Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 579 - 603 of 1962
In a 7-2 ruling this morning, the State Supreme Court said the partial vetoes the Governor made in the 2019 transportation budget were unconstitutional. When issuing those vetoes the Governor said: “While my veto authority is generally limited to subsections or appropriation items in an appropriation bill, in this very rare and unusual circumstance I have no choice but to veto a single sentence in several subsections to prevent a constitutional violation and to prevent a f...
There’s an old saying that oil and water don’t mix. That may be true, but apparently they coexist quite well. Traveling through Sweetwater in west Texas, you see an interesting mix of irrigated farming, cattle ranching, oil production and wind energy. Farmers draw water from wells to irrigate fields and provide drinking water for people and livestock. Scattered across those same fields are traditional oil wells that have been pumping crude since 1921. Less than 10 miles fro...
Return to a rational normal Everyone contact elected representatives (about mandates, masks, vaccines, education, big spending). We must return to normal. Wake up! Too many politicians, appointed officials, news media and some of the general public are too impulsive, over reactive, hysterical, illogical. Examples: “Fire the coach,” “Remove them from office,” panic buying, jumping to conclusions, thinking “government to the rescue,” got to have more social programs, got to be taken care of from birth to death by an all-seei...
Lowering our flags to half-staff seems to be an all too familiar sight these days. It is a solemn act that recognizes our fallen heroes, whether they be men and women in our armed forces or a Vancouver police officer killed in the line of duty. It is a vivid reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by those who serve us. Unfortunately, after those flags return to the top of the pole and time passes, we tend to forget that the suffering for the friends and families continues....
It’s no secret that Gov. Jay Inslee wants the removal of the four federal dams on the lower Snake River between Clarkston and the Tri-Cities. Back in December 2018, his proposed 2019-21 operating budget included $750,000 for a state study on breaching Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams. U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse, officials from electric utilities, ports and groups representing agriculture and economic development all oppo...
Regarding lawsuit claiming Johnston is negligent I was gobsmacked when I read a newspaper article that reported that a lawsuit has been filed against Lincoln County based on election supervision duties performed by former Auditor Shelley Johnston in the last election(s). The suit apparently alleges “vote flipping, ballot box stuffing, lax signature verification, etc.” I worked in the courthouse as a prosecutor and judge from 1989 until 2015. I have extensive involvement with Shelley as a fellow dept. head and as an att...
Big brother is always watching I see you had a mostly maskless Deutsches Fest. I have a friend whose relative went home from the Fest infected with Covid. Real men or women don’t wear masks? More deaths from Covid are happening in Lincoln County. Death is apparently less scary than losing a sense of power (control). Looking from the outside in, I grudgingly acknowledge not one chink of doubt in your “suits of armor” has changed your white conservative beliefs. I remember a night in the 1980s when my partner Chuck and I entere...
The Biden Administration’s massive welfare give away, “Build Back Better,” is currently being negotiated in Congress. One of the original funding mechanisms was raising taxes on the rich to the point where they pay their “fair share.” In spite of the political left obsessing over the issue, no one has clearly defined exactly what the term means. Let’s look at actual numbers and see who pays what in income taxes in the United States. Those organizations that follow taxation in...
Medical freedom is more than women deciding if they are going to abort a pregnancy. It is a person’s decision if they want to waive resuscitation. It’s ending untreatable painful suffering. It’s choosing to take a riskier healing path than what’s recommended. It’s deciding what drugs to take. It’s deciding on vaccinations. The trio of COVID vaccinations was not welcomed by everyone. Some people decline to receive them. It used to be we had a right in Washington to decline medical aid. I guess that doesn’t count if a lot of pe...
It is often argued that managed health care can provide better clinical outcomes while holding down health care costs. Over the years, managed care has taken on many different names including health maintenance organizations, accountable care organizations, and medical homes for instance. The structure of managed care is based on a primary care provider who serves as a “gatekeeper” and coordinates the care of an individual patient with multiple specialists. The idea is tha...
The last week has not been good for small businesses in our part of the state. The U.S. Postal Service began slowing “snail mail” services. Stores were ordered to stop using plastic bags and required to make their paying customers pay for a paper bag. And the state announced the minimum wage would jump to $14.49 per hour Jan. 1. If you don’t own or manage a business, this may seem overly dramatic. Who cares if it takes an extra day for your mail to arrive, right? It’s only 8...
Food security is often thought of as a national topic, but food security starts locally. Washington state is part of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture has dubbed the “Fruitful Rim.” Yet, we are also home to numerous “food deserts” where food is hard to come by. The USDA defines a food desert as a “low-income tract where a substantial number or substantial share of residents does not have easy access to a supermarket or grocery store.” More specifically, food deserts are...
Last week, the WIAA unveiled its state tournament allocations for fall sports. These allocations determine how many teams each district gets to send to the state playoffs in these sports, which around here, include football, soccer and volleyball. No changes were seen in soccer and volleyball. District 7, which includes Davenport and Reardan, was given one berth in girls soccer and three in volleyball for the 2B state playoffs. A fair allocation, as the number of 2B girls...
