Sorted by date Results 1907 - 1931 of 3216
Paul Delaney (Cheney Free Press, 7/31/14) takes exception to the contention that “climate change is the culprit for longer, bigger and more intense wildfires.” According to Delaney, it’s all about forest management. Well, Washington isn’t the only state fighting longer, bigger and more intense wildfires. Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Utah are all fighting wildfires in triple-digit temperatures, in drought-stricken areas. According to the NIFC, we are experiencing an unusual wildfire season,...
The US atomic destruction of 140,000 people at Hiroshima and 70,000 at Nagasaki was never “necessary” because Japan was already smashed, no land invasion was needed and Japan was suing for peace. The official myth that “the bombs saved lives” by hurrying Japan’s surrender can no longer be believed except by those who love to be fooled. The long-standing fiction has been destroyed by the historical record kept in U.S., Soviet, Japanese and British archives — now mostly declassified — and detailed by Ward Wilson in his book ...
No pun intended, but wildfires seem to be a hot topic lately. It’s a time when Mother Nature can wreak havoc on already parched forests and fields across the West with a passing lightning storm just as easily as a careless human with a hot exhaust or an errant spark. I grew up from a young age in the outdoors and the forests of the Northwest and still revel in being there. From looking at old family photos of uncle Gordon manning a lookout in the Okanogan National Forest in t...
We pride ourselves, when living in the Inland Northwest, that we do not have to endure Mother Nature’s wrath, as do other parts of the country. We don’t have tornadoes like the Midwest, nor hurricanes like the South and Atlantic Coast. We’re relatively safe from earthquakes, even though there’s a newly discovered fault that runs along Hangman Creek and the Spokane River. Floods come and go, ice storms are rare and we’re pretty well-versed at dealing with snow. But if there’s one natural force that could — and now does — th...
Please don’t vote for Cathy McMorris Rodgers. She lies. She says she’s for equal pay, but she voted against equal pay laws four times. She voted twice against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and twice against the Paycheck Fairness Act. These laws would have further closed the gender wage gap, rooted out discrimination in pay disparities, and strengthened penalties for that discrimination. At present, women are making only $.77 for each $1 a man makes. She’s working in a privileged system that allows her to make more than...
The Friends of the Cheney Library thanks everyone who came out to buy books in the hot weather on rodeo weekend. The proceeds from the sale are used to buy program supplies, special furnishings and other items used in the Cheney library. We also thank all the generous community members who donated books for us to sell — without your donations there would be no sale. Donations can be made any time the library is open. And a special thanks to members of the following groups for helping us set up the sale: Cheney City staff f...
Change is inevitable, especially when it comes to comic books. Every fan of the medium knows that. Yet many fans still complain and kick their feet in rage when a publisher changes something in their books — particularly when it involves a character. Last week Marvel Comics released an image of Thor the thunder god, one of their oldest and most iconic characters. It featured the classic armor, the blond hair and the god’s hammer Mjolnir. However, the person in the armor was a woman instead of the man that has been around eve...
The Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act was established in 2010 by the Obama Administration to fund free meals in public schools as well as establish new nutrition standards that would benefit students. Although the act attempts to ensure that students get a balanced diet, many children haven’t embraced the new meal standards. While smaller schools have done well — Cheney has saved around $3,200 a year in their lunch program, according to the Spokesman Review story “Smaller school districts adapting best to new lunch regulations” ...
Lyndon Johnson had it right after all Ed Feulner, in his guest commentary for the Cheney Free Press, July 3, 2014, says that he’s learned, “you can’t improve something unless you can measure it.” He then goes on to label Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ “an abject failure” without measuring anything. According to Feulner, “an ever expanding portion of the population” is receiving the largess of LBJ’s War on Poverty. Apparently the management course Feulner credits with teaching him about measuring things didn’t include t...
Next Wednesday, July 23, I leave again on a mission trip to Guatemala. It will be my third consecutive trip, fourth overall, and likely my last for a while — at least a year. It’s an amazing adventure to be in that country, to travel and experience the culture, to see a different society in action, and to interact on many levels with its people. But believe me, it’s no vacation. It’s exhausting frankly. Not just being country, traveling for long stretches on bad roads, traversing washed out areas, sometimes standing in the...
Plenty has changed in the last 25 years in Spokane County. Most notably, we’ve grown by nearly 120,000 people, some of the most rapid growth ever. In the upcoming Aug. 5 primary election, the citizens of the West Plains will select the top two candidates among three to move onto the November general election and face off for District 3 county commissioner. Voters will select between incumbent Al French, former commissioner Bonnie Mager and newcomer, Mary Lou Johnson. But while much has changed in the past quarter century, o...
Seems that the Fourth of July is the perfect time to revisit history. So as I sat around the campfire at Apgar Campground along the shores of Lake McDonald, just inside the confines of Glacier National Park, it got me thinking about Independence Days that have stood out in my mind. Many Fourths had been spent in similar laziness along Deadman’s Creek up in Ferry County enjoying time with my family who lived to camp. That’s camping as in setting up tents, sleeping on the gro...
During the summer, there are community events — big and small — that bring citizens together, including Medical Lake’s Founder’s Day, the Cheney Rodeo and the Cheney Jubilee. These events are run by organizations and unpaid volunteers who sacrifice their time and resources to make the events happen. But the number of individuals volunteering for these and other groups have declined in the last few years. In fact, volunteering has decreased across the United States. According to a report from the Bureau of Labor and Statist...
