Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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Antidiabetic medications have been given a lot of attention lately. In the Age of Information, some subjects take over every screen, while others gather dust in the basement. The Human Genome Project got plenty of attention in the 1990s. It captured our imagination - the thought of unveiling the blueprints for life. Unwinding the DNA. Hope for humanity and our many ailments seemed within reach. Born with bad genes? We’ll be able to fix that soon. So far, the project yielded few answers and left us with many new questions. M...
As soon as the turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes are put away on Thanksgiving, it's officially time to turn the holiday calendar to Christmas. Notice I didn't mention mashed potatoes in the list of Thanksgiving foods. That's because mashed potatoes are the worst dish served in a classic Thanksgiving meal. Think that's a controversial opinion? Good. That was just a setup for this column that leans into the Christmas spirit by sharing the 10 best and 10 worst Christmas songs....
The Building Integrated Grids With Inter-Regional Energy Supply (BIG WIRES) Act is a promising bipartisan bill in Congress that offers a wide range of benefits: reducing the risk of electrical power outages, lowering carbon emissions and energy costs, and increasing national security. The recent gas pipeline rupture in our region gave many of us a taste of how a blackout in winter would feel. Extreme weather events damaging power stations and overloading the grid are on the rise. The bill will require each U.S....
Physicians and health-care workers across the state have experienced unprecedented stress and hardship over the past several years. Despite this, physicians in Davenport and Odessa took and continue to take the time to help train medical students. We are thankful to the extensive network of physicians throughout Eastern and Central Washington who believe in “paying it forward,” because of the training they received from preceptors and mentors when they were medical students. We’ve learned that despite added layers of complexi...
We had a great crop of apples this year and more pumpkins than we could give away. Blackberries from the Westside and home canned cherries from early summer and have we got our pies! America is a land of plenty and we love to eat at ball games, movie theaters and other community gatherings. For some, this lifestyle is catching up to us and we're dealing with extra pounds, which is leading to health problems. We have to find a way to help people stay healthy and avoid terrible...
Aren’t you sick and tired of hearing Gov. Jay Inslee and his ilk routinely blame Columbia and Snake River dams for the decline in Puget Sound salmon and orca populations? Despite voluminous information to the contrary, Inslee, Sen. Patty Murray and other extremist environmental politicians continue to push a narrative on salmon decline that is patently false. There should be penalties for being so disingenuous. While there isn’t a penalty for false statements made to app...
As we prepare for the upcoming holidays, we must be grateful for what we have and focus on our needs rather than fixate on what we want and crave. Being thankful starts with an appreciation of why our families came to America in the first place---our freedoms and opportunities. Legendary singer-song writer Neil Diamond hit single; “America” was performed in 1981 to help welcome home 52 American hostages that Iranian militants held for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Teh...
While the last veterans who survived the “surprise” Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are dwindling rapidly, we cannot let their sacrifices and the memories of that horrific day which propelled America into World War II fade into history. On December 7, 1941, 350 Japanese aircraft descended on Honolulu’s military installations in two shocking waves. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, and 21 ships were sunk or damaged. Our soldiers, sailors and pilots who fought and won W...
Last month, I attended joint meetings for the National Association of State Conservation Agencies and the National Watershed Coalition in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the request of Washington state conservationist, Roylene Comes-At-Night. Just as in previous annual meeting in Spokane two year ago, this was an opportunity to build relationships with national U.S. Department of Agriculture leadership, understand programs and funding opportunities better, and to work together for...
Like many businesses across Eastern Washington, Free Press Publishing is going to winter hours. Effective Nov. 8, our Whitman County Gazette office will resume Wednesday closures through cold-weather months. And beginning Nov. 10, our Cheney Free Press office will be closed Fridays. Our Lincoln County Record-Times and Ritzville Adams County Journal offices are already closed Fridays. Closing our offices one day a week for the winter doesn’t mean you have any less news coverage...
In 1992, a single male sockeye salmon managed to swim 900 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River to Redfish Lake located deep in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains---the end of his migratory journey. Biologists dubbed the sole survivor, “Lonesome Larry.” By 2010, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council happily reported record-setting runs for sockeye —387,000 had climbed the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. Last year, 751 sockeye were trapped at Redfish Lake Creek and taken t...
What's the hourly wage of a Paid Family and Medical Leave recipient in Washington state? It's higher than I'm comfortable with. Lawmakers should explain to all workers why they think it is good policy to take money from low-income workers and give their money to people with ample resources. Using hourly wage estimates from the state Employment Security Department, here are the earnings of people who took the program's tax dollars in the past fiscal year (July 2022 through...
