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This past Sunday, sounds of the baroque period filled Riverfront Park for the last time, marking the end of an era. The Royal Fireworks Concert has been a staple of my Julys for a number of years now, and it’s an event I thoroughly enjoy. Unfortunately, unless some major funding comes through, this year was the concert’s last, marking the end of a 35-year tradition in Spokane. Every year, I look forward to the fireworks, of course. But the music is surprisingly good, and given the history of the ensemble, it’s a great night...
Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted to strip the scandal-ridden Internal Revenue Service of nearly one-quarter of its 2014 budget as punishment for its targeting of political groups and its costly boondoggles. Shockingly, Senate Democrats voted to increase the IRS’ budget. Last week, numerous Republicans in both houses of Congress threatened to cut off all funding for the federal government as of Oct. 1 in response to President Obama’s unconstitutional stance that he can pick and cho...
The always seemingly endless war to save Fairchild Air Force Base – and the enormous economic impact it has in the region – has been waged with battles on many fronts and by many kinds of citizen soldiers over the years. Soon, a new army, the taxpayers of Spokane County, will be asked to join the effort by their approval of a ballot measure Nov. 5 that would help fund the purchase of homes within the Accident Potential Zones. These APZs are designated areas at each end of Fairchild’s runway that are considered most likel...
The skinny-legged jeans could have belonged to anyone. The black boots and the hairdo to any tribute artist. But the voice that finally sang the first words of “Eight Days a Week,” was definitely an original – Sir Paul McCartney. Playing before a sold out Safeco Field crowd of more than 45,000 in Seattle on a perfect Puget Sound last Friday evening, one of two surviving members of the Beatles immediately had his fans – let’s call many simply admirers – going back in time and...
Much has been written about adulterous politicians and the public’s apparent willingness to look past their infidelity. This lumps very different kinds of cheating into one neat sin, equally applicable to all sneaks. But just as “theft” covers everything from armed bank robbery to lifting a bag of chips, cheating on one’s spouse may entail a wide range of misdeeds and gray areas. Following are five shades of gray, a kind of scoring system for judging the political import of a politician’s extramarital affairs: 1. How they aff...
Thank you for your well-balanced column on the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case. I agree that there are many facets to this case, which include “stereotyping,” which we as Americans (along with most humans) practice. Zimmerman no doubt stereotyped Martin on the night of Feb. 26, in Florida, which resulted in Trayvon Martin’s unfortunate death. That stereotyping was involved in this incident is probably a given, but I think one should consider the “vigilante mentality” that was influencing Zimmerman that night as he carrie...
The debate over fireworks took center stage in Medical Lake last week The City Council had varying concerns regarding the use of M-80s, which produce an incredibly loud bang without any real “fireworks” quality, and people coming in from outside of the city to light fireworks in restricted areas. Their concerns are valid, given the city’s policing situation and the unauthorized fireworks being brought in from people around the region. It raises the question of what Medical Lake should do, going into the future. And, the s...
The word “help” is so uplifting, conveying our best humanitarian values. How odd, then, to see it used in this New York Times headline: “Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills.” I’ll bet they did! We all know how altruistic, beneficent and kindhearted Wall Street lobbyists are — when it comes to helping themselves, that is. The article explains that a small army of high-dollar influence-peddlers are not merely asking our lawmakers to free big banks from pesky rules that limit their reckless greed, but instead t...
“OK, we don’t need you to do that.” If ever there was a clear indication of a turning point, a crux, a nexus it’s those eight little words spoken the night of Feb. 26, 2012 by a Sanford Police Department dispatcher to George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was following a black teen in a dark gray hooded sweatshirt who he believed was acting suspiciously. That teen was Trayvon Martin. And as history shows, Zimmerman, who acknowledged the dispatcher with an “OK,” did not follow that advice. If he had, he...
Leave it to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to get people talking, and certain in some circles, blood boiling. The soon-to-be former three-term chief executive – Perry recently announced he would not seek a fourth term – signed into law a new directive that would require recipients of his state’s unemployment to pass drug tests. But much like in 2010 when Arizona passed more strict laws requiring carrying identification in an attempt to fight illegal immigration at the state level, federal laws will likely and eventually rule the d...
The U.S. government has long been a hypocritical champion of democratic governance, claiming to honor free elections but historically attempting to subvert their outcomes when the result is not to our liking. But the rank betrayals of our commitment to the principles of representative democracy, from Guatemala to Iran to South Vietnam, among the scores of nations where we undermined duly elected leaders, reached a nadir with the coup by a U.S.-financed military in Egypt against that country’s first democratically elected g...
I’m not a rodeo guy. Roping cattle, wearing chaps and staring down the eyes of a raging bull just aren’t really my cup of tea and the closest I get to cattle tends to be around dinnertime. My grandpa enjoyed rodeos, however, and I was lucky to see one with him some years ago. It’s a memory I still cherish today. While I’m not a rodeo guru, I do appreciate the labor and amount of hard work that go into the rodeo lifestyle, traveling across the country, hoping to make the next competition on time. It’s similar to the lifestyle...
