Whitman County Gazette - Serving Whitman County since 1877

America’s drift away from our market-based economic system is perplexing. Equally, mystifying is the new push to replace entrepreneurs with government bureaucrats in planning and controlling services and products offered to us--the consumers....

A lot is written about students exiting college saddled with hefty student loans; however, the impact on retired parents went largely unnoticed. Recently, Wall Street Journal writer AnnaMaria Andriotis reported Americans over 60 years old are coming...

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. That’s particularly true in difficult times when “business as usual” no longer works. As our national deficit approaches $22 trillion ($180,000 per taxpayer) and state and local governments...

While many eyes are on trade talks between our country and China, America’s port leaders are positioning their seaports to compete for increasing volumes of container traffic. After container shipments surged in November---primarily from...

Last year, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) global study of aerospace manufacturing attractiveness found the United States is top rated and within our country, Washington is the best. The study reaffirmed that “Washington’s economy and industry...

Christmas is a difficult time for anyone grieving the death of a loved one. It is especially hard when they were slain in the line-of-duty while protecting our country. It hit home again last month when Army sergeants Eric Emond, 39, Brush Prairie,...

The good news is Washington’s revenues continue to grow, and projections for the next couple of years appear promising. That is welcome news, but it is sprinkled with caution about introducing new taxes. Our state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast...

When Congress convenes next year lawmakers must focus on the cost and quality of health care. In November, voters made it clear, health care was on top of their minds. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation a third of voters said it was the...

While massive wildfires are historic, they are more dangerous today. As our population grows they are a greater threat to communities adjacent to wild lands This year, with nearly 4.8 million acres already burned in the U.S. and wildfires finally con...

One of the consequences of Venezuela’s economic ruin is infectious diseases are reaching epidemic proportions and spreading to neighboring Latin American countries. Venezuela, a country of 30 million people, sits on large oil reserves but when...

When our military is viewed as an employer, it has the same problem as the private sector; attracting qualified people to fill jobs. In today’s vibrant economy, there is an abundance of “Help Wanted” signs. Even though our armed forces have...

When our military is viewed as an employer, it has the same problem as the private sector; attracting qualified people to fill jobs. In today’s vibrant economy, there is an abundance of “Help Wanted” signs. Even though our armed forces have...

Give Gov. Jay Inslee and backers of Initiative 1631 credit. They are persistent in their quest to invoke a fee on carbon emissions. Voters will decide its fate on Nov.6. Since Inslee was first elected, he pushed to reduce CO2 discharges---a laudable...

In the 1960s, there was a popular movie called: “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming”. The plot was a Soviet naval commander runs his sub aground off a Massachusetts coastal island and sends two English-speaking crewmen ashore to...

Last spring, Boeing revealed its proposed hypersonic passenger airliner which would fly much higher and faster than the Concorde---the only previous supersonic commercial airplane. For reference, supersonic jets fly over the speed of sound (660 mph...

Since President Trump took office, the attention to social media has mushroomed. His pointed tweets are often the top news story each day. Twitter, Facebook and the other apps are pervasive and even though Google and some others have their share of...

When one approaches the Tri Cities, it is impossible to ignore Lampson International’s monstrous cranes in its Pasco assembly yard. Those gantries stand out like the Space Needle in Seattle and reach over 560 feet into the sky. Like the Space...

With today’s tension and rancor, we need a dose of Yogi Berra’s wit and wisdom to put things into perspective. Let’s start with “You can observe a lot by just watching” because seeing what is happening now is very disconcerting. We need...

Last April, Washington wheat, apple and cherry growers hoped U.S. and China trade negotiators would resolve differences and prevent imposition of damaging tariffs on our state’s leading crops. Unfortunately, that did not happened and the costs are...

While most of our attention in the Pacific Northwest these days is on trade wars, tariffs and wildfires, there are critical talks underway between the U.S. and Canada over future allocations of the Columbia River system’s water. The two countries...

In America, when people invent things, they expect their trade secrets to be protected by federal law when their government patents are approved. However, that isn’t always the case. Patent infringements are life and death for inventors especially...

Believe it or not, there is good news to report these days. According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, last year Americans donated more than $410 billion in cash to non-profit organizations which is up from $389 billion in 2016....

The massive Berkeley Pit in Butte, Mont., is one of the world’s largest superfund sites and has been described as a giant sink filling with metal-laden, acidic water from over 10,000 miles of underground mine workings. It has been a ticking time bo...

The Jetsons television series about a space-age family featuring “Rosey the Robot” gave us a preview of life with robots, kiosks and interactive television. In 1962, it was a fictitious cartoon; however, in 2018, many of the Jetsons...

Too often, our sons and daughters tend to look for role models in lofty places and many become disillusioned by the bad behavior of some of them. Worse yet, some try to emulate that comportment. The most admired people tend to be the teachers,...