Thirty-five attorneys general throughout the nation, including Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, have banded together in opposition to a proposal by the American Law Institute that would put an end to sex offender registries, notifying communities of a sex offender’s presence, and restricting their places of residence. You read that right: the American Law Institute wants to do away with sex offender registries. Although a proposal of this nature has yet to pass through the Legislature here, several attempts have a...
If there’s one thing Americans can still agree on, it’s that tax policy is one of the most consequential decisions our government makes that impacts our economy and family budgets. With the exception of Washington state, policymakers in the mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been very active the last few years prioritizing tax relief while making fiscally conservative budget investments. While this ongoing tax relief effort is to be commended, more can be don...
The Interstate 405 and state Highway 167 toll lane experiment is losing money. Now, the state Transportation Commission is considering increasing tolls by up to 80% to $18 each way on I-405. The increase will cost an I-405 commuter, using the lanes at peak toll periods, around $720 per month or $8,640 per year. If you travel the entire Highway 167 and I-405 corridor you could see a toll of up to $54. The state Department of Transportation fiscal report for the tolling project...
Apex predators have already saturated the landscape in Northeast Washington. Now, the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife and the National Park Service want to add more by reintroducing grizzlies to the North Cascades. Both federal agencies proposing reintroduction of grizzlies into the North Cascades have invoked Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act as the trigger for bringing the predators back to Washington. Section 10(j) states federal agencies should, “facilitate r...
President Joe Biden’s $65 billion infrastructure bill contains $8 billion for regional hubs to develop ways to produce and distribute hydrogen fuel. One is planned for the Pacific Northwest and should help haulers and truck manufacturers in Renton and Portland in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, long-distance haulers need a network of hydrogen fueling stations (like today’s truck stops) along with affordable trucks and fuel. Hub res...
As parents know all too well, many students suffered learning loss when schools were shut down or relied on virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This “COVID learning loss” has resulted in lower test scores from Washington students in recent years. Unfortunately, not every possible solution has been deployed to address this problem. One of my Republican colleagues, 8th District Sen. Matt Boehnke, wrote a guest column on COVID learning loss. It mentioned a recent ana...
Gov. Jay Inslee inappropriately used our state’s building codes to ban natural gas in new homes and commercial buildings. Now, the Biden Administration is going a step further issuing rules that drastically clamp down on natural gas used in heating and air conditioning units. Inslee’s regulations phase out fossil fuels used for heating water and cooking in new buildings by 2030. They were the first steps to eliminating natural gas in and around the house. Biden’s Dept. of En...
Just as memories of COVID lockdowns and mask mandates were fading to the back of our collective minds, the hysteria is returning, and many are wondering how to react. The two new strains responsible for the surge in cases are known as EG.5, or “Eris,” and BA.2.86, or “Pirola.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show COVID hospitalizations have increased by almost 15.7% in one week, and deaths have increased by 10.5%, although these numbers greatly fluctuate day by day. Director Mandy Cohen said up to 10,000...
As the cost of the state’s climate law continues to increase gas prices, members of the Inslee Administration are upset when the cost of the CO2 allowances are referred to as a “tax.” The governor and others have resorted to convoluted language and logic to avoid using that politically powerful word. For example, the governor’s spokesman Mike Faulk recently wrote, “the cap and invest program is not a ‘carbon tax’,” but “requires emitters to purchase … permits for their e...
While media focus was on Joe Biden’s decree putting a tiny plot of land within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil and gas exploration, reporters ignored the bigger story. Biden’s other proclamation forbids tapping more than 10 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre area on Alaska’s North Slope. That is the area which should replenish the crude oil drawdown stemming from Biden’s oil withdrawal from strategic wells est...
It’s been a pretty nice season to go to the fairs around the region—in most cases not too hot and not too cool. Always nice to be able to connect with both our adult and youth producers. The fairs are certainly an American tradition and it’s great to see that people are out supporting them. When I talk with producers, I’m always happy when topics of conversation come up that lend themselves to an article. A recent conversation highlighted that concerns about mRNA vaccine...
Our problem is not that there is too much “fake news.” Our problem is that too many people believe it. Fortunately, there is an “antidope” — epistemology , the theory of knowledge or “how we know what we know.” Epistemology is a good solution because it has validity tests to distinguish between justified belief and opinion. And this distinction is central to most disagreements. Epistemology has simple and clarifying definitions, e.g., Truth has the property that corresponds with facts and reality. Can you imagine how m...
The phrase “first-world problems” has become a punch line – a throwaway statement because it is uttered by people with plenty of gadgets, a reliable food supply and a secure roof over their heads. It has also dulled our experience of a world in which seasonal food is the reality and some products are hard to get. When everything is available, regardless of season or effort, it is easy to voice shallow moral judgments when it comes to food production and consumption. Animal rig...