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Wilson’s listening skills needed here On Friday, July 1, 2016, I chanced to meet congressional candidate Dave Wilson on Main Street in Walla Walla. Being a newly retired healthcare administrator, my eye caught a reference to critical-access hospitals in his campaign brochure. I was pleasantly surprised when he accepted my request to meet over coffee later that afternoon to talk about rural healthcare in particular and his campaign in general. That meeting eventuated into a deep friendship that is now over four years in the m...
There are two legal options to respond to a state budget deficit: The governor orders across the board budget cuts, or a special session of the Legislature occurs liquidating the deficit. The first is a blunt instrument allowing no thoughtful response. The second provides the people’s legislative branch of government the opportunity to deliberate a more surgical response. ov. Jay Inslee, however, has made it clear he doesn’t plan to call a special session to allow lawmakers to...
Recently, rural Americans have missed out on many services usually offered in their communities. However, library employees have worked even harder to provide for their patrons. For example, in Wayne, Nebraska, library staff have stepped up to show their community how resilient small-town libraries can be. A week after closing to the public, the library initiated curbside book pickup. They are also offering virtual assistance to patrons through online resources like Ebooks and audiobooks, online databases, learning games,...
Have you noticed recently that things are collapsing? Sure, the rightwing, nationalist rulers of many countries never stop telling us that they have made their nations “great” again. But we would have to be dislocated from reality not to notice that something is wrong ― very wrong. After all, the world is currently engulfed in a coronavirus pandemic that has already infected more than 12.5 million people, taken more than 550,000 lives, and created massive economic disruption. And the pandemic is accelerating, while, accor...
Far too few people remember the 1972 Seattle billboard: “Would the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights?” The reference was to the massive job losses at Boeing when the supersonic transport project collapsed and the company, then headquartered in Seattle, was on the ropes. That was a painful time especially for working families and local government leaders. Those who lived through it have no interest in a repeat performance. However, given the dir...
What once seemed inevitable is now growing unlikely — a special session to balance the state’s budget. This is why it was so important to act before the new spending increases took effect on July 1. Once we started the new fiscal year, the likelihood of a special session dropped. By waiting until August, the September revenue forecast is just around corner. Then after September, the November election is just a jump away. Then the temptation to delay until January becomes eve...
There are many ways to suppress a vote. If you’ve followed elections in various states over the past two years, you’ll recognize such strategies as the purging of voting rolls, the elimination of same-day voting, and the shortening of early voting periods. There’s the requirement of government issued photo ID’s, and the disqualification of any voter registrations that lack an “exact match” among government documents required for identification. Then there’s the consolidation of polling places in certain districts, th...
Teaching Psychology for 20 years at Spokane Falls Community College was such a learning experience — for me. I hope the students also learned a lot about the “Scientific study of behavior and mental processes.” When teaching the section on Evolutionary Psychology, it was always interesting to ask the classes if anyone knew about the Darwin Awards. Sheepishly, some students, especially boys, would raise their hands, grinning from ear to ear. For those of you who don’t know, every year people are selected for Darwin Awards...
If we are not committed to ensuring that each of us stands as a part of God’s plan, then: First, they will come for Black people, and some will do nothing because they are not Black. Then they will come for the Latinos, and again some will do nothing because they are not Latino. Soon they will come for Asians, and once more, some will not speak up because they are not Asian. Then they will come for Caucasians, and others will not speak up. Then they will come for indigenous people, the Keepers of the Earth, and once more, s...
In early June, the financial website WalletHub released its rankings of “Best and Worse State Economies” and Washington led the field of 51 as best by a healthy margin. WalletHub economists viewed the states from three key dimensions — economic activity, economic health and innovation potential. Then the analysts from Dartmouth and Carthage colleges and the University of Texas-Austin looked a 28 key indicators of economic performance and strength when comparing all 50 state...
Having spent some time perusing social media in the last few weeks, I am appalled at the words some will haphazardly sling at those with whom they disagree. There are many racist, sexist and homophobic terms that should simple be removed from our vocabularies. Here, I wish to discuss a variation of an insult that is hurled at those who have a liberal point of view. “Libtard.” Clearly derived from “retard” and intended to imply that liberals are mentally deficient. I have seen this term used from “friends” on Facebook an...
Are government agencies and big tech tracking your every move via your smartphone? The answer is maybe. Gov. Jay Inslee has repeatedly said the state is using smartphone data to track interactions and travel as it may relate to coronavirus exposure and spread. That data may include time, date, location and even a “marker” for each mobile device. Indeed, anytime your cellphone is turned on, it connects to towers for telephone calls or texting. Using three tower con...
Renewed interest in Ulysses S. Grant’s entire career, as evidenced by the recent documentary “Grant” and books (e.g. “The Man Who Saved the Union” by H.W. Brands; “Grant” by Ron Chernow), adds perspective to the current protests. Grant’s primary purpose during his presidency — to save the Union and grant former slaves full citizenship — was to justify the terrible loss of lives he witnessed as Union general. He engineered passage of the 15th Amendment establishing African-American suffrage and sent troops to eradicate the Ku...