We would like to thank the staff at the Cheney Care Center for all the help and support they gave to both our mother and our father over the last several years. Director Keith Fauerso, Shannon Reitan and all of the staff at the Assisted Living Center are wonderful people who genuinely cared about our father. The nursing home staff was equally supportive of our mother. We always felt comfortable in leaving our parents in the care of such kind and caring people, and for this we are very grateful. Tom and Marian Whitfield...
Sunday night I decided to let my inner child take over and watch the WWE’s — formerly the WWF — “Money in the Bank” event.The show had its big moments and it took me back to what I enjoyed watching wrestling when I was younger. I’ll admit it. I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling ever since I was in elementary school. I was enamored with larger than life characters like Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker and Sting taking on villains like the Iron Sheik, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and “Macho Man” Randy Savage — or “Macho King” as...
We wish to thank the following businesses for supporting your EWU/Cheney SCOPE with our annual fundraiser and rest area donations: Blackhawk Veterinary Hospital, Mitchell’s Harvest Foods, Copy Junction, Sandi’s Expression, Rosa’s Pizza, Les Schwab, Chet’s Flowers, Cheney Veterinary Clinic, Sears, Latah Trading Company, Foxy Horse and Hound, Jimmy John’s, Vision Haus, Pet Paradise, Snap Fitness, Owl Pharmacy, Cheney Trading Company and Farmers Insurance. Your EWU/Cheney SCOPE helps with bicycle helmets, O.F.I.D.C. (fingerpr...
One of the lessons I learned in my first management course is you can’t improve something unless you can measure it. So let’s apply that to government. As ambitious government programs go, it’s hard to top the “Great Society,” which recently marked its 50th anniversary. President Lyndon Johnson, after all, vowed “to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty.” That’s a tall order. So five decades, nearly $22 trillion and roughly 80 welfare programs later, it’s fair to ask how we’re doing. The short an...
The Cheney High School Athletic Department would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that supports Cheney High School athletics. Athletic contest workers, which include ticket takers, announcers, clock operators, concession workers, at the home athletic contests to make them successful. The Cheney School District director of maintenance, Jeff McClure, and his department, who take care of the athletic facilities, which includes the watering of fields, painting, mowing of fields and maintenance of all athletic...
We have met the enemy and they are us. I’m not sure who said that, or even if it’s an actual quote. But when it comes to why there is such a huge inability to form a governing consensus among lawmakers in our nation’s Capitol, we might want to look no closer than the image in the bathroom mirror. According to a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press report released June 12, the number of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled in the last 20 years from 10 perce...
When in the last 50 years has the intervention of the United States done a country good? It’s a difficult question to answer. After all, foreign policy should be about developing and maintaining relations through diplomacy, not through the barrel of a gun or a cruise missile. Since 1964, the U.S. has been involved militarily in a number of areas. We’ve had boots on the ground in Vietnam, Grenada, Lebanon, Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan. We’ve bombed targets in Laos, Cambodia, Libya and Serbia. Maybe there are a couple succe...
I would like to comment on Rep. Eric Cantor’s defeat in Virginia last week. Finally the American people are waking up and realizing that their do-nothing elected official’s time has come to go! Here is a no-name candidate who only spent $100,000 vs. Cantor’s $5 million. That shows me that “We The People” do have a chance and can beat the big spenders and lobbyist. Our very own Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers should take close notice that her time in Congress is also coming to an end. She has lost all touch with the 5th District...
A great big “Viking whoosh” needs to go out to our local fire station! Our little Vikings cannot thank them enough for the time and energy that they gave during our Betz Field Day on June 6. Ken Johnson gave up his time and volunteered to put together a first aid station for our kiddos and Tim Steiner brought a ladder truck as well as his crew! Amazing! Not only did they come out to run a first aid station for the day, they also brought several of their fire trucks. They gave tours of their trucks, mini first aid les...
I’m not sure if my beagle, Ringo’s muffled woof last Sunday was the kind he uses to remind me it’s time for him to be fed. Or because it was 5:45 a.m. and not the usual 5:15 and that he was letting me sleep in a little on Father’s Day? Ringo seems to be able to tell time twice daily — around 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. when he gets his rations of Iams — fearful I’m sure that if not fed on time his 32-pound frame might instantly waste away. Ever since the kids slowly migrated away...
The 1996, Moses Lake, Wash. school shooting started a timeline of unfortunate, similar events. In the case of the Moses Lake shooting, 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis shot his teacher, wounded two students and held his classmates hostage for 10 minutes before he was restrained by a teacher. The next major shooting was Columbine High School in 1999 where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students, one teacher and wounded more than 20 students. Since Columbine, there have been roughly 19 deadly school shootings, according to an...
This year we’ve been fortunate to collaborate with the West Plains chapter of Partners Advancing Character Education (PACE) to help promote good character. The trait for this month is integrity. PACE describes integrity as living with a set of values that includes honesty, a respect for others and a sense of personal responsibility. After examining the trait, we believe that a person’s thoughts and actions reflect their integrity, which can affect the way others perceive them. If someone acts in a way that lowers their integr...
