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If you ever need a punch line, here’s one you always can depend on: “...my mother-in-law!” Guaranteed laugh. Or, from me, a punch in the nose. Fact is I love my mother-in-law and am depressed that she is ailing. But mothers-in-law are just about the only group of people you still can pick on (besides maybe Nazis) without having anyone make a peep. There’s nothing politically incorrect about ragging on the mom of your spouse — or all moms of all spouses. Where’s the mother-in-law lobby when you need ‘em? This group seems t...
If I lived in a small peasant village thousands of years ago where it was customary to dance naked in the fields on New Year’s Eve to ensure a good growing season, I would be the first to drop his fur britches and start cavorting through the stubble corn. Which is to say I like ritual. I like the statues of the saints in church. I like Christmas trees and the Rosary. I like an omelet every Sunday morning. I’d have been a good 12th-century monk. Every New Year’s Eve, my wife and I attend a party in a local saloon. There...
Prescription Drug Assistance Foundation (PDAF) Here’s a gift you won’t have to take back in January: the medicines you or a relative need to have a healthy new year. Too many people in Washington state, however, can’t afford the medicines they need, or take unhealthy risks like skipping medicines or cutting them in half. Rather than fighting for that parking spot at the mall, why not take a few minutes to see if you can access one of hundreds of assistance programs available for those who need prescription medicines. Presc...
It is now long long past time to repeal the Second Amendment. It serves evil, not good, violence, not peace, hatred, not love. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a relic of a time when the citizens accepted their general powerlessness and seemed to live without imagination, just fear. Still, it will likely take independent-minded gun owners to lead the overdue effort to rid our society of this curse. We need gun owners with conscience to finally, at long last, face morality, face the truth, face the irrefutable...
After 20 years of taxpayer subsidies and unrealized benefits, Congress should allow tax credits for wind energy to expire Dec. 31. The credits, created in 1992, were supposed to jump-start a nascent wind industry, but have only propped up an uneconomical, inefficient sector at great cost by diverting taxes to subsidize jobs that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Congress can save $12 billion next year alone by defeating efforts to extend the tax credits. This doesn’t even consider the annual 440,000 shredding deaths from spi...
What may finally consume the House Republicans is their boundless contempt for the American public — a contempt bluntly demonstrated in their refusal to consider any reasonable compromise with President Obama to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” on Dec. 31. They know from the election results (and every poll) that the public believes taxes should be raised on the wealthy. They know that the public wants bipartisan compromise. And they know that the approval rating of the House Republicans, in contrast to the presi...
I’m not really allowed on the sports pages of the paper too often, and for good reason. But, I do have one sports passion in this world: baseball. I’m no statistician, or sabermetrics genius, but I do follow players’ stats pretty closely. And, despite their seemingly continuous struggles since 2003, I’m still an ardent Mariners fan. The team has put together signs of hope in recent years, but none of it panned out. 2007 was a fluke, as was 2009. But, despite a losing record last year, it truly looks like the ship is back on c...
Cheney Free Press readers will notice something a little different in their Jan. 3, 2013 issue. Instead of doing an annual, two-part recap of the year’s stories, our “Year in Review” we have instead decided to do the “Top Stories of 2012.” The Free Press editorial staff has discussed and debated the events of the past year and come up with a list of the three stories we felt were the most important in the areas of community news, education and sports. There’s no real science to how we came up with the stories we did, but we t...
Let us address the declining fortunes of today’s mainstream mass media. (Yes, I can hear your pained screams of “Nooooo ... we don’t want to!” We really must, however, because it’s not about them, but us — about our ability to be at least quasi-informed about who’s-doing-what-to-whom-and-why, in order for us to be a self-governing people. So buckle-up, here we go.) The honchos of America’s establishment media are quick to blame such external causes as the Internet for their problems. But if they looked internally, the...
This is my last column in 2012, Crunch Time not withstanding. In fact, it might be my last column ever at the Cheney Free Press, or my last column period. One never knows about these things, what trials, challenges or opportunities the future holds. Despite all our plans and pretexts, the future is uncertain. We think we know what it holds, but really, we don’t. The future comes unannounced and sometimes unprepared for, even if we do our best to anticipate and plan. It’s kind of like the passage in Charles Dickens’ “A Ch...
Christmas. It can elicit the best in all of us as well as seemingly the worst. Something we can all likely agree on is that Christmas has of course been commercialized beyond recognition. The first hints of the next celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ begin to surface about Halloween; not with religious recognition, but rather with bobbles and trinkets. A peek at the breakdown of religious following in the U.S. shows that with over 51 percent of the population claiming to be Protestant, another 24 percent Catholic and...
After living in Cheney for nearly five years, I have come to really love the city. However, I have noted one “issue” that affects me as a student at EWU and as a member of the Cheney community – late night dining locations. With the exception of Zip’s and maybe the Maverik, there are not any 24-hour options – something that many other cities offer. People have limited options at night and are inconvenienced. We have a few pizza locations, which are open until 1 or 2 a.m., but in general options seem to be lacking after mid...
