Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 852 - 876 of 3750
YYYY It’s nice to see a healthy police presence return to our coffeehouses. #!*! Winter in October. #!*! People who can’t read traffic signs....
Climate change Some of us might find it remarkable, given partisan divisions, but it appears Republicans and Democrats are coming together on a surprising issue: Climate change. Lawmakers are responding to public opinion. Last month, a CBS News poll found that two-thirds of Americans view climate change as a crisis or serious problem; a majority want immediate action. A survey by Ipsos and Newsy this fall found that 77 percent of younger GOP voters call climate change a serious threat. It’s encouraging that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris R...
Our state’s economy and way of life hinges on low cost and reliable electricity. Since Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams were completed in the early 1940s, Washington has enjoyed both. We are accustomed to flipping a switch and our lights illuminate. Our state’s electricity supply is abundant and our transmission system is dependable. Washington is heavily reliant on hydroelectric generators----many of which are located in powerhouses on the Columbia and Snake rivers. Only during the severe dro...
My kids caught me reading a book. An actual book, printed with ink on real paper. I was lectured about my abuse of the planet and was told how many trees went into making paper. Paper that would line the bottom of our bird cage and eventually be discarded. I argued that I own books I have treasured for many years. They ignored my nostalgic argument and went on to demonstrate how easy it is to dial up an electronic copy of whatever I wanted to read. Instead of a traditional newspaper, my kids get an abbreviated version of the daily news on...
On April 9, North Grand Avenue in Pullman was flooded by rushing waters from the Missouri Flat Creek drainage. Several businesses were badly damaged. People were trapped by the rising waters. Some were forced to take refuge on tables and such. One infant and one diabetic were known to be involved. The Pullman fire department and maintenance crews responded. As should be the case, those in danger and trapped by the torrent of water rushing down the street were the first priority. Nobody stopped to read a water rescue manual. They just did what...
Vladimir Putin is not a Facebook friend of mine -- that I know of, anyway. He could be, perhaps registered under an alias put out by the Moscow Troll Department, but to my knowledge, I didn't send a "Happy birthday to Vlad" greeting to mark the Russian president's 67th. Nor did Donald Trump send his good wishes, at least not on Facebook, even though Mr. Putin seemingly had a lot to do with his being the American president in the first place. But he didn't really have to mark the occasion. For Putin, Trump has been the gift who keeps on giving...
Barack Obama and Donald Trump are diametrically opposed figures, representing the categorical rejection of the other for his supporters, yet they share significant foreign-policy DNA. They both defined themselves in opposition to George W. Bush's foreign policy. Obama probably wouldn't have defeated Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination if she hadn't voted for the Iraq War and if he didn't speak out against it at the time. Likewise, Trump outpaced all his 2016 GOP rivals in denouncing our Middle East commitments. Obama represented...
Endorses Parks Like other Pullman residents, I received my ballot for the upcoming election. Among the issues we will be voting on is the selection of new members to our City Council. I am a resident of Ward 1 and am presently served by Ann Parks. I have decided to vote for Parks for a second term. She has proven to be the type of councilor that a city as diverse as Pullman needs. Always a thoughtful listener to constituents and fellow councilors alike, she is respectful of the ideas and opinion of others, even while forwarding her own ideas, m...
Imagine tuning into the Sunday morning talk shows and wondering if the politicians and commentators could possibly find something positive to say about one another or the state of affairs in America. Unfortunately, there is a better chance of snowball lasting in a sauna. But suddenly on Oct. 20 there was a surprise: “BREAKING NEWS” moving across the bottom of the screen about an apple developed in Washington State. Television pundits ignored it; however, the internet was stocked with sto...
There is a branch of our government that is independent of the three branches we study in school. This branch usually operates in the shadows overlooked by both the people and the legislature. It makes its own rules with the same force as law. It has the power to levy fines and seize property. No one in this branch is elected and, therefore, is generally unresponsive to public opinion. It is virtually independent to do whatever it pleases, and I have never known it to admit a mistake. This shadow government is made up of the various...
