010, as a plan to provide health care and insurance for the 50 million Americans who are uninsured. Without it, we were told, Medicare a...
Republicans are getting closer to deciding on their nominee to run against President Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Tuesday night Mitt Romney won three more victories in the race for the party’s nomination, handily winning the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The roster of possible Republican nominees has shrunk over the months. Only Rick Santorum appears to have a viable chance to oust Romney, but even in Wisconsin, where Santorum put in a significant effort, Romney won 45 percent to Santorum’s 38 percent. Rom...
Precious legacy Last week’s Gazette quotes Kirby Wilbur, state Republican Party chair, as exhorting local constituents to turn out in big numbers to “stop those wild-eyed drug-crazed Seattle liberal hippies.” Could he have been joking? He looks like a jolly man. I am tempted to point out that Seattle is also populated by a lot of fat, narrow-minded, mean-spirited hicks, but my Grandma tried to teach me good manners, and I don’t think she would have liked that. Maybe my grandma could have taught Mr. Wilbur something about good manners. Can you i...
Oregonians loathe a sales tax about as much as Washingtonians detest an income tax. Knowing that, why would Curry County commissioners put a 3 percent sales tax on the ballot later this year? The answer: Money. Curry, Oregon’s southwesternmost county, is one of a network of economically distressed rural counties throughout the West with double-digit unemployment and facing the potential loss of federal subsidies. Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act in 2000 to provide transition payments to counties a...
I WAS INVITED to a luncheon meeting the other day of the WGAS group, which stands for Who Gives a (Darn.). Figure it out for yourself. It was a small crowd of old timers, retired legislators, judges, lobbyists, staffers. I knew most of them, having covered the legislature since the 1960s, although I didn’t recognize some at first. They were all friendly to me, despite the fact I didn’t shake hands with any of them, following my rule of not shaking hands during the flu season which apparently is still with us, according to the newspapers. And...
Last week’s editorial about requiring the new Colfax police chief to live in or near town needs to be revisited. The editorial stated that the new police chief should be required to live in the city or at least be within a certain distance of the city to be able to respond quickly to unforeseen circumstances. It is a good idea, but it is not an idea ahead of its time. The city had considered the idea way before the editorial came out. According to Connie Ellis, secretary of the Civil Service board, the issue of residency requirements for new c...
All about sales tax In the Gazette dated March 15th, there was a letter from a resident of Moscow who argued against the proposed Hawkins development. As has been noted in the editorial of that same date, the decision by the Board of County Commissioners to have county government bear a heavier burden to finance the infrastructure has stirred controversy. As the previous Whitman County Planning Director, now retired, my opinion of the matter has been solicited by a couple of county residents. I desired originally to keep my opinion to myself,...
When you talk about state health insurance exchanges, people’s eyes glaze over. (See, it’s happening right now.) The subject seems far too complicated and confusing. But we need to talk about them because, as you read this, state bureaucrats in Olympia are making decisions that will affect the cost and availability of your health care benefits. Your insurance company isn’t taking part in the state exchange? It doesn’t matter. The rules will still affect your choices and your costs. State exchanges are a creature of the federal health care la...
Colfax’s police chief will be retiring soon. The city has been advertising for candidates. In fact, the application deadline is Monday. All the professional requirements of the candidates will be scrutinized. Naturally, too, the personality, philosophy and demeanor of the applicants will be taken into account as will their perceived suitability for rural police work. Unfortunately, there is one factor that will not be considered. That is whether or not the new chief will live in Colfax. Local residency is not a city requirement. It cannot be a...
WELL, THIS TIME I guess he really means it. When Democrat Congressman Jay Inslee announced last year that he was going to run for governor again this year (he ran in 1996 and lost in the primary and was hinting at another try in 2004 but got cold feet) my response was I’ll believe it when I see it. But resigning his 1st district seat effective March 20 to devote fulltime to his guber (I really hate the word gubernatorial) campaign proves this is where he hopes to go. Personally, I don’t think he can beat Republican Rob McKenna who is giv...
It started in 1935 with a $3.8 million loan to Cuba for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots. That loan, backed by the U.S. government, was the beginning of the Export-Import Bank. Today, the bank helps finance export sales by thousands of U.S. manufacturers. While it is little-known outside our nation’s capital, the Export-Import Bank is a lynchpin of our economy. It provides direct loans, loan guarantees and insurance to help finance sales of American goods and services overseas. In 2011, the Export-Import Bank provided $32 billion in f...
If anyone does a year-end wrap-up of the worst ideas of 2012, losing the presidential election deserves to be high on the list. A note of gloomy wishfulness has entered Republican thinking of late. Maybe a loss in November (if Mitt Romney wins the nomination) won’t be so bad because a cleansing fire will rid the party of moderates once and for all. Or, from the opposite point of view (if Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich were somehow to get nominated), a devastating defeat will teach the party’s purists a lesson. In any event, a Republican Con...
The county commissioners have taken a lot of heat over their support of the Hawkins retail mall project at the state line. In fact, they are being sued over it. Now, strangely enough, the debate over the project is changing. What started as claims of improper actions by elected officials has evolved into criticism of the project itself and the very idea of growth in the county. Critics are saying the Hawkins mall would hurt local businesses and would only provide low-paying retail jobs. Some have gone so far as to claim it would have an...
