Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 889 - 913 of 3749
Thousands of painted plastic fish now adorn the concrete river fences in downtown Colfax. Many were attached to the fencing over the weekend by volunteers. The fish are in undulating lines giving color and a sense of motion to the decorations. A cadre of volunteers came from WSU in a community outreach project scheduled for two hours. The display is colorful and whimsical. The small individual fish shapes are painted in a variety of colors. Each is an individual work. Some are signed by the artist. The idea came from the Colfax Arts Council, an...
It's a good thing that President Donald Trump has spent time with WrestleMania. He obviously used that experience to finally muscle his way into the main event, when he had been body-slammed aside by the real reality of the devastation from Hurricane Dorian. Yes, I know "muscle" is probably not the first word you'd use when you think of the Trumpster, but there will be no fat-shaming here. Let's leave that to him. It clearly occurred to a few people in the White House, including the big guy, that during the network evening newscasts in the earl...
The fastest way to trend on Twitter, and not in a good way, is to say that the right to bear arms is a God-given right. Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer established this beyond a doubt in a Twitter thread in the aftermath of the West Texas shooting spree. He said that he wouldn't use "the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans." Progressives were aghast, and when actress Alyssa Milano objected, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jumped in to support Schaefer's argument (in less bombastic terms). The basic...
Chip chip chip away. Do you notice the chipping away of human rights of migrants and reduction of total number of refugees by the present administration? Day after day, it creates an even more cruel way to block asylum-seekers; the latest being the denial of refuges for Bahamians fleeing the ravages of Hurricane Dorian, and people living here sometimes for years, who require advanced medical care. This of course includes children being sent back to their countries of origin where there is limited access to medical care, a certain death...
Traditionally, media coverage of the Paris Air Show focuses on the battle between Boeing and Airbus over market share for newer large commercial jets. However, this year Mitsubishi shared the spotlight with its state-of-the-art “SpaceJet.” SpaceJet is not the latest aircraft to join British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital space fleet. It is a new regional passenger aircraft designed to compete head-to-head with Brazil’s Embraer E-175 for routes between larger...
I heard a news report last week proudly announce, “The economy improved last week fueled by consumer spending.” Consumer spending, or lack thereof may be an indicator of economic strength, but it doesn’t drive. It doesn’t fuel the economy. Military bases weren’t always welcome in some communities. When signs begin to appear saying, “Dogs and soldiers keep off the grass,” the Army would frequently pay their troops in two dollar bills. This flood of two dollar currency was supposed to demonstrate how vital the base was to the local economy. It w...
The climate change debate continues. Democrat contenders for the party’s nomination for the presidency presented their views on the problem in a long town hall on CNN last week. The proposals and the suggestions varied. The presentation was one of the most extensive reviews of options and ideas about combating climate change. The issue is taking a lead position in the upcoming campaigns. Few are discounting it as a “hoax” or “fake news.” Of interest are the efforts to get broad policies in place to help combat the perceived threat to the world...
I have gotten to the point that every time my cellphone blasts its generic ringtone, I assume it's a robocall. My algorithm favorites are the recorded voices that start out saying, "Can you hear me?" and then pause a few seconds before continuing. I've taken to filling that brief void with a Bronx cheer or some other obnoxious sound. Then I hang up. Sometimes, however, when I check for messages or run into a friend, he or she might say, "I tried to call you, but all I got was you making bad-taste sounds." Worse is when it's a business call or...
#!*! People who live in a farming community and complain about the train. #!*! County painting lane stripes and then filling potholes over the new paint. #!*! People who make U-turns on Main Street! #!*! Still no new trees on Main Street. Only more removed....
Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson has, to his credit, seized the initiative in the battle over whether Britain will truly exit the EU, and on what terms. But no one can know how this high-stakes gamble will turn out. Johnson just lost his slender parliamentary majority, and the prospect of a new election looms. If things break the wrong way, the winner could be opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, a throwback leftist redolent of the bad old days of Britain's self-imposed stagnation. It's hard to exaggerate the threat represented by Corbyn and Co....
Rights In response to Mr. Carl M. Ogren’s anti-gun rant in last week's WCG, please allow me to paraphrase Voltaire when he said “I wholly disapprove of what you say―but will defend to the death your right to say it.” Yes, I know there is some disagreement on whether or not Voltaire used those words or whether that was an attitude summary given by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906. In either case it was a noble ideal expressed well. My paraphrase…not so much. But here it goes anyway: I wholly disagree with what Mr. Ogren said, but with my “assault...