Poland and America are like two trains passing each other in opposite directions. That is becoming increasingly clear as President Biden rolls out his progressive agenda. The key question looking forward: “Will government or consumers drive our economy?” Poland broke the shackles of Soviet communist domination three decades ago. Free for the first time since World War II, Poland cast off its yoke of government control and central planning in favor of an American-style free enterprise system where consumers, not elected offici...
Earlier in September, Davenport Lions Club secretary Jim Reinbold extended an invitation to have me come speak and answer questions about my experience as editor of The Times thus far at the Lions’ Sept. 21 meeting. I gladly accepted on the draw of sharing some thoughts and receiving free food and beer as an exchange, and thought I’d share some of those thoughts in this week’s paper as well. After enjoying a meal of Salisbury steaks and mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans...
For the entire year, the Columbia Basin Development League has been pushing to ensure the White House infrastructure plan would include water infrastructure for agriculture. Drinking water infrastructure was a given, but funding for aging reservoirs, dams, canals, and pipes that deliver irrigation for crops was more elusive. So was funding for new infrastructure desperately needed by the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program (OGWRP) that will replace water coming from a declining aquifer with reliable Columbia Basin...
There is an old humorous saying that goes something like, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” The expression certainly still applies to urban policymakers and commentators who seek to set agricultural policy in Washington state. The hard work of approximately 164,000 men and women in our agricultural industries produces more than 300 agricultural commodities. Our state’s agricultural industry ranks among the state’s top three economic engines. Yet un...
Sept. 11, 2001 – a day that no American who lived to see will ever forget. I was recently asked about where I was that day, and I remember it keenly, deeply. I think it's a question every American has an answer to-a moment engraved in time. Since it was early September, it was right in the middle of hop harvest. My cousin and I were working to unplug the picking machine, a more-than-common occurrence for hop farmers, when his wife called, crying. Those first moments that morning were ones of disbelief. Then, justification-it...
It is not surprising that COVID-19, which ravaged the world, was disastrous for our country’s economy. Millions died from COVID complications; offices, stores and factories closed; and people were forced to quarantine at home. The good news this Labor Day is vaccines are working and readily available. As a result, our job market has dramatically improved. People are eating out, shopping and traveling. Our economy is healing. Vaccines were developed and deployed at “warp speed” under President Donald Trump. Having Ameri...
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were billed as the “Hydrogen Olympics” Then along came COVID and sporting events worldwide were put on hold. The summer games were delayed until 2021. Postponing the games cost Japan billions and thwarted its efforts to showcase the Japanese “Green Growth” strategies. Japan, like the U.S., plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050. While countries like China are betting on lithium batteries, Japan’s centerpiece is hydrogen. As Japanese researchers develop new technology using renewable electrici...
On the evening of Aug. 29, several people smelled what they thought must be a natural-gas leak at the corner of First Avenue and Division Street in downtown Odessa. As calls went out to various Odessa governmental and emergency responders, as well as Avista, the natural-gas supplier for Odessa, the only immediate agency response came from Odessa Police Chief Les Jimerson. He came with lights flashing, cleared and blocked off the immediate area and then waited. And waited. And waited. Three hours or so later, an Avista truck a...
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were billed as the “Hydrogen Olympics” Then along came COVID and sporting events worldwide were put on hold. The summer games were delayed until 2021. Postponing the games cost Japan billions and thwarted its efforts to showcase the Japanese “Green Growth” strategies. Japan, like the U.S., plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050. While countries like China are betting on lithium batteries, Japan’s centerpiece is hydrogen. As Japanese researche...
It’s clear: Parents in Washington are sick of their children being used as pawns by radicals in power who wish to destroy family, children and faith. Widespread protests against mask mandates at school and vaccine mandates at work have erupted statewide, with many calling out Gov. Jay Inslee for his aggressive misuses and abuses of emergency powers. This has largely been a fight for religious freedom and individual liberty, but it is creeping onto another deeply disturbing frontier — the fight for parental rights. The see...
Some of you will know me for my mediocre skills on the volleyball/cheer/softball teams, or as the girl driving combine on the family farm or as the kid rolling her eyes in the grocery store because her dad won’t stop talking to everyone. But this is who I am today—a third year medical student, who is shocked at how her community has handled the pandemic. I grew up in Davenport and while applying to medical school, one of the things I emphasized during the admission process was how proud I was to come from a rural com...
Rodgers issues statement on vaccine approval and political cartoon, pg 3 1. Representative Rodgers should have been correct as per, “this approval will build more confidence and trust in the vaccines” but der fuhrer Inslee’s dictate requiring vaccinated citizens to wear a mask just tells us that the vaccines do not work. They do, just our governor being an idiot sends the wrong message.. 2. The political cartoon on pg 3 made little sense since not smoking in the presence of others saves lives while study after study by top u...
