Sorted by date Results 1477 - 1501 of 3183
Gun or person? Try painting without a brush, try eating without a fork and try killing 49 people without a gun. Tools are needed to get a job done and if you want to do a whole lot of harm to your fellow man, the AR-15 is a great tool. Cathy McMorris Rodgers hasn’t demonstrated the political will to do anything about gun slaughter and violence happening daily. She waits for cues from her ideologically driven party leaders. Nobody is asking her for the elimination of guns but merely attention to the “general welfare” claus...
Yesterday (July 7), I attended a candidate forum set up by the League of Women Voters in Spokane. It was televised. Dave Wilson, Joe Pakootas, and Tom Horne were the only candidates present who are running for the 5th District of the U.S. Congress. When Wilson had a turn to speak he asked the speaker from the LWV if they had indeed endorsed Pakootas as a candidate as was listed on Pakootas’s website. The woman said that the League of Women Voters do not endorse any political candidates. They are a non-profit charity o...
Fed up with our do-nothing Congress? Want an alternative to Cathy McMorris Rodgers? Want to defeat CMR? It is time be bold. Do you want to vote in Democrats or Republicans who are both forced to dial for dollars and not work for us? Do you like the corrupting influence of big money in politics? Are you tired of career politicians who see Congress as a steppingstone to a lucrative career? It is time to be bold. Do you want to continue voting for inaccessible McMorris Rodgers who is focused on her political party rather than he...
It’s no secrete that the GOP was stunned by the meteoric rise of the demagogue Donald Trump and his emergence as their presumptive nominee for president. Their surprise is symptomatic of how tone deaf they’ve been to their own xenophobic, anti-science, anti-government rhetoric. Like Doctor Frankenstein, the Republicans created a monster, but unlike the good doctor, the Republicans created their horrible creature with malice aforethought, working hard at the only thing they worked hard at, which was to convince the Ame...
Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Pendell, spoke to the Retired Public Employees Chapter 14 on June 22, describing his work as the resource officer for the Medical Lake School District as well as the types of scams that target retirees. As the school resource officer, he works with staff and counselors, supporting positive behavior, and preventing poor behavior from escalating into criminal behavior. Pendell said that there are many types of scams. One scammer called 200 people before finding one who fell for his s...
Last week, I spoke with Medical Lake City Administrator Doug Ross and Fire Chief Jason Mayfield, who hoped the city’s residents would not be careless with lighting fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday because of the current cooler temperatures. This got me to thinking about some of the other warnings we hear about in the summer, mainly the ones relating to children and pets in hot cars. Every year we have to be reminded about this issue and it seems like a simple task to not leave children and pets inside of a hot v...
This past spring, Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, our 5th District Representative in Congress for 12 years and trying for another term, has been holding “Conversations with Cathy.” I attended one in Spokane Valley on Monday morning, April 4 at the HUB. The majority of questions swirled around finances, taxes and banking. It was interesting that McMorris Rodgers supports a flat tax, opposes retirement protections (regulations to protect consumers retirement funds) and supports dipping into the “entitlements” to balance...
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Transmitted from Congress to the individual states on Sept. 25, 1789, ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. Our nation has an issue with guns. Possession of firearms has been enshrined in our nation’s main governing document, something that can’t be taken away without changing that specific portion of the document — despite what fear-mongers say about the government coming to take your guns...
Washington state leaders need to keep an eye on South Carolina. It is a state that is becoming a strong magnet to attract business. A couple of years ago, the front-page news was the competition between Seattle and Charleston to lure Boeing’s 787 assembly production. Now, it has grown to include international trade and the associated economic development and jobs. Washington and South Carolina are among our nation’s leaders in international trade. Our state’s ports proce...
“By allowing the general public unprecedented access to the original papers, this book lets us learn firsthand what many modern historians claim: Without newspapers, there would have been no American Revolution.” That claim was made by writer Todd Andrlik during a February 2015 interview about his then latest book: “Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before it was History, it was News.” The role of newspapers, and by extension the news media, in history is sometimes overlooked. Yet newspapers, and the ability to publish...
Ask anyone their thoughts on the Fourth of July holiday and you’re likely to get as many different answers as there are individuals. Some lament the loss of the home-fireworks display, a staple of many past celebrations. Those old enough might remember cavorting in their yard twirling bright sparklers in the warm, twilight air, watching sizzling, black snakes uncoil — staining dad’s nice front sidewalk — while fountain fireworks blossomed and, now and then, Roman candles chugged their multi-colored charges into the night s...
As a lifelong Republican, I reject Donald Trump and what he stands for: racism, xenophobia, nativism and contempt for women, the disabled and other groups. Rather than adhere to our party’s conservative principles and state a clear program, he offers a vague vision of “making America Great Again” and simplistic slogans about “building a wall” and deporting millions of undocumented workers. He is demagogue who most thoughtful people will surely reject as president and commander in chief. At the minimum, who would want the...
