Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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Remember when the local newspaper was the “go-to” place for information about social gatherings, upcoming events and much, much more? When I was growing up in Bickleton, which didn’t have its own paper, there were ordinary people like you and me who ensured that both the Sunnyside Sun and the Goldendale Sentinel received information about goings-on in our tiny community. The world has changed since the middle of the last century. Many of the smaller newspapers have faded away as the Internet has grown in prominence. Now w...
It’s no secret that airlines and airplane manufacturers have been clobbered by the coronavirus pandemic. Particularly hard hit are international flights traditionally flown by jumbo jets. Borders are closed and people aren’t flying. There is a small silver-lining. Just as restaurants started take-out service to survive, airlines are filling planes with freight. U.S. airlines are reeling from the pandemic and have lost more than $20 billion combined in the last two quarters. Ev...
Who deserves farm payments? Farm payments should be reserved for family farms facing difficult times, but the government and taxpayers should not support checks without limit to the largest operations. While enacting limits on farm payments, Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have failed to close loopholes that enable the largest farms to maneuver around them. Most farm payment programs are subject to a maximum payment, and generally farms with an adjusted gross income of more than $900,000 are ineligible. But,...
Regardless of a person's political views, we can all agree that rising cost is a major problem with our health-care system. Last year, Americans spent 18 percent of our economy, or $3.6 trillion, on health care. The ever-increasing cost curve would suggest that by the 2030s the country will spend 30 percent of our gross domestic product on medical treatments. Extensive research has been done to identify unnecessary care and wastefulness in the system. Estimates vary, but from...
“One of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century is dealing with the progress of the 20th Century – especially old computers, monitors, cellular phones and televisions. These appliances depend on hazardous materials, such as mercury, to operate. After a five-to-eight year useful life, many are tossed into dumpsters and sent to landfills where those hazardous materials can leach into the soil, streams and groundwater.” That was the opening paragraph of a column I wrote 20 yea...
It’s been 278 days since Gov. Jay Inslee first issued executive orders shutting down businesses, ending government transparency and calling some people “non-essential.” His mantra at the time, “flatten that curve” on the growing coronavirus outbreak. The governor and his hand-picked advisers told us the shutdowns were temporary, that the so-called emergency was temporary. More than six month later, temporary seems to have a different definition. Businesses are closing daily, residents across the state are protestin...
There’s no other way to say it, 2020, has been just an awful year. It is difficult to believe anything good can come from this mess but I’m really excited to see that one silver lining to our collective misery will be the opportunity for more public participation across the state during the 2021 Legislative Session. With news that lawmakers will primarily be conducting business remotely next year also comes the exciting announcement of expansive remote testimony for citizens....
Yes, Gov. Jay Inslee has issued new orders shutting down your favorite gym and movie theater, and limiting service at your favorite diner or watering hole. Yes, you’re directed to wear a mask when you go in public. And yes, there’s another run on toilet paper and paper towels (in some parts of our state). But it’s Thanksgiving. It’s time to count your blessings. You’re in America. You live in the greatest, most prosperous country the world has ever known. You have housing opportunities, electricity, running water and emplo...
It's no secret that airlines and airplane manufacturers have been clobbered by the coronavirus pandemic. Particularly hard hit are international flights traditionally flown by jumbo jets. Borders are closed and people aren't flying. There is a small silver-lining. Just as restaurants started take-out service to survive, airlines are filling planes with freight. U.S. airlines are reeling from the pandemic and have lost more than $20 billion combined in the last two quarters....
Diversity in the ranks has been the lifeline of our all-volunteer military, but it wasn’t always that way. As we celebrate Veterans Day, we ought to be thankful for all of the men and women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who put their lives in harm’s way to protect our freedoms and make safe our way of life. When my father was inducted into the U.S. Army during World War II, our military was segregated. That lasted until 1948 when President Harry Truman signed Executive...
Washington has one of the highest minimum wage levels in the U.S. For workers who have a job this sounds like a great deal, but as with all things the government mandates, there are some serious, negative consequences, primarily on young and entry level workers who are forced into joblessness. Nowhere is the harm imposed by a high minimum wage demonstrated more clearly than in Seattle, where the city council has aggressively increased the minimum wage over the last few years....
There’s no other way to say, 2020 has been just an awful year. It is difficult to believe anything good can come from this mess but I’m really excited to see that one silver lining to our collective misery will be the opportunity for more public participation across the state during the 2021 Legislative Session. With news that lawmakers will primarily be conducting business remotely next year also comes the exciting announcement of expansive remote testimony for citizens. Acc...
All-mail election needs immediacy. If we can’t provide it, maybe we should return to polling place voting Over the last few months, all eyes have been on Washington’s 16-year-old vote-by-mail system. National media has been holding it up as an example of what should become the norm nationwide. But should it? Yes, we have fastidious local election employees resolving problems. And yes, we have years of experience making vote-by-mail work. But the nation isn’t ready for all-mail elections, whether it’s our system or another...