While the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest are front page news, China’s unrelenting push to leap over our country in critical technology and hoarding of strategic metals should alarm us. Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, there has been an unprecedented worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). Tensions between our countries fueled the widespread fear that Chinese imports would disappear. China provided 48 percent of our PPE imports in 2018, but C...
For the past several weeks, I have been watching the protests and subsequent riots hitting our urban areas throughout the county sparked by the senseless killing of George Floyd. Like you, when I viewed the video of the Minneapolis police officer atop Mr. Floyd’s neck, I found myself yelling at the TV screen – “let him up for heaven’s sake.” As a police chief with nearly four decades of experience in public safety, I condemn the force that was used to arrest Mr. Floyd in the strongest possible terms. More important...
I’m glad to see Paul Delaney is back at the Cheney Free Press after a year and a couple months hiatus. I hope his “failed retirement” wasn’t because of those “half-dozen citations” from me to which he’s laid claim (CFP, 5/21/20). Paul has decided that among the many and varied issues it’s important he address — the coronavirus pandemic, the exploding national debt, cancer causing chemicals in Airway Heights water, Eastern Washington rural hospitals nearing financial collapse — defending his publisher, Roger Harnack from...
Scientists across America are working hard to develop treatments for and vaccines against COVID-19. Unfortunately, several activist groups are making their jobs harder. Doctors Without Borders is urging governments to seize the patents on any coronavirus therapies that benefited from taxpayer-funded research. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is making a similar push. These groups claim that such steps are necessary to prevent industry price gouging. Their efforts are misguided. Confiscating patents would damage...
In several past columns I’ve written about the need to preserve history. I’ve editorialized to preserve history, it’s often necessary to maintain that which we find offensive so we may remember and learn from the experience, hopefully not repeating the errors of our ancestors. As part of that, I’ve defended preserving symbols of the former Confederacy such as statues and flags. I’ve argued that, while painful, those elements remind us of periods of our national formation and psyche that we hope to not repeat. I’ve chan...
Whether it is a crop, milk or livestock, no one involved in agriculture wants their products to go anywhere other than to consumers. That is what makes the COVID-19 crisis particularly difficult for agriculture – food continues to be produced but, in many cases, it is not reaching its intended destination. In April, the president of Tyson meats warned of a nationwide meat shortage. Milk producers are working to find the middle ground between keeping their cattle healthy and maintaining their income. Produce growers are a...
Solar power is getting a lot of attention these days as our country strives to reduce greenhouse gases. Sunny cities like Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Antonio have ramped-up solar power production; however, in cloudy coastal municipalities such as Seattle, investments in “sun power” have been lagging. One reason is Washington is blessed with an abundance of low-cost and carbon-free hydropower which accounts for three-fourths of our electricity generation. Electricity fro...
The coronavirus has roiled global commerce. How will this pandemic influence trade policy? The upcoming US-UK negotiations will serve as a test. A U.S.-UK trade deal has been in the works for years. It gets outsized attention because Britain’s “Brexit” from Europe presents both sides with a “greenfield” opportunity to get things right. In the face of the coronavirus, this will be challenging. The United States and Britain enjoy deep economic ties. The UK is America’s single largest source of foreign direct investment,...
In recent years, papermakers in Pacific Northwest have been losing ground. However, today there is a ray of hope. Surprisingly, that optimism results from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first days of the pandemic, grocers couldn’t keep toilet paper on store shelves even though paper mills were running 20 percent higher than normal capacity. Cardboard plants also were operating full bore making shipping boxes for medical supplies and personal protective gear. As Amazon and onlin...
Monday is Memorial Day. By tradition, it’s the 152nd anniversary of the day set aside to remember those who lost their lives serving our country. I say by tradition because the first incarnation of this observance, Decoration Day, started on May 30, 1868. According to History.com, there were other, smaller observances prior, many marking the end of the Civil War. There are three days we have set aside as official days to commemorate and recognize those who have served, and are now serving in our armed forces. Memorial Day, V...
Reading the May 7 Cheney Free Press, I see that publisher Roger Harnack has arrived. By that I mean he’s earned “certification” and his first scolding from serial letter writer Richard Badalamente. I call it the “Badalamente Badge.” And in 12 years as a staff member at the CFP, I proudly lay claim to earning at least a half-dozen such citations from Richard for improper thoughts laid to paper. It is of course interesting — and ironic — that Badalamente points out Harnack’s failing in his story to have cited “statistics on...
In the mid-1980s I had great health care for my young family. I worked in construction and as long as there was work, I had wonderful healthcare because I was in a strong union. During a slow period when work dried up, I used COBRA to buy health care by the month but it seemed very expensive and I eventually had to stop making payments and lost our insurance. Luckily, we had no major health needs during this period but I was worried. Now with lots of people losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic I imagine lots of...