The Sean Spicer show continues. Remember Sean? He was the press secretary for President Donald Trump. He was contentious and madly loyal to Trump. Spicer was the one who claimed that the crowd for Trump’s inauguration was the largest ever. This despite evidence to the contrary. He never backed down from this and other falsehoods. Spicer left the post and has made a few appearances on television, but his reputation has never been redeemed, especially since being savaged on Saturday Night Live skits. For the last several weeks he has been on a n...
In his "Gettysburg Address," Abraham Lincoln described a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." The problem for any democracy is that those people can make a mistake -- a dangerous mistake -- by electing someone who's severely unqualified or a bloomin' nutcase. Look no further than Donald Trump, our president, who possesses the power to wreak terrible damage. In fact, he's doing just that, both with his policies that roll back decades of progress, returning America to a menace to the planet, and even more so with his...
Little did Dr. James Naismith know when he invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Mass., in 1891 that, more than a century hence, it would become beholden to its Chinese overlords. The NBA disgraced itself kowtowing to Beijing after the general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters. The words he associated himself with -- "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong" -- would seem uncontroversial. Who doesn't hope for the best for plucky demonstrators trying to advance democracy against...
YYYY Men that still open car doors for women. #!*! Stop with the Christmas lights, Christmas anything. Let us have Fall, please....
It is time It would be wonderful to see President Trump’s tax returns and a breakdown of all expenses of his and his family’s trips to their golf courses and hotels since taking office, along with a tally of the profits he is making while disregarding the Emolument Clause in the Constitution. How much has the Security Detail for Trump, his family members and Vice-President Pence cost us taxpayers (some now being used for Campaign Rallies for the 2020 election)? In the meantime, he and his buddies are so heartless they can’t provide basic human...
The Oregonian characterized the 2019 wildfire season as the “season that wasn’t!” That’s good news for west coast states; however, it doesn’t mean we are permanently “out of the woods!” Worldwide wildfires are down as well. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there were 6,000 fewer wildfires this year compared with 2018 and about 4.4 million acres were burned compared with roughly 10 million acres in 2017. The previous two years featured bad fire seasons in Washington, O...
The United Auto Workers Union strike against General Motors has entered its second month with no end in sight. They are using tactics developed years ago when the big three automakers ruled the industry. Rather than strike across the board, the union would target only one of the three. That way they could keep 2/3 of their members employed while they brought one to heel. Then they would use the results to bargain with the other two. I’m not sure those tactics would work today. Times have changed. Big corporations are no longer allowed to run r...
During a jury trial in superior court, all people in the courtroom are asked to stand to recognize members of the jury when they file into the room and take their seats in the jury box. The practice is a recognition of the power which has been bestowed on the jury to rule on whether or not the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt its case against a person who has been charged. After hearing evidence and arguments in the state's case against former Pullman Police Sgt. Dan Hargraves, the superior court jury reported the state failed to...
Latin is supposedly a "dead language", meaning no one speaks it as their native tongue. Except attorneys, of course, who use it to make law indecipherable so that they can charge exorbitant billable hours to untangle the messes they create. English, in this era of antisocial media and texting, is on its way to being another dead language. But I digress, which, by the way, is from the Latin "digressum." Let's regressum: Back when kids were forced to suffer through a Latin course in high school, we all were required to ponder the Roman forces...
Impeachment is about to make everything worse. If our politics seems overheated, our institutions beleaguered and our public debate degraded, just wait until we are in the midst of the impeachment debate. Democrats have had an impeachment itch that they've been desperate to scratch ever since Donald Trump took office. For them, Ukraine is equal parts a genuine outrage and an excuse, the release valve for nearly three years of fear and loathing. Rather than conducting himself as if he's aware that a hysterical opposition is eager to impeach...
Too often, elected officials overlook the cumulative costs of regulations, taxes and fees on taxpayers; however, it comes back to bite them hard when people move, or take matters into their own hands by initiative. Consider what is happening in high-tax and cost-of-living states, such as California, New York and Connecticut. Florida recorded the highest level of net domestic migration in 2018 and added 1.2 million people from other states since 2010. “Many Florida transplants are retirees and t...
