Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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Dear Editor, The “woke” have once again said right out loud what is their agenda, and once again it is being ignored by the mainstream media, because it is too evil to contemplate. They, the “woke” are advocating for “after birth abortions”. They are openly advocating for infanticide. They want to kill babies. In an article for the Journal of Medical Ethics, pro-abortion activists Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva state, “…after-birth abortion should be permissible. … [W]e propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather t...
Regarding the Todd Myers column published April 25, “Inslee using tax money to sell his tax policy.” First, I have living in Washington state for over 80 years. I have seen the climate change over and over; that’s the natural cycle. The climate will continue for the next 1,000 years. Inslee and his jack-booted attorney general are both card carrying communists, who believe everything you earn should be turned over to them. Inslee does not have the right to use taxpayer money to extort more money from the hard-working people of Washington state...
Dear Editor, Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have simply given too much power to too few people to hold for too long in America. Power has shifted from localities to states and from states to the central government over the past hundred years or so. This shift diminished the power of hundreds of thousands of state legislators, county commissioners, city and town council members, and local judicial bodies and consolidated that power in the hands of 535 Congresspersons, nine Supreme Court justices, and 1 power-mad...
Most Palouse farms are multi-generational farms. I recently heard a story of a 3 generation, 150-year farm from a landowner who has signed a contract to have windmills. I think the point of his story was that he is now proud to be the generation that ruins the beautiful landscape of the Palouse. Let me ask all windmill contract holders this, would your parents and grandparents be proud to know that windmills as large as the Seattle space needle are being constructed on the family land? Wind power money did not build your family’s legacy and y...
To build a new home in rural Whitman County, landowners must obey “viewshed” rules that prevent new homes from impacting the views and privacy enjoyed by their neighbors. They also must comply with “highly visible property” rules that discourage folks from building on hilltops. They must sign and notarize an affidavit acknowledging that farming comes first here, and that they and their heirs accept that. Neighborliness comes from the heart, not from laws. But I am happy to comply. I don’t want my freedom as a landowner to offend my neighbors...
*Regarding the article in the Gazette “Senator Schoesler keeping tabs on gun case” published April 18* Much as I appreciate the Gazette, political opinion regularly creeps into what I would prefer to be objective news reporting and I cringe every time. Here, the easy tell is gratuitously describing Mr. Johnston as “an unelected Supreme Court commissioner” (no parallel note that Bob Ferguson is Washington’s elected attorney general?). In fact, Johnston is THE Washington Supreme Court Commissioner, an important state office that he has upheld we...
The Whitman County Commissioners will be meeting Monday morning, April 29th, 2024. April 30th is the day that we all associate with the payment of our property taxes. Regrettably, our federal tax dollars are about to be used to reduce the value of our property and change life in the Palouse for the foreseeable future. Federal subsidies placed in the hands of powerful foreign interests intend to mark our beautiful skylines with obnoxious intrusions that will deface what we all love and provide no lasting benefit to those of us that live here....
Carmela Conroy gives Eastern Washington voters the unusual, important opportunity to elect a foreign policy expert as their U.S. Representative. As a foreign service officer for 24 years, she served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand and Tom Foley’s Japan office. Voters must weigh foreign policy experience much more than usual in their 2024 voting decisions. Foreign policy expertise is also prerequisite for ending the tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Trump has accepted uncaringly. Like retiring Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, no...
In last week’s Whitman County Gazette, Vestas/Steelhead Americas/Harvest Hills Wind claimed their “goal is to be responsible to community” and “to partner with the communities”. This is disingenuous PR messaging and we’re not fooled. They do not have our best interest in mind. If Harvest Hills Wind truly wanted support for their project, they would have been transparent from the day they entered the county. A true partner would have initiated an early dialog with the residents of Whitman County on site selection, protecting land/home v...
Let’s have a look at the benefits of dams to human life with a special focus on Grand Coulee Dam. It is the largest hydroelectric producing facility in the U.S. and provides enough electricity to power about 2 million households every year, 68% of all Washington state households. Please keep in mind too, that it is just one of 145 hydroelectric dams in the state. Grand Coulee dam prompted the creation of the “U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Columbia Basin Project” which converted 670,000 acres (over 1,000 square-miles) of formerly arid waste...
Have you ever hiked Kamiak Butte County Park? Have you enjoyed the expansive views of the rolling fertile food-producing agricultural fields of the surrounding Palouse countryside? Did you know there is an Industrial Wind Company (Harvest Hills Wind) who wants to place 45+ ginormous wind turbines around the south and west side of Kamiak Butte? They want to place these monstrous machines (reportable could be 600-700 feet tall) in prime farm ground (which is designated as agricultural ground of state-wide importance). These wind turbines will be...
“Polluters pay. People get a carbon cashback” sums up the impact that the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA) would have. The EICDA was re-introduced in the House of Representatives last September and is currently languishing in committees. Briefly, the EICDA puts a price on carbon at the source of the fossil fuels – the well, mine, or imported tanker – therefore making it simple to administer and uniform across sources of greenhouse gases. It would take the revenue from the price on carbon and distribute it to every individ...
Most likely, very few Washington state residents have ever seen a starving child. While living in three African countries for 17 years, I saw a few children with kwashiorkor (a protein deficiency evidenced by extended stomachs and sparse reddish hair), but only once at the JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, did I see a child on the brink of starvation. Believe me, it was traumatic. I wanted the medical personnel to hurry, do something, rush right away to treat this emergency. Today, we learn of countless children starving in Gaza and Sudan....
