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Spokane County Fire District 3 and the city of Cheney co-hosted a 40-hour week long Fire Inspector 1 class last week (July 29–Aug. 2) that incorporated 29 firefighters from 12 different agencies within the state of Washington and as far as Whidbey Island. These 29 students had one of the best classes around! They had a variety of different occupancy classifications from Eastern Washington University academic facilities to the newly constructed Amazon warehouse that they were able to walk through and gain knowledge of d...
More battery operated cars and trucks are making their way on to streets and highways, so why not trains? That may not be too far off if Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) tests are successful. BNSF and Wabtec (formerly GE Transportation) are developing a battery-electric high-horsepower road locomotive — the type that moves freight trains between Seattle and Chicago. Once all the equipment and support systems are in place, the plan is to run tests between Stockton and B...
The way we produce, consume and discard food is no longer sustainable. That much is clear from the newly released UN climate change report which warns that we must rethink how we produce our food — and quickly — to avoid the most devastating impacts of global food production, including massive deforestation, staggering biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change. While it’s not often recognized, the food industry is an enormous driver of climate change, and our current global food system is pushing our natural world...
In late April, communities across Washington State welcomed back their local legislators from Olympia after the conclusion of the 2019 Legislative session. The 2019 session was a long, 105-day session and the Legislature finished their work on time concluding at midnight on the 105th day. While many issues were resolved over the course of the session, a major issue for the city of Airway Heights this session was to identify funding to help complete the Highland Village Housing project. The project is designed to remove an enc...
I was disappointed to learn that only 1 percent of Medicare beneficiaries with dementia have received a personal care plan that has been available to them since 2017. Apparently many physicians are unaware of this code and service that can help their patients. Alzheimer’s Association advocates have asked members of Congress to cosponsor the Improving HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act, which will give doctors information about how they can develop a care plan for each patient who has dementia. I am grateful that Congresswoman Cat...
Let’s say this first, just to get it out of the way. Most of the problems facing this country brought once again into the limelight from the two mass shootings over the weekend were not created by the current occupant of the White House. The same can be said about the issues Donald Trump’s apologists are trying to steer us towards in order to deflect blame he may bear for exacerbating them. But the inconvenient truth is that Trump bears a lot of responsibility for making things worse. Indeed, he and his followers take pri...
By FRANK WATSON Contributor When our legs began to complain about the climb into the overhead bunk of our camper, my wife and I bought a year-round cabin on the Pend Oreille River. It has become our get away when the normal pressures of life need release. One such day last March, we decided to go to the cabin and take a day trip to the Kalispel Swan Festival. The newspaper told us the ice was still on the lake where the swans normally stop. We were a little bummed but decided to come anyway. To our delight, the swans had...
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....
One would think a small-town garlic festival would be the least-likely candidate for the site of unspeakable violence. But that illusion was shattered Sunday, July 28, when three people were killed by a gunman at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California. Two of those murdered were children. At least 12 more were injured. The incident is yet another tally mark on the long list of mass shootings that have plagued the U.S. in recent years. It’s to the point where they don’t rattle the public anymore; news consumers sig...
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...
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...
