Sorted by date Results 1706 - 1730 of 3183
Currently our U.S. Supreme Court is considering same-sex marriage while its Citizens United decision contributes to our huge inequality of wealth by influencing elections. Since both issues have religious implications, we should remember from the Bible that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality but said tons about love, wealth and poverty. Norm Luther Spokane...
For those of us who saw and witnessed that T-54 North Vietnamese Army tank crash into the gate of what was left of the U.S Embassy on today’s April 30, 1975, well, let’s just say the world changed. I remember well the statement of a very senior officer serving in MACV said at the last tactical briefing at the Embassy. It was the end of so-called “Vietnamization” of the war when he stated the problem was that the enemy was led by the George Washington of the NVA — and we got stuck with all the Benedict Arnolds. There wer...
Next week on Wednesday May 6, you’ll have the opportunity to attend a community forum about the coal and oil trains that pass through Cheney around the clock. Some of us are concerned about the safety of the loads carried by those trains. I heard recently that the tank cars that carry the very volatile oil were not even designed to carry oil. If the proposed Vancouver-Energy Oil Facility and the proposed Longview Coal Exporting Facility are approved, Cheney’s coal and oil train traffic will increase. I hope you’ll join us on...
The individual picked by the Cheney School District to replace outgoing athletics director Jim Missel is going to have big shoes to fill. Missel’s actual title is assistant principal for student activities, and it’s more appropriate and accurate than simply athletics director. In his 14 years at Cheney High School, and most likely throughout his almost 28-year career as an educator, Jim has been a tireless advocate for students, always keeping their best interests in focus. Missel and his ever-ready camera have been a fix...
This past weekend, the media was buzzing after reality-television personality and Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner publicly came out as a transgender woman in an April 24 interview with Diane Sawyer on “20/20.” I wasn’t surprised by Jenner’s announcement. For the last several months, tabloids, magazines and media that clutter the grocery store’s shelves in the checkout aisle were speculating about Jenner’s private life, specifically his divorce from wife Kris Jenner and his change of appearance in the public, but the int...
Just three-tenths of one percent, that’s all the Spokane Transit Authority is asking you to say “yes” to in an April 28 special election. At the same time many county voters will be asked to support various school measures along with funding a juvenile detention facility. STA’s Moving Forward plan literature tells us that money raised over the next 10 years — $270-300 million depending on the source — will be split in two ways. About 45 percent of the money will maintain se...
As of April 29, 2015, Medical Lake Physical Therapy will be closing its door after 10 proud and successful years providing service to this community. It is with great sadness that we are writing to announce this closure. The staff and I would like to express our sincerest gratitude for your continued support as we make this difficult transition. We did not come to this decision lightly or halfheartedly. It is unfortunate that, as a small business, we are unable to weather the storm driven by big business and the difficult...
At every school board meeting I attend, there is a PACE character trait read. They read about honesty, diligence and other honorable endeavors. This month’s trait is trustworthiness, ironic since so many families are not feeling trust in our schools, administrators or board members. For months now, Bill Johns has repeatedly asked the board and Yes To Kids Committee to open up a dialogue and debate him, so the public can decide on the bond. Since the August meeting it has been repeatedly ignored. Why? In fact, board member M...
I’m voting “Yes” to support The Cheney School District. I love living in the West Plains Area, I have lived here for 16 years. I have four great kids. They are smart and are fun to be around. Two of my children have graduated from Cheney High School and I currently have one in the high school and one to be there soon. There are several times I need to go to the high school during lunch to pick up my son for appointments. I’m always concerned how crowded the halls are when the students are changing classes. The student...
In 2010 Cheney School District voters approved a bond for $79 million. Construction was completed in 2013/2014 on two new middle schools and elementary. The district is back with a request for $44.8 million to cover the first phase of a remodel/new construction for the high school which, when both phases are completed, will total $87.8 million. For the average homeowner this first phase will cost $150 more a year ($3,150 total). “$150 is no more that the cost of an evening out with my daughter,” a teacher argued during an...
Over the last two years I have researched and prepared an alternative which would only cost $11.6 million instead of $44.8 million proposed with this (Cheney High School) bond. This alternative would provide additional classrooms, safety, circulation and a new alternate high school. I have repeatedly challenged the school district and the Yes Committee to debate. They refused prior to the first running of this bond and now have again repeated this refusal. Has it become OK with voters that there does not need to be an open...
I am writing to support the Cheney School District’s high school bond measure in the April 28 election. I live and work in the Cheney area, and my children attend Betz Elementary. I am proud of the fact that so much of our community is based in education from our public schools to an outstanding university. I am excited that my children will have the opportunity to attend Cheney Middle School. When our community approved a bond to build the middle schools, it sent a message that we really care about our kids and we want t...
Eastern Washington University’s fast approaching commencement exercises June 13 will be the last to be held in Cheney on the Red Turf at Roos Field. In a press release, the university announced it had signed a multi-year agreement with the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena to begin holding commencement exercises at the Spokane facility beginning in 2016. With over 2,000 undergraduate and hundreds of graduate students receiving their degrees, and many more of their family members and friends in attendance to watch them walk, h...