A shout out to fellow Bernie supporters! We have had a big disappointment, but it is not wasted effort. Many people have been moved, new ideas have been heard, thoughts are percolating that have not been on the radar. He, and many of you, have spent great energy, money and time. We are part of democracy in action, and though we aren’t totally happy; this country is many times better than most. Just read the news. It is imperative that all Bernie Sanders supporters vote in November. I hope it will be for Hillary. She was n...
The images of political cartoonist Milt Priggees are seen regularly on the pages of the Cheney Free Press in the opinion section. The real Priggee, however, showed up June 9 to present lectures entitled “Cartooning in the Evergreen State.” His stops included the library in Cheney. The former Spokesman Review editorial cartoonist lives in the Puget Sound area and was part of a speaker series sponsored by Humanities Washington. It’s too bad that for whatever reason, only a han...
June 7 and 8 were a couple of banner days for the Spokane Tribe of Indians. On June 7, they received word they had been designated a Promise Zone by the federal government, a move putting them near the top of the list when they apply for economic development grants and other assistance. The next day, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee concurred with a 2015 U.S. Department of the Interior ruling that the tribe’s casino project should move forward despite opposition from the Spokane County Commissioners, Greater Spokane Incorporated a...
Grandparents by the thousands are grieving today because they haven’t been able to see their grandchildren through no fault of their own. As of 2000, Washington state hasn’t had any law to protect the bonded relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren. Death, divorce, non-marital breakups and disagreements are at the center of this issue. New spouse’s don’t want “old” family members in their lives so they move on while leaving the grandparents behind that have been involved in their precious grandchildr...
Cathy McMorris Rodgers recently announced on her Facebook site that she was “not exactly” enthusiastic casting her ballot for Donald Trump in the recent primary given her concerns about Trump’s “comments on women, people with disabilities and those with different backgrounds.” She called his “comments wrong in a presidential campaign; in our workplaces; in our homes and anywhere else.” Given all this, perhaps a more effective approach than voting for Trump would have been to follow the example of Nancy Reagan by “Just Say...
By AL STOVER Staff Reporter I’m sure by now everyone has heard about the shooting at the Pulse, a gay nightclub, in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were shot and killed, and 53 were injured. Many are calling the Pulse shooting the worst terror attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. At approximately 2 a.m., the gunman Omar Mateen, walked into the Pulse, which had around 300 people inside, and opened fire. During the attack, he called 911 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Reports say the FBI interviewed Mat...
There is a buzz going about the Washington state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction adding concepts like gender identity, expression and roles to its curriculum guidelines for the K-12 Health and Physical Education Learning Standards. Some examples of these lessons that would be taught to students include kindergartners learning about the different ways to express gender, second-graders understanding the range of gender roles, and third-graders discovering how those roles can vary in society. Fourth-graders would...
The Cheney Free Press of May 26, 2016 printed a guest commentary by Don C. Brunell, retired Pption of Washington Business. As expected of Mr. Brunell, his commentary presented the usual Republican rubric that the national debt must be reduced and one of the major financial problems of the debt crisis is Social Security. It is true the debt is a problem but it is false that Social Security is a problem. In 2014 Social Security’s receipts were $931.1 billion and expenses were $906.8 billion, a net gain of $24.3 billion. A...
Thank you for the excellent editorial about volunteering and volunteerism (Cheney Free Press, June 2). We are blessed in the West Plains with so many able and willing volunteers. Some resources for local volunteer opportunities are: justserve.org and another one called volunteermatch.org. Both sites match those who want to volunteer to organizations that need volunteers. And, if you are part of an organization that needs volunteers, be sure to post your opportunities on those sites. Thank you to those on the West Plains who...
Want to start a lively and passionate discussion? Dumb question these days when the 2016 presidential election contains all the elements necessary for a debate. Nope, one need only mention, as Wikipedia calls it, “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or, colloquially, Obamacare,” and the wheels get turning and sparks flying. But why are we still talking about the now six-plus year-old ACA when such a “target rich” landscape exists out there already? There’s...
By JOHN McCALLUM Editor I was blessed with parents who were active, strong and engaged readers and who encouraged the development and refinement of that trait in their children. That’s where my love of history started. But it was more than just reading. My father served in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. His father, my grandfather, was a chaplain during the war in the South Pacific, beginning with being a part of the Army’s 25th Infantry Division that relieved U.S. Marines at a lovely, tropical getaway called Gua...
Tom Davis, where were you when the big mega-cable folks first came to Spokane in the 1970s? Oh, I forgot, you just told me you were staking your territory out here on the West Plains where your tech support is within driving distance. Or on the phone where locals work to solve the problem, and if not, you dispatch someone who can. If you think you’ve heard this story before about issues pertaining to Comcast, my cable and Internet provider, you have not. In my estimation t...
During the recently completed Cheney Mayfest celebration, the 3-on-3 basketball tournament was in jeopardy, lacking volunteers for important positions such as scorekeepers and courtside monitors. But then players and parents from the Cheney High School Lady Blackhawks basketball team stepped up to volunteer, asking, “What can we do to help?” With their assistance, the event took place, providing fun and competition for players and spectators alike. For those aware of this, it’s an important reminder of what volunteering means...
