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Thank you to the Cheney Free Press and the terrific Cheney community for supporting the high school band clothing drive! Because of your generosity, publicity and donations the band kids collected about 8,000 pounds of usable clothes and bedding and earned $2,000 for the band programs. Many of the kids earned significant money towards their marching band fees. We partnered with Value Village, so your donations went to local neighborhoods as well as overseas. The staff at Value Village was very impressed with our group’s d...
It’s time to vote, if you haven’t already. Among many important issues on the Aug. 6 ballot is a request from the Spokane County Library District seeking a majority YES vote to sustain and enhance currently available services at Cheney and the other 10 libraries in the county library district. The current county library levy rate is 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The voter request would increase this levy amount by 7 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. For a home value of $235,000 the annual cos...
A few years ago, I had occasion to examine potential threats to our democracy. The national debt, exportation of wealth and our economic dependence on foreign countries headed my list of concerns. My list was unchanged until recently. I believe our national march toward socialism is now more of a threat to our future than the debt. I cannot believe than anyone who has taken even a cursory look at world history would suggest we embrace socialistic ideals. At no time in the life of the known universe has it been successful....
In the past year the Trump administration has been applying increasingly restrictive policies to block asylum seekers from pursuing their claims in the U.S. The most recent measure, now temporarily barred by a federal judge’s injunction, would have required migrants traveling through another country such as Mexico to show proof that they had applied for, and were denied, asylum in that country. That policy would most likely have barred almost all migrants from Central America, as well as many Africans, Haitians and Cubans t...
On behalf of the 24-Hour Tennis-a-Thon committee, we would like to thank our sponsors, our volunteers, and the communities of Medical Lake, Airway Heights, Cheney, and Spokane. The Medical Lake Community Outreach Program and the Medical Lake Food Bank benefited from the generous donations of many local businesses. Without the support from these local businesses, the end product of our fundraiser would not be possible. The love and support given to the community of Medical Lake is and always has been unending and is greatly...
Every day, the United States and Iran continue to move closer to war. As tensions escalate between our nations, the risk grows of accidents and miscalculations tipping us into another deadly conflict in the Middle East. I am particularly concerned by casual talk about a so-called “limited military strike” that could be carried out at an “acceptable” human cost. In truth, there is no such thing as a quick and painless war — not for any side in a conflict. An American attack against Iran will lead to incalculable death, de...
A recent Washington Post analysis of a University of North Texas study found a 226 percent increase in reported hate crimes in counties where President Donald Trump held a rally compared to those where he didn’t. Few escape his verbal hate speech — Mexicans, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews, immigrants; women and gold star military families. Even people with disabilities are a target. But is there a correlation between the president, who cam...
After working for Spokane County Fire District #3 from 1981-2016, I believe the annexing of the two departments together is a positive move for the citizens of both entities. It would fiscally impossible for the city of Medical Lake to provide the equal resources that Fire District 3 can offer to the city due to its size and assets. Medical Lake offers a population base to recruit volunteers from as well as a group of highly trained and dedicated volunteers and some firefighting equipment/facilities. Finding volunteers today...
On July 4, at a Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona, six police officers were asked to either move out of a customer’s line of sight or leave the establishment because they were making a patron uncomfortable — for being police. As a progressive-minded American who believes certain (unjust) laws are meant to be broken and who strongly opposes any manner of police abuse or overreach, I am not particularly comfortable around police myself (although, admittedly, I am white and tend to get the benefit of the doubt during confrontations)....
Technology firms portray themselves as bastions of equality and progressive values — but in reality, they frequently discriminate against female workers. Sixty percent of the time, tech firms offer men higher salaries than women for the exact same role. And that’s assuming firms even interview female candidates. More than 40 percent of the time, firms exclusively interview men. Once they accept job offers, 65 percent of female tech workers say they’ve faced discrimination due to their gender, compared to just 11 perce...
I spent the Fourth of July sitting on the porch of our cabin on the river thanking God we had a cabin on the river. I tried to ignore the roaring jet skis and speedboats pulling kids on inner tubes. I groaned inwardly as they churned the water of my favorite fishing hole into a white froth. One interesting boat towed an inflated contraption that looked like a large living room couch. It carried three or four riders in a sitting position, no training or effort required. You could even include the family dog if you wanted. I...
Shortly, after Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps on the dusty lunar surface, some comedian in our army unit at Ft. Knox, Ken., posted a sign in our barracks: “Sorry, Drill Sgt., No Green Cheese!” Our basic training drill instructor was already “highly agitated” because President Richard Nixon ordered a “training holiday” so we could watch live television coverage of landing. On July 20, 1969, our unit was supposed to...
I am amazed at the growth of Cheney since my family and I moved to Ferry County many years ago. Following the death of my husband and scattering of my now adult children, I moved back to Cheney to be close to my son, his children and my grandchildren. As has been my long-time habit, I began walking daily for exercise and to pick up litter. I am dumbfounded at the amount and variety of litter I encounter as I walk along State Route 904 and Presley and Salnave. I started carrying a single grocery bag to fill the litter, and...
