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By Mark Shields Columnist To listen to the language of American political campaigns, you could reasonably conclude that “big” is bad and “small” is good. Who has too much power and influence in Washington? Of course, Big Business, Big Banks and Big Money, in general. Some on the right might make a case for Big Labor. Small, by contrast, is good. We honor Small Town values, admire the Small Farmer and, almost without dissent, claim to revere the Small Business woman and man who, we hear repeatedly, are the backbone of our nat...
Flying cars, automated kitchens, plastics and hoverboards. Visions of the future sometimes turn out different from what people predicted decades ago. While they can be accurate every now and then, we can all be thankful we’re not using laserdiscs for movies nor are we driving in the folding automobile from 1939. Last week an article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., published in The Ladies’ Home Journal around 1900, went viral showcasing some of the predictions people had for life in the year 2001. While some are a bit far...
This warning by Robert Williams, publisher of Capitol Hill Daily, Baltimore Maryland, caught my eye. “Last week while you were immersed in the Boston bombing events, the House quietly passed CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act), moving the FBI one step closer to owning all of your private information.” Our government has a habit of using a crisis to distract we, the people, while they attend to business without our interference. The CISPA has to do with listening in on all your Internet transactions, suc...
Thank you Mr. Tompson (April 18) and Mr. Nation (April 25) for reminding us of the failed promises made by Bi-Mart to the citizens of Cheney with regard to restoration of Minnie Creek. A company whose logo is “Just Right for the Northwest” should stick with the agreements they make with the Northwest communities where they site their stores, and should be respectful and protective of the natural resources and beauty that make the Northwest such a special place to live. Kristin Mansfield Cheney...
Kudos goes to Lavertta Lawrence and her Shining Star Theatre Ensemble. My husband and I thoroughly appreciate the two hours we enjoyed watching “Peter Pan” on Saturday evening at Cheney Middle School. The production was well done, clearly a labor of love highlighted by a most enthusiastic cast. Geoff Stevenson was the most loveable Captain Hook I have ever seen. We are looking forward to future shows and encouraging the community to join us. Thank you Lavertta and crew. Mary Robinson Cheney...
Can you hear yourself think? Can you manage more than bursts of confusion and anger? Can you feel your own humanity anymore? I’ll admit it — I’ve had trouble this week, too. After an explosion like the one in Boston, it is indeed hard to hear one’s own internal monologue, much less meditate on such horrific events. Polluting that sacred quiet of the mind is both the haunting boom of the bombs themselves and even worse, the noisy coda that we’ve become so accustomed to. Sensory overload, of course, is the deafening effect of...
President Barack Obama has been struggling to wrap his head around the “unimaginable” idea that Congress may “defy” the American people and stop a vote on a gun control package compromise. The notion, he says, resists the “overwhelming instinct of the American people” after the massacre in Newtown, Conn., to pass gun control legislation. Well, the unthinkable happened. The Senate’s sweeping gun legislation came up short on the votes required to move forward. And despite all the idealistic calls for passage and despite the f...
The article “Contemplating a Community Farm,” in The Cheney Free Press of April 18, states, “A proposed addition to Cheney’s zoning codes might make it easier for individuals to keep and raise farm animals and bees within city limits.” That is true for large animals, which are currently prohibited on lots smaller than two acres. On the other hand, it is not true for those who raise chickens, rabbits, and other small animals, which are currently allowed in R-1 and R-2 zones, without a cap on numbers. The code as it stands wi...
I don’t know Edward Tompson but I could give him a big hug. Yes, I went to all those planning commission meetings and heard the same plans for the creek. I thought Bi-Mart’s building permit was a temporary permit allowed if the approved plan to move Minnie Creek to the back of the property was completed in a short time. Most of us thought it was a great plan that would enhance the creek. Many of us have come to realize that temporary in Cheney is often long term. But now it is time that this development adheres to the per...
In 2009 the Ice Age Floods Geologic Trail became reality through the federal Omnibus Public Land Management Act. The Act gave responsibility for overseeing creation of the trail, which stretches from northwestern Montana through North Idaho, Eastern Washington and the Columbia Basin down the Columbia Gorge to the Pacific Ocean, to the National Park Service. But unlike most other acts of its kind, it provided none of the estimated $8 million to $12 million needed for the task. Instead, local Ice Age Floods Institute chapters...
I’m from Boston. Over the years, I lived in two apartments within a stone’s throw of Monday’s bombings. Over the years, I stood and cheered marathon runners countless times. I know every square inch of the area in all the pictures, which is hardly unusual. It’s the center of Boston. My nephew was around the corner when the explosions went off. This week’s terror hit home for me. And what to do? That is always the question. Do you stop going to sporting events? Cultural events? Outdoor rallies? I was raped around the corner fr...
So here we are once again my friends, drenched in blood from a terrorist act in our own backyard, bomb-induced fireballs on our city streets. We’ve seen the headlines: three dead, 176 injured in two bomb blasts near the end of the prestigious, 117-year-old Boston Marathon. Broken, sliced bodies lying in streets awash in blood, building debris mixed with backpacks, frantic rescue workers and law enforcement running to and fro trying at one time to make calm a chaotic situation while getting people the hell outta’ there. By...