Adversity often brings out the best in people. We find ways to pitch in and solve problems that government can’t. Since the recession began, non-profit organizations have seen a big increase in volunteerism, and as state and local governments are forced to slash public services, volunteers are coming forward to pick up the slack. For example, after the City of Las Vegas laid off half of its park maintenance staff, neighbors put together volunteer work crews to pick up trash, wash picnic benches, trim shrubs and paint the curbs. The City of O...
Testament Our office was asked to host a team for the State B tournament in Spokane this year. Since I was born and raised in Whitman County, it was decided it would be a good idea. Being our first year doing this, we had no clue of what to expect. We had a great pleasure of hosting the Colton girls. The coaches and girls were incredible. The parents of each girl should be proud of their representation. I’ve never encountered better young people in my life. What a wonderful testament to the village that raised these girls. L.R. Rusty M...
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, thinks that Iran is a “rational actor.” He is indisputably correct. Tehran couldn’t have made itself into the world’s foremost exporter of terror and extended its tentacles throughout the Middle East without resorting to rational calculation. That’s obvious. What Dempsey is implying, though, is that a regime capable of such calculation can necessarily be deterred if it gets a nuclear weapon. That’s an unsupportable leap. If the Soviets, the famous “evil empire” bristling with thous...
W. Bruce Cameron Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2007. When I was at the absolute pinnacle of my professional career, I was the flower chairman for the Miss Kansas-Miss Missouri Beauty Pageant. I was 14 years old. I had other friends with jobs, and maybe even jobs with titles like “assistant manager,” but I’d never even met a “chairman.” In my mind, I’d been vaulted to the top of the executive food chain - my next promotion would be “emperor.” I landed this plum yet critical position because my best friend’s fath...
What’s that old saying? “One step forward, two steps back.” Just as our economy is starting to move again, rising gas prices threaten to put the brakes on the recovery. Gasoline is at the highest price ever for this time of year. AAA reports the average price in Washington on Feb. 22 was $3.68 a gallon. That’s up 14 cents in a week and 21 cents in a month. Analysts say gas could hit $4.25 a gallon or higher by late April. Rising prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel increase the cost of virtually everything because millions of product...
WELL, Black History Month is almost over and I’ve been thinking about who to offer as a role model for young blacks, leaving Barack Hussein Obama Out of it because I know of somebody better. I give you Sam and Marion Smith and the Smith kids of Seattle. I knew Sam Smith when he was in the legislature in the House in the 1960s, which he left to become a Seattle city councilman in 1967 I learned all about him from his son, Ron, when we were airplane seatmates returning from the Democratic national convention in Atlanta.. He had gone to the c...
John Huntsman was one of the many Republican candidates for the party’s presidential nomination. He is no longer running. He quit after a disappointing finish in New Hampshire. The man realized he didn’t have what it takes to get the nomination. For one thing, he recently said that he was not willing to make some of the deals he was asked to make. He is soft spoken and thoughtful. His experience ranges from being a two-term governor to the United States Ambassador to China under President Obama. Unlike the other Republican hopefuls, he did not...
OVIC stance We write to emphasize that neither as individuals nor as the Board of Directors of the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct (OVIC) are we opposed to the Hawkins project. We favor economic growth in this area and the opportunity for any entity that is willing to make the effort to have the right to take the risk. What we are opposed to is the attempted underwriting of this project with public funds. Entrepreneurs, business people, need to bear the risk for their proposals, and if successful, reap the reward. It is not the taxpayers...
Last week, Judge David Frazier ruled that the county commissioners could not hire an outside lawyer at county expense for their defense in the lawsuit by the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct. Commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch are facing charges by OVIC for illegal meetings, illegal use of public funds and entering into an illegal contract. All these charges stem from the deal the commissioners struck with Hawkins Company over a new shopping center at the state line near Moscow. They obviously need a lawyer, but they don’t want Count...
There is finally a bit of good news from Olympia. The state’s Revenue Forecast Council reports that tax revenues for this biennium will be $96 million higher than projected last November, and state tax collections for 2013-15 are projected to grow by 6.6 percent. But we shouldn’t get too excited. Even with this additional revenue and the cuts the Legislature made in December’s special session, lawmakers still need to make up about a $1 billion deficit to balance the budget. Even if they manage to close the gap this time, the basic probl...
First they come for the alcohol, then for the tobacco, then for your sugar. When the day arrives when you have to undergo a background check and endure a three-day waiting period to enter a Dunkin' Donuts, you can trace it back to this moment. Namely the publication in the journal Nature of an article calling for regulating sugar as a health hazard, although stopping "far short of all-out prohibition" (that would be too extreme). One of the authors is Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco, who hopes to be to the...
Dear Savvy Senior Is there an age limit on being an organ donor? At age 73, I’m interested in being a donor when I die, but am wondering if they would still want my organs. What can you tell me, and what do I need to do to sign up? Willing But Old Dear Willing, There’s no defined cutoff age for being an organ donor. In fact, there are many people well up into their 80’s that donate. The decision to use your organs is based on health, not age, so don’t disqualify yourself prematurely. Let the doctors decide at your time of death whether your or...