Those following the news recently have probably heard of the Palm Beach multi-millionaire Jeffery Epstein, thrust back in the spotlight after more than 10 years this week when he was charged with sex trafficking and a horde of lewd photographs of underage girls was discovered in his home. The current charges have sparked questions about the apparent mishandling of the investigation into Epstein’s activities years ago, and the carefully constructed pyramid of protection he built to shield himself from federal prosecution. B...
Deployments to Vietnam from Fairchild normally included an overnight stop in Pearl Harbor. Some of our crew had been there before and suggested we go out to the USS Arizona. We went to the pier and rode to the site in a small open boat operated by two U.S. Navy sailors. There was nothing to see except the tops of the gun turrets, but it was our chance as American fighting men to pay homage to those who had gone before us. I made the pilgrimage each time I deployed to or from Southeast Asia. The now familiar iconic monument...
Picture yourself traveling through space. Ahead hovers your home, a glowing bright blue orb reflecting the sun’s light off its vast oceans in the otherwise inky-cold blackness of space. As you know from your travels among the unimaginable vastness of the cosmos, planet Earth is a unique and infinitesimal bubble of life within the uninhabitable and unforgiving vacuum of space. From the Bible, in the Book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 20, we are told, “For since the creation of th...
I am a gardener. It is the only way I’ve found to be partners with God. Women and God partner up to produce additional human beings. After a brief DNA donation, men only get involved when the offspring wants to know how to throw a curve ball or borrow the keys to the car. So I garden. God does the heavy lifting by producing sun and rain. I get to plant the seeds and keep out pests. Weeds are endemic. I get my daily exercise hoeing and pulling the leafy intruders that hide in my rows of beans and lettuce. Animal pests are a g...
HBO recently broadcast a dramatization of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl accident — at the time, the highest severity nuclear accident in history — a 7 on the International Event Scale. Some 30 people died as a direct result of the accident, thousands more died or are dying as a result of Acute Radiation Syndrome and large swaths of the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were contaminated by radioactive fallout. According to the director of the Chernobyl Plant, the immediate area around Chernobyl will be uninhabitable for “at least...
More than half of Americans say they have a hard time affording their prescription drugs. Luckily for them, the Trump administration recently proposed a rule to criminalize the shady business practices that keep drug prices high for patients at the pharmacy counter. Lawmakers should support the proposal full stop. The president’s reform takes aim at middlemen in the drug supply chain known as “pharmacy benefit managers” or PBMs. Insurers hire PBMs to negotiate with drug manufacturers and help decide which drugs insur...
Are detention facilities along the U.S.’s southern border refugee camps or concentration camps? That seems to be the question in the minds of people, most recently Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The freshman Democrat from New York referred to these camps housing immigrants from Mexico and Central America as the latter over the weekend, prompting a reply from Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King. King pointed to a trip he took last year to Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp, and urged Ocasio-Cortez to accept an open invitatio...
From recent evidence that Boeing sacrificed safety for profit with Federal Aviation Administration complicity (essentially letting Boeing self-regulate and the last country to ground 737s), we again realize we vitally need strong regulations and independent regulators. Absence of oversight in our profit-is-God culture encourages cost-cutting that compromises safety. In his 2003 book, “The Future of Freedom,” noted analyst Fareed Zakaria describes the vanishing social responsibility over time of wealthy interests such as cor...
Citizen-led efforts to save, relocate and restore Cheney’s 1929 Northern Pacific Railway Depot received a solid boost last month with a donation of $10,000 from a local donor who wishes to remain anonymous, but who asked that the gift be earmarked “in memory of the Cheney men who built the depot.” It seems that a public acknowledgment of this generosity is in order. We are grateful, too, for the numerous donations received in memory of our friend and co-founder of the Cheney Depot Society), Dr. Charles V. Mutschler. To date,...
The criticism of President Trump’s tariff war continues to grow. The attacks are mostly centered around the American consumer. I understand the concern. I don’t want the prices at the checkout to be any higher than they absolutely need to be. I enjoy a good bargain as much as anyone. But consumer thinking is short term. Could our President actually be looking out for the long term best interests of our nation? A few years ago, I was asked to list the most serious problems facing our country. First on my list was our growing d...
When I planned to spend last weekend out of town, I had visions of carefree walks on the beach, cocktails at interesting coastal cafes and hours wiling away walking my pups against the serene backdrop of nature. Anyone who’s ever traveled across state lines with multiple dogs on short notice knows I needed a reality check. And I got one, in a big way. The day before we were set to head home, a check engine light went on in the car. Innocuous enough. No problem, I thought, we’ll swing by an auto parts store, borrow a code rea...
This is for all you civilians out there. Yes, you, who have never served in the defense and protection of these United States. You see, all veterans make a sacrifice. All serve with the explicit understanding that at any time they may be called upon to protect and defend this great country of ours from enemies foreign and domestic, as the oath of enlistment reads. And in doing so they give something up. In a word, they give up their freedom. Because serving in the armed...