Liars! Before Bi-Mart came to Cheney they promised everyone a “Garden of Eden” for Minnie Creek. They promised native plants, trees, and bushes to make this a wonderful place better than it ever was. This has not come true. There is a large dam of trash holding back the creek water. Bi-Mart put their large trashcan dumpster right on the riverbank. They have created three large cesspools with shopping carts, dog poop, and wooden pallets tossed in. They are polluting the creek and the area around the store and the pol...
Psst! Psst! Are you 4-20 friendly? What? You know, 4-20 friendly; do you smoke pot? If you didn’t already know some of the new vernacular related to last November’s passage of Initiative 502, Washington’s “marijuana reform” measure, now you do. And if the term is new to you, the Urban Dictionary traces 4-20 Friendly back more than 40 years. It originated at California’s San Rafael High School in 1971. Saturday, April 20 is celebrated by pot supporters as an official weed smoking day across the nation. As result of the I-50...
On reading an article in the Spokesman-Review Monday, March 4 paper, I became deeply incensed. Over a dozen bills are now before the legislature that have one goal – to make liquor more available to everyone – including teens. I’m unaware of any bill before the legislature that would restrict its availability. Money seems to be the main concern. Will these bills have a positive influence financially on the economy? The answer to that question may be difficult to predict. What isn’t hard to see is the impact on individ...
The Associated Press announced last week that it no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” in its stylebook. Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explained that the AP has decided it is wrong for reporters to use the word “illegal” to describe a person, but it’s OK to use the word to “describe only an action, such as living or immigrating to a country illegally.” Make no mistake about this decision. Whatever prompted the change, its practical effect is to delegitimize those who have called for tougher enforcement o...
Wall Street is a beast. And proud of it! In fact, a pair of animals are the stock market’s longtime symbols: One is a snorting bull, representing surging stock prices; the other is a bear, representing a down market devouring stock value. But I recently received a letter from a creative fellow named Charles saying that we need a third animal to depict the true nature of the Wall Street beast: a hog. Not just a little piggy, writes Charles — but a HOG, a really big one. Yes! And we could name it “Jamie.” Jamie Dimon — I mea...
It’s that time of year again for the West Plains Relay for Life! Relay for Life is an overnight fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. A fundraising event where the community can join us by: signing up a team, making a donation, or just come out to the event and walk a few laps with us in support of the Fight Against Cancer. All the money raised at our event goes to cancer research and patient services, so the money stays in the West Plains. This year the event has moved from its long time home in Cheney to M...
International finances have come under scrutiny as of late with the ever-changing situation in Cyprus. Cyprus is a shipping and energy hub for European countries. Additionally, it has served as a financial powerhouse of sorts for worldwide investments. At the onset of the crisis, the Cypriot government announced that it would be taxing bank accounts in order to recoup some of the losses. After negotiations, loans and discussion, aided by a plentiful amount of public outrage, the government said it would only place the tax on...
In the newsroom where I work, there is a mouse, and he is a freeloader, a non-working bum of a mouse addicted to the entitlements of cookies, taco chips, granola bars, candy and all the other wonderful treats to be found in the desk drawers of hardworking, taxpaying reporters. He raids us at night, chewing his way through the plastic wrap that protects our convenience store brownies, feasting while the reporters are at home, asleep, dreaming fitfully of the next mortgage payment. And he leaves behind small, black mouse...
When you’re president, every day is a holiday. This April is National Financial Capability Month, as declared last week in a presidential proclamation. “I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices,” quoth President Obama. If April is the cruelest month, as T.S. Eliot wrote, then April as National Financial Capability Month could be the cruelest joke. It’s as if every day is April Fools’ Day, especially tax day, the dreaded 1...
There is nothing quite like opening day for a new season of baseball. The anticipation is there, the hope to see your team do well and still trying to figure out who’s who after a long postseason. This becomes even more maddening when your team is playing another team that received one of your players in a trade. The start of 162 days of bliss are a simple and subtle reminder that summer is just around the corner. Listening to the first game of the season Monday night as the Oakland Athletics were lovingly torn apart by t...
As our society has decayed over the last 35 years or so, and with national level politicians unable and/or willing to transfer at least half of their political and social power directly to the American people, it may be time to consider a 360 degree turn in our thinking and consider putting a philosopher who possesses a high degree of wisdom into the White House. This proposal is made with a genuine and serious tone. This is not a new idea. In ancient history the kings of the Roman, Greek and various other empires almost...
Just what is it about how our government leaders approach the way they spend other people’s money? Or as in the case of the Spokane County Commissioners, how they find ways to apparently waste large amounts of our hard earned dollars? Waste as in what they have done in selling 400 acres of West Plains’ sagebrush, cheat grass and basalt at McFarlane and Craig Road purchased in 2008 for $3.2 million to Spokane international Airport for $1.75 million. That’s a 45 percent hit over the same period of time, on average, a pair...
It’s time for the state to look elsewhere for better health care coverage, and that can be done easily by allowing health care options to be purchased outside of Washington. Opening up health care across Washington’s state line will allow for greater opportunities for other companies to come in and compete with the established health insurance companies. Unfortunately, it appears that the state Legislature isn’t even close to considering that type of change. Although politicians may say otherwise, part of the reason for not c...
