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Suicide has rocked my family. In memory of my child, Katie Thew, who battled chronic pain and died by suicide on Oct. 6, 2022, I offer this article to help other families avoid this grief. Rampant mental health challenges including depression, with more and more communities recognizing they lack adequate resources to help, inspired the creation of a month (September) devoted to suicide prevention which recently passed. Now our family is mourning another milestone, the two-year anniversary of Katie’s death. Each of us can l...
The 2024 election is the most consequential election in our lifetime. It will, starting with the next 4 years, determine the path America will take nationally and globally. We vote for politicians, who’s agendas are conflicted, and we think/hope they are working in the best interest of the people. Many are not. Nationally, we’ve lost many of our freedoms, privacy and are being overrun with people who are not American and will over time change our culture, values and way of life. Whether you live in the city or county, it...
Vote for Kohlmeier for 9th District legislator Remember that proposed bike trail between Colfax, Albion and Pullman? It’s been talked about for a decade, but it remains nonexistent. Rail traffic on the corridor stopped years ago and it hasn’t been used for anything productive since. Federal rail-banking law not only allows, but encourages the right-of-way to be converted into a public trail and bike path. The Chipman Trail has been rail-banked in this manner. Here’s the kicker: We the people already own it, but it langu...
In the 1840s, Irish Catholics immigrated to America in huge numbers and provoked a secret protest movement known as the Know Nothing Party, founded in 1844 as a precursor to the eventual Republican party. Know Nothings told of a conspiracy by Catholics to overthrow Protestant-based American government. This was an early version of today’s Republican claim that Hispanic Catholic immigrants will kick whites and other native-born Americans out of jobs and power in America. MAGA, or Know Nothing II, is thus really a Make A...
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have joined in an agreement to award their Electoral College votes in a U.S. election to the winner of the national popular vote. The National Popular Vote compact, NPV as it is called, has gained steam over the past 25 years, lead mostly by liberal leaning states eager to work around the Electoral College. The legislation, which is identical in each state, requires the state to award its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide. This could...
My family’s farm received a letter last fall seeking interest in leasing land for another wind project down along Union Flat Creek in Whitman County. When I returned home from the harvest field on the evening of Aug. 27, there was a message on my answering machine asking the same thing, yet again. People, it is well past time to make your voices heard. If Whitman County is to remain an agricultural area and not become a wind/solar industrial catastrophe, the masses must rise up and fight. Contact the commissioners and tell t...
Okay, readers, hands up if you or your ancestors are/were immigrants to the United States, legal or illegal. All hands up? Even American Indians came across the Bering Straits or by land. They have the best claim to land, however, since they arrived long before Europeans, Africans and Asians. Then, explain the mass deportation signs on display at the Republican National Convention and the anti-immigrant tone to the speeches; and why Republicans just scuttled the bipartisan immigration bill. Should legal and illegal...
I’ve read many letters about windmills recently, but I’ve missed hearing the views of some of the key players. I’d like to hear more from the farmers considering installing windmills. We need to hear more from farmers because they play a vital role in the Palouse economy but face escalating challenges. The unpredictable weather exacerbated by climate change means farmers must explore all options to sustain themselves financially. Wind power income would help. My nightmare scenario is not windmills but bankrupt farmers, no fo...
Being a generational landowner in the area designated for wind turbines, I am not opposed to them when thoughtfully placed. But Eastern Whitman County is shockingly illogical. Why place the largest of turbines in a populated rural region with high crop yields, adjacent to Kamiak Butte, a thoroughly utilized park in a region photographed worldwide for its astounding beauty? Shocking in placement and proposed size, Harvest Hills has a contracted filing with the FAA for 70 sights with an additional 25 listed as alternates....
I am a fourth-generation farmer in Whitman County and am writing to express my support for the Harvest Hills Wind Project. I know that some people in our community are having a hard time with the change, which is why I want to make sure all voices are heard. Farming is all about helping people. Our farm has provided food for thousands upon thousands of people through the years, and now we have the opportunity to provide for people in a new way. It is a really good feeling to be able to contribute to our community by...
Transitions are hard. When oil derricks first graced the western landscape, they were greeted with mixed emotions, depending on who profited and whose landscape was blighted. Today, we face conflicts as windfarms elicit similar emotions. The “No Wind Farms” signs posted around the Palouse are counterproductive, though. Communities must have a meaningful voice in issues of land use, wildlife impacts, cultural values and aesthetics, but a costly delay only prolongs the inevitable. There’s a concern windmills kill birds. The r...
Does anybody in pint-size America have the courage to stand up to big-belly corporate America? We first gave up on curbing corporate monopoly and straightening out corporate income taxes. We next rolled over and allowed corporations to buy up soulless public servants at election time. With the goal of a two-class America now in sight, the latest coup of the new American aristocracy has been to take daytime TV by storm. Corporate sponsors have virtually forced daytime news and talk shows into “deal of the day” or “steal of the...
America fixated on breaking records But do new records change the course of history like we think they do? America has been the “greatest nation on earth” for so long we think we must look for some exotic frontier to conquer to top our current greatness. After World War II we planted 800 military bases and outposts across the earth to prove our invincibility and further our national wealth. After that, what was there left to do? Here’s what we are doing today. We are going back to space. We are counting Super Bowl rings...
We all need to understand climate science. Climate fundamentals are simple: Sunshine warms the Earth, and the Earth radiates heat back into space as infrared. Earth’s temperature results from how much radiant heat gets trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. GHGs are trace gases but have a disproportionate influence on temperatures. Nitrogen, oxygen and argon represent 78%, 21%, and 0.9% of our atmosphere and are not greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases only make up a fraction of the remaining 0.1%; gases such as c...
Who would have ever imagined that a fashion would prevail whereby women would purposely choose to look “not pretty?” I am past 80, no longer pretty and right in style. I just wish the green-, purple- and orange-haired people would add a big red nose, which would be a sign that it’s OK for their audience to “Laugh Out Loud (LOL).” Amazed in 2023. Nancy Parry Moscow, Idaho...
Do patients have a right to know if an insurance plan is going to force them to use a mail-order pharmacy or the insurance-owned mail order system during open enrollment? Do patients have a right to chose who they receive medical and pharmaceutical care from? As a pharmacist at a local independent pharmacy, I have been fielding questions from patients using Kaiser Permanente insurance, who began receiving letters indicating they must transfer their prescriptions to a Kaiser pharmacy for continued coverage. Starting in...