This weekend is arguably the biggest event for Cheney in any year – and it’s getting bigger. Outside of maybe an Eastern Washington University-University of Montana football game, more people come here for the Cheney Rodeo than at any other time. And for the last two years, the Cheney Jubilee has helped swell those numbers Saturday and Sunday. Volunteers for both organizations work hard to make each year better than the last, adding more attractions, prize money for competitions along with space and amenities and with it mor...
Recent opinion polls demonstrate a deepening distrust of the federal government. That’s not an altogether bad thing. Our nation’s founders recognized that most human abuses are the result of government. As Thomas Paine said, “government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.” Because of their fear of abuse, the Constitution’s framers sought to keep the federal government limited in its power. Their distrust of Congress is seen in the governing rules and language used throughout our Constitution. The Bill of Rights...
So plucky little NSA rat Edward Snowden is safe in Russia, a country that has apparently started to give free speech lessons to America. Beautiful. We used to want to beat the Rooskies in the Olympics; now they’re hiding out our whistleblowers, gaining the kind of moral high ground you don’t get by winning the gold in women’s powerlifting. In the United States, if you kill 25 people at the behest of some organized crime “boss” and you turn rat, we cuddle you, give you a new name and ship your ratty self to the suburbs of Omah...
I have no problem with the news sites recommending stories to me, or the shopping sites figuring I’m good for another look at those size-41 shoes. I have no problem with someone using my supposedly “private” information to sell me more and target me for whatever they know I’m interested in. But I have to draw the line. And isn’t the right place to draw the line with the guys who want to use that information to fight terrorism and save our lives? The NSA. I don’t mind if (fill in the blank) is keeping an eye on me, but turning...
Reason No. 1: At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13, I remembered that I forgot to pick up my daughter’s bike at Mark and Marissa Sheldon’s shop, Bicycle Time, before 6 p.m. Sydney, friend Kali and I were leaving the next morning at 6 a.m. to catch a ferry to San Juan’s Orcas Island. Panic struck, but I hesitantly dialed their home phone number. Marissa answered, I apologized profusely, and she said, “Oh no problem, Barb, we are still up. Come on in and Mark will open the shop.” We had a wonderful chat in Bicycle Time late into...
It can’t be easy being a politician. We often lambaste them for a variety of things under the sun, some real, some perceived, if not invented. But politics involves successful practice of the art of the deal, and that’s something hard to find these days in the other Washington. I get the impression members of Congress know and understand this more than they’re prone to publicly let on, based on last Friday’s visit to our office by 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers. Not so much by what was said, but how it was said. Agr...
After months of intense debates and deadline extensions, Washington state will have a budget for the next biennium. Eventually. The state’s Revenue and Forecast Council said last week that the state could expect an additional $231 million in tax revenue over the next two years. Economists say better home sales, modest job growth, slowly increasing consumer confidence and growing sales tax receipts account for the added revenue. With the extra $231 million, lawmakers believe there is a chance to come to an agreement on the s...
It’s back. The Patriot Act — that grotesque, ever-mutating, hydra-headed monstrosity from the Bush-Cheney Little Shop of Horrors — has risen again, this time with an added twist of Orwellian intrusiveness from the Obamacans. Since 2006, Team Bush, and then Team Obama, have allowed the little-known, hugely powerful National Security Agency to run a daily dragnet through your and my phone calls — all on the hush-hush, of course, not informing us spyees. Now exposed, leaders of both parties are piously pointing to the Patriot...
On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorists, on orders from their superiors based in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, flew U.S. commercial planes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. They would have targeted the White House or Capitol with a fourth plane if not for the heroism of the passengers on Flight 93. Overall, almost 3,000 Americans were murdered. Nine days later, President George W. Bush told the nation, “We condemn the Taliban regime. ... Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida.” Our war on terror is now ove...
There is an ongoing and ever-growing problem in Cheney. At the end of each spring quarter at EWU, when students leave Cheney to return home, abandoned pets are left to fend for themselves. Evidently, the students believe these animals are well-suited for this type of life. These animals will starve to death unless a well-meaning citizen feeds them, spays them, de-worms them and vaccinates them. Who can afford to do all those things? These abandoned female animals soon become pregnant and litters are born which are impossible...
Right on the heels of the Supreme Court saying it was OK for police to take samples of DNA from people they might arrest for certain levels of crime came Edward Snowden. Snowden is the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked top-secret documents disclosing extensive U.S. surveillance of telephone calls and Internet communications. It was surprising to learn that American’s saw this potential threat with relative indifference. Just 41 percent perceived the National Security Agency’s monitoring of phone and ema...
Let’s take a quick detour from the political scandals of today and focus on something that will take precedence for decades to come: the Seattle Mariners’ call-up of their top prospect, catcher Mike Zunino. Zunino, when called up this Tuesday, was hitting a rock solid batting average of .230 in AAA Tacoma. It’s well-known that any baseball player will drop in average when graduating to the next level of play, so most Mariners fans should expect around .210 or closer to .200 from him. Of course, that would mean Zunino would...
In a sharply divided 5-4 decision last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled law enforcement collection of DNA samples from anyone arrested for a serious crime was not an unreasonable search or seizure as prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The ruling upheld a Maryland law allowing police to take a DNA swab from someone arrested for a serious crime, something 28 other states and the federal government also allow. Supporters of the decision cheered the ruling, noting DNA evidence has been used to successfully link individuals to...