As a product of the Cheney School District, I believe we have a commitment to our youth. But not at the expense of fixed income senior citizens through poor planning by the school board. The job of the elected school board is to be efficient and smart with our tax dollars, to plan and think long term. It seems to me that their first job is to get the state to pay for basic education. Buildings seem pretty basic to me. Second it seems that a little planning on projected student growth would have been a good idea 10 or 15...
As a parent in the Cheney School District, I urge our community to approve the Cheney High School construction bond in the April 28 election. While a bond in February had majority approval, we narrowly failed to meet the 60 percent of the vote needed to approve this important measure. In March, the school board asked parents, staff and the community how we should address the overcrowding in our high school, and the response overwhelmingly was in favor of seeking a bond to help our students and school. Turnout in February’s e...
Please remember to vote this month, and please vote “No” for the Cheney High School bond. The pro-bond information we received in the mail, the automated phone calls and the letters to the editor repeatedly emphasize the crowded condition of the high school, but they do not make financial sense. Spending $44 million of our money to correct a few problems, then asking us for even more in 10 years to correct more deficiencies is insulting. Even worse, at least one of the concerns, the “crowded cafeteria,” is a made-up issue....
Courage. What a powerful word! What do you think of when you hear the word courage? Possibly a firefighter rushing into a burning building to save the person trapped inside with no concern for their own safety? Or a bystander jumping into a raging river to save a drowning person? Words like “hero”, “strength” and “bravery” come to mind. As a bit of an introduction, I am an orthodontist and I do not spend my day facing life-threatening events. When I first thought about writing this article, my thoughts were to write about...
Two new laws are going through the state Legislature that will hopefully avert some tragedies from happening in the near future. The House recently passed Senate Bill 5381, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify family members before returning firearms seized from a person involved in criminal cases, such as domestic violence, or from someone being evaluated for mental illness. After an individual requests the return of their firearm, police have to hold the weapon for 72 hours after receiving a request from a...
Thank you to all the families who came out to participate in the 2015 Egg Hunt April 4 at Salnave Park. Cheney Kiwanis also thanks the following groups for their assistance in providing this free family activity: Omega Delta Phi fraternity and Kappa Delta Chi sorority (both at Eastern Washington University) for providing several prize baskets and helping with setup and clean up; Cheney Assisted Living residents for placing candies into approximately 5,000 plastic eggs; Cheney Fire Department for bringing a fire truck to the...
We are writing to support the Cheney School District’s high school bond measure in the April 28 election. As retired educators from Cheney School District and Eastern Washington University, we are so proud of our growing school district, and this bond continues our investment in our students and schools. We were very disappointed with the Free Press editorial on March 26. Anyone who has been in Cheney High School knows the immediate need for relief for our kids, who are trying to learn in portables, who are eating lunch in h...
Trust. It’s something that is paramount in our personal relationships. At work trust is a two-way street between management and employees — and visa-versa. In day-to-day life we all put implicit trust in so many areas it is difficult to quantify them. But sometimes, when you least expect it, that trust is shattered in the most outlandish manner, as was the case March 24 when an obscure German, Andreas Lubitz, became the center of conversations in nations across the globe. It was the 27-year-old Lubitz, the co-pilot of a Ger...
Thank you to the Cheney Free Press for your opinion on the Cheney School District’s bond issue published in last week’s Cheney Free Press. I attended the last school board meeting and was appalled by their lack of response to a taxpayer’s comments living near Snowdon Elementary. She stated she was a single parent, owned her home, a workingwoman and receiving treatment for cancer. When she asked the district to reconsider the bond of $44 million for 20 years, there was no response from the school board or school admin...
Given all the frothing by hawkish U.S. Senators about Iran’s possible development of nuclear weapons, one might think that Iran was violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But it’s not. The treaty, signed by 190 nations and in effect since 1970, is a treaty in which the non-nuclear nations agreed to forgo developing nuclear weapons and the nuclear nations agreed to divest themselves of their nuclear weapons. It also granted nations the right to develop peaceful nuclear power. The current negotiations in whi...
There’s no question that there will be an increase in train activity passing through Cheney and the West Plains in the near future. There is a $26 million shuttle loading grain terminal scheduled to be built at the intersection of Craig and Medical-Lake-Four Lakes roads. Grain cooperatives organized under Highline Grain LLC will assemble and load 110-car unit trains. Burlington Northern Santa Fe engines will pick up these trains and haul them back to BNSF lines intersecting at Cheney via the Eastern Washington Gateway b...
On April 28 the Cheney School District will rerun its $44.88 million bond issue intended to fund a massive remodeling of Cheney High School. Call it “Bond Version 2.0” if you will as if it were compared to the latest release of a software product. The district’s revised effort attempts to address minor glitches that they think resulted in the Feb. 10 ballot measure that fell about 1.5 percent — 100 voters or so we’re told — short of the 60 percent needed for passage. But is this version being rushed to taxpayers too soon ...