Close your eyes for a moment and allow your mind to envision Palouse Falls, one of the most scenic locations in our region. Now, alter this vision to include the construction of several 500-700-foot high wind generators, each located on private land, but placed adjacent to, and on opposite sides of the Palouse River as it cascades over the falls. For those of us living in Pullman, we might similarly envision one such generator placed conspicuously atop the Physical Sciences Building on the Washington State University campus. Now apply those sam...
Pullman might be significantly improved it turned into a golf cart community, where electric-powered golf carts would be allowed on all city streets. By having a maximum speed limit of 15 mph and speed bumps on all streets, Pullman would be a community where golf carts could safely mix with larger vehicles on the same roadways. Residents could set up solar battery charging stations for thier carts without having to use the 60-cycle, 110-volte electricity available from Avista. A community using a substantial amount of power from independent...
I am writing to those that have signed up for this travesty of windmills in our beautiful Palouse area. I implore you to think this through. Do you care about your future generations? Do you care about the destruction of wildlife? Do you care that your neighbors property will be devalued greatly? Would you like your property to be devalued which it will be? Out-of-area corporations are looking to make big money in our area. You won’t. Do you care about prime farmland being taken out of production forever? Do you think these companies will c...
Don’t you fact-check opinion columns? After reading State Sen. Shelley Short’s bizarre, March 8 pack of lies about Washington House Bill 1589, I see that truth is optional at Free Press Publishing. This bill simply removes Puget Sound Energy’s obligation to hook up gas lines to new construction. It does not, as Short says, “force 900,000 Puget Sound Energy natural gas customers in Western Washington to junk their gas furnaces, water heaters and stoves.” Nor does it make owners of old homes replace wiring, or force restaurants to refit old...
Among Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s negative legacies she leaves, her most impactful may be on immigration. However, she still has time to improve that. Donald Trump cares nothing about our country, just his election. Accordingly, he recently ordered all Republicans to scuttle the bipartisan, long-negotiated Senate deal supporting Ukraine and limiting immigration that would be a victory for President Joe Biden. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, an election-denier, obeyed Trump by withholding a full House vote despite enough b...
Public records must remain open and accessible A special report urges the mobilization of civic leaders, organizations, businesses and all residents to work together to save the state’s Public Records Act. The report is available online for viewing and downloading at washcog.org. State lawmakers and the courts continue to whittle away at the landmark public records law, which was adopted overwhelmingly with a citizens’ initiative in 1972. Since then, state legislators have passed more than 650 exceptions and have tried repeatedly to exempt them...
While driving down the road to I-90 from Cheney, I saw F-135 refueling planes circling around Fairchild Airforce Base. It occurred to me that there are many military airplanes waiting to be deployed. These airplanes could be used to avoid further starvation and death in Gaza by airlifting food, water and medicine in this war-torn region. And, to help Americans to honor our value for human life, we could send hospital ships like Mercy Corp, to the Mediterranean Sea to treat injured women and children, and of course men. Involving the military...
President Joe Biden’s accomplishments have been remarkable, especially considering the cult-like devotion to Donald Trump of most congressional Republicans, including Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Trump opposes everything Biden proposes, completely disregarding our country’s welfare, caring only about his election. A prime example is Trump’s recent edict that all Republicans scuttle the bipartisan, long-negotiated Senate deal that supported Ukraine and limited immigration. House Speaker Mike Johnson had already complied by withholding a full House...
Like approximately 200 million other folks, I watched the Super Bowl ad “Jesus gets us”. Like most things on TV, it wasn’t showing the complete truth. “Jesus gets us” is true. But, He doesn’t wash our feet and leave us in our sin. The point of “the washing of feet” is the continual cleaning FROM sin—not the acceptance of it. Jesus doesn’t endorse, accommodate, coddle, nor tolerate sin. He loves us sinners enough to transform us out of our sin. He doesn’t wash our feet so we can continue to walk in it. And, He has paid the bloody price to break...
In reading the Gazette Reporter Jake Hull’s great article regarding Tony Carter, I was struck by two things. The first was the obvious outpouring of the importance that TC had in the Colfax School System. Whether coaching in several areas, teaching, helping, his humility and humor, of course I and all you others could go on and on but one of the most important to me was Mike Morgan’s comment about Tony’s superb athletic training. You knew when your kid was hobbling or down and T.C went out to take a look and the kid either stayed or came out,...
As an emergency physician, I see too many patients and families destroyed fentanyl epidemic. This is a plague that we can only face united. Four decades ago, many dismissed the impact of secondhand cigarette smoke. History shows us they were wrong. Today, “educated experts” dismiss what they call trace amounts of fentanyl on public transportation – buses, light rail, and ferries. The difference? Fentanyl is considerably more toxic. The time for hiding the effects of addiction and leaving this disease unaddressed in the public square is long pas...
I drove truck for 47 years and when the roundabout on Freya Street, north of Frances St., was installed I was hauling food products to a URM warehouse. The roundabout humps in the middle and when the trailing trailer goes over this it is tipped about 30 degrees and all the palletized goods are dumped off the pallets and scattered over the floor of the trailer and must be restacked by hand to unload. Exit 276 on Interstate 90 has two or three roundabouts, all jammed together making for a confusing mess. That serves no purpose than having some...