As time goes on, we continue to face tragic worries of bad conditions on I-90, which is currently under construction. Due to an extensive amount of construction work, people are forced to use detours, causing serious traffic and irritation among the drivers. As a result, people encounter accidents, potentially running out of fuel, and late arrivals when attempting to reach their destination. This problem affects commuters travelling west and eastbound on I-90. The present system is at fault and should be changed due to the...
It’s become very hard to find parking with a growing population of over 12,500 people at Eastern Washington University. Students and staff who regularly drive their own vehicles to school are beginning to have no other option than to park on the local neighborhood streets. It’s not only affecting the students and staff who are parking on the streets every day, but also affecting the residents who aren’t able to park near their house due to the streets being too crowded. Tension from the residents is increasing. The last parki...
Christmas Gifts for Cheney Kids is in full swing, with donation boxes in many businesses and churches around town. There always seems to be a shortage of gifts for teenagers, so if you’re wondering what to donate, keep that in mind. MP3 players, games, sports equipment, art and craft supplies and gift cards (up to $25) are popular items. When the donation boxes are collected on Dec. 19 volunteers evaluate what is still needed to serve the local kids, and volunteer “shoppers” go out and buy whatever is needed to provide the e...
There are several concerns here in Cheney regarding the safety of individuals traveling in vehicles, some of which include slippery roadways, congested highways leading to and from Spokane and most importantly a stoplight that is improperly marked. When the new Maverick gas station was installed, the light at its corner began to see more traffic. As people leave Maverik headed toward Safeway on the access road on Maverik’s side of the street, the street lamp signaling drivers to proceed with their left hand turn from the t...
My column in last week’s Cheney Free Press (“Coal exports: Are they opportunity or curse?) addressed a number reasons for and against constructing the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, Wash. This week I address issues concerning the scope of the project environmental impact analyses required by federal and state law. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed by President Nixon Jan. 1, 1970, requires federal agencies to undertake an environmental impact statement (EIS) prior to taking any act...
Over the past several years online networking and marketing, largely through social media, has exploded. Just consider how Facebook has changed the landscape of online interaction in the past four years, when it surged in popularity. Non-profits, groups and businesses have flocked to the website, using it to their advantage. But, starting a successful operation can’t be done strictly online. While social media outlets are continuing to grow, reliance on older methods of initial marketing will likely continue, despite the r...
A big question these days is whether it would be good or bad to build large coal-shipping terminals in Washington and Oregon, enabling transport of substantial quantities of U.S. coal to China and possibly other Asian countries. The answer is not simple. Proponents of the idea point primarily to jobs that the construction and, to a lesser extent, operation of coal terminals could provide, as well as new jobs related to mining and transport of coal. To be sure, sales of coal could also be a boon to our balance of trade with...
Unbelievably, the year 2013 is nearly upon us. We’re nearing the end of the year, and this is the time of year to start reflecting on the previous 340 days of what was 2012. At the same time, it’s a chance to look ahead and hope we’re a lot smarter next year. Specifically, it’s time we lay to rest some of the overused terms and figures of speech that have plagued us thus far. Sure, some are carryovers from previous years, but it’s time to tackle these life-threatening issues once and for all. Every year, Lake Superior...
The state of Washington would like to have you shop with them this Christmas and buy a Discover Pass for all of your favorite outdoor enthusiasts. The Discover Pass is Olympia’s way to try to raise the funds to support a myriad of state outdoor agencies. Having one allows you access to nearly 3 million acres of state recreation lands and avoid a nasty fine that approaches $100. There are more than 100 state parks that are the best-known recipient of monies raised by either your $30 yearly or $10 daily passes. But there are a...
December promises to be a busy, event-filled month. And that’s without football. So what’s happening? Well, there are the various holidays, biggest of which (to us Westerners) is Christmas. There’s also the end of the world. For those not following along this will happen when the Mayan calendar (go check the one hanging in your kitchen) runs out Dec. 21. I don’t know the time, I’m not Nostradamus. And of course there’s the fiscal cliff. You know the one. The agreement struck during debt ceiling negotiations in August 2011...
While Washington State University and the University of Washington fought valiantly for bragging rights in the Apple Cut last week, the Eastern Washington University Eagles were counting down to their first FCS playoff game of this season Dec. 1. It’s the first of many we hope and is against Wagner of Staten Island, N.Y. this Saturday at 3 p.m. at Roos Field. There were 30,544 fans packing Martin Stadium in Pullman for the annual rivalry game, despite WSU’s then 2-9 losing record and UW’s fourth-place finish in the Pac-1...
The most important thing about democracy is it requires citizen participation to make it work. Spokane County and Eastern Washington residents have a unique opportunity to do just that on an issue that is slowly rising to the hot-button level: Coal trains. And in that regards, everyone should mark Dec. 4 on their calendars. That’s the date the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Ecology and other regulatory agencies are holding a public hearing to receive testimony on a proposal to move millions of tons of coal m...
Leave it to a progressive state like Washington to do something that bucks the system. Last week voters passed a referendum granting same-sex marriages, becoming one of three states to do so by popular vote. Not to be out done, but less heralded at the time, voters also passed an initiative legalizing marijuana. While there will be hurdles and conflicts with implementation of the first one, legalizing, regulating and taxing the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for individuals over 21 might prove even more...