Veterans Day, originally called Armistice Day, began the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1919 when the treaty was signed to end World War I. It honored those who had survived the war to end all wars. By 1954, we had fought another world war and a costly conflict in Korea. In order to pay tribute to those veterans, Congress changed the name of the holiday. The date remained the same except for a brief time in the early seventies when all holidays were on Mondays. November 11 is a fitting day to honor al...
If we can provide it, maybe we should return to polling place voting Over the last few months, all eyes have been on Washington’s 16-year-old vote-by-mail system. National media has been holding it up as an example of what should become the norm nationwide. But should it? Yes, we have fastidious local election employees resolving problems. And yes, we have years of experience making vote-by-mail work. But the nation isn’t ready for all-mail elections, whether it’s our system or another state’s. Simply put, voting by mail ap...
This month, President Trump signed an executive order to reduce Medicare spending on prescription drugs. For each medication, Medicare will pay no more than the lowest price available in other developed countries. President Trump has been true to his campaign promises. I voted for him in 2016, and will again in 2020. However, in this case, the administration identified the right problem, but chose the wrong solution. It’s no accident that the United States leads the world in developing new medicines. We have the world’s bes...
To the average American, China’s control of the world production, processing technology and stockpile of critical metals is not their concern. However, to our military and high-tech leaders, it is a very big deal. Our government has a list consisting of 35 metals considered to be vital to our national economy and security. While 17 are classified as “rare earth” and are not commonly known, all are critical components of products such as smart phones, laptop computers, lithi...
Operating expenditures for Washington’s K-12 public schools have increased almost 92 percent in real terms since 1982, even though student population has increased by only 36 percent. In 2005, Washington taxpayers spent about $9,500 per public school student. In contrast, private schools typically spend around $6,000 per student. Even taking the differences in their missions into account, public schools still spend over 50 percent more per student than private schools, and g...
Olympia is clearly out of touch with Eastern Washington, and you won’t have to look any further than your ballot to figure that out. In addition to the East versus West gubernatorial battle, you’ll find Referendum 90, pitting many rural parents against a few city-based lawmakers and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal over the measure. Referendum 90 targets Senate Bill 5395, a so-called “comprehensive” and “inclusive” sexual education curriculum being mandated by those in Olympia. For the last few ye...
DURING the last two state budget cycles, Washington lawmakers have come dangerously close to forcing a government shutdown due to failures in the budget process. The current 2015-17 state budget was signed just 18 minutes before a shutdown would have occurred. The 2013-15 budget was finalized just a few hours before state agencies would have been forced to shutdown. In both cases, the tax revenue provided by citizens was increasing substantially, meaning these threats of...
If there was any doubt about a need for change in the Governor’s Mansion occupancy, political newcomer Loren Culp swept them away in the only gubernatorial debate two weeks ago. Gov. Jay Inslee, who has been occupying the mansion for the last two terms, should’ve come ready to take on a small town police chief. Instead, he ran for his typical cover — everything is the fault of President Trump, global warming, systemic racism and the coronavirus. The problem is that misma...
I’ve lived in two exclusive vote-by-mail states during my time as an eligible voter. My first ballot ever cast was via the mailbox in Oregon. There the ballots are due in the hands of election officials by 8 p.m. on election night to be counted. Now living in Washington, I’ve trained myself not to worry about election results until the Friday following election day due to the state’s postmark deadline eligibility for ballots. I’ve often wondered how the country would react to...
Every Vote Counts While the primary voter turnout was impressive at 64%, it’s also disturbing because that means over one-third of Lincoln County’s registered voters didn’t bother to take a few moments to exercise one of the most important and fundamental rights the United States of America offers its citizens. The vote is often viewed as our only way to decide who will lead us, and in which direction. In such a divided political climate, every vote is important and every vote counts. The American Legion’s National Command...
Interestingly, while restaurants and airlines continue to be clobbered by the coronavirus, recreational vehicle (RV) sales and rentals are taking off. People have switched their travel preferences to minimize their Covid-19 exposure. Travel trailers and motorhomes are iconic symbols of campgrounds in our “Great Outdoors”. Meanwhile, outdoor recreation increased once the initial lockdowns to prevent the spread of Covid-19 lifted. Before the pandemic came ashore in the US, the...
Big Picture Stay out of the weeds. Instead, think big picture. This election is not about Trump or Biden. It’s not about the Republicans or the Democrats. This election is about big picture, ideological movements, agendas and direction. It’s a question of do we want to keep our constitutional republic with limited government and a representative democracy, or, evolve to a socialistic big government, with a globalistic trend and agenda. That’s where we are. Voters will choose. All decisions have consequences, some bette...