Our nation is on an unsustainable borrowing trajectory and it could get much worse unless voters start asking politicians: “How are taxpayers going to pay for what they promise!” We now owe over $22.5 trillion to lenders of which nearly half are off shore. (China $1.11 trillion). At the rate which we are selling treasury notes, the deficit will balloon to $24 trillion by 2020. That means when the presidential election rolls around next year, each taxpayer’s share of the debt will be $183,...
I had a wonderful opportunity in 2000. I was selected as part of Spokane’s sister city educational exchange, and taught English in the Japanese public school system. One of my students was considering applying to be an exchange student in America. She asked me several questions including how safe my country was. I assured her that the reports of violence were overblown by our free and open media. Although we were not as safe as Japan, we felt secure anywhere in our country. I couldn’t make that statement today. School shootings have rea...
One of the predictions of climate change is extreme, unpredictable weather patterns. Hotter hots, colder colds, dryer drys and wetter wets. If pattern is the right word, the pattern of climate change is becoming more obvious. Hurricane Dorian, which at this writing has hammered the Bahamas and working its way towards the east coast is a case in point. It has already been described as the worst hurricane to hit the area ever. The reported devastation on the islands is only a partial glimpse at the true devastation. That will come as access to...
For a man who doesn’t read a lot, President Donald Trump sure has been influenced by history. What’s amazing about the days of yesteryear is not just that we keep repeating their errors, but that these mistakes move so seamlessly through time, the past being prologue and all that Shakespeare stuff. So it is with the defining tradition of bias in the United States. There is no group we haven’t hated and abused: Ethnic groups, racial groups, gender groups and, of course, religious groups. Our intolerance casts a wide net. Does anyone remember tha...
The New York Times, an organization devoted to gathering and publishing information, doesn’t want people to gather or publish information inconvenient to it. A group of Trump-supporting operatives has been finding and archiving old social media postings of Times employees and other journalists for use in the ongoing brawl between the president and the press. There’s no indication that this is dumpster diving rather than an effort to scour readily available sources for stupid, embarrassing or offensive things that journalists have said pub...
#!*! It ain't a grandstand without a roof (Webster), just damn expensive bleachers. YYYY Colorful murals and a renewed spirit of entrepreneurship! Love seeing Colfax come back to life!...
Ban assault rifles It is time for the United States to permanently ban the purchase and ownership of assault rifles. The assault rifle serves no purpose except to kill another human being. They have no legitimate purpose for hunting or any other reason except to fuel “Rambo” fantasies. The argument that the assault rifle is needed for personal protection bears no weight because there are many other choices of guns for personal protection. Under the second amendment the terms “well-regulated militia” is often used to justify the ownersh...
Hopefully, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) will receive final permit approval so it can complete its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant currently under construction on the Tacoma’s Tide Flats. For background, LNG is natural gas chilled to a liquid state, (-260° Fahrenheit), for shipping and storage. The volume of natural gas in its liquid state is about 600 times smaller than in its gaseous state. The comparison is similar to condensing air in a beach ball to a ping-pong ball. In its liquid state, LN...
I thought the court decisions against the makers of Roundup were over the top, but I was absolutely astounded at the recent ruling against Johnson & Johnson. These judgments are not only out of line, but tend to spawn even more outrageous claims in the hope that money will rain down on litigants and their lawyers. World health agencies have repeatedly stated Roundup is not a threat, with one lone exception that said the active ingredient in Roundup (Glyphosate) might contribute to cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emphatically...
Reports during the countdown indicate this year's edition of the Palouse Empire Fair should start and finish with a high rating. The fair always generates its own momentum as entrants and competitors arrive with exhibits and talent for display and judging. A first painting by a three-year-old, a final stock raising project by a high school senior, talent by a royalty entry and a ride by a skilled rodeo competitor are some of the ingredients which make up the fair and generate interest for the four-day run. This year gets a boost because the...
President Donald Trump has broached the idea of purchasing the massive and largely frozen island of Greenland from Denmark. Cue the laughter. My Montreal-raised wife tells me that in the nearly uninhabitable frozen tundra country of her youth, she and her Canadian friends grew up exclaiming, "It's as cold as Greenland!" But POTUS, evidently, was serious. It's not a new idea. In 1946, the U.S. offered $100 million for Greenland, $1.3 billion in today's dollars, or 9 billion Danish Krone, give or take. A mere pittance, even if it's situated in...
Beto O'Rourke has taken the measure of America and found it wanting. "This country, though we would like to think otherwise," he intoned, "was founded on racism, has persisted through racism and is racist today." This is now a mainstream sentiment in the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders said earlier this year that the United States was "created" in large part "on racist principles." The New York Times has begun the so-called 1619 Project, marking the 400th anniversary of the importation of slaves from Africa. The series seeks nothing less than...
