Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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Michael Baumgartner is hostile to his constituents and generally all Washingtonians. He claims to be a “state’s rights guy”, as Republicans used to be until most congressional Republicans now cowardly won’t stand up against President Donald Trump’s wannabe all-powerful dictatorship. Accordingly, Baumgartner fell in line with House Republican colleagues by recently joining a letter from the House Judicial Committee to Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown. The letter, in effect, claims that Trump’s extremely c...
Michael Baumgartner is, figuratively speaking, “all-over-the-map” about Ukraine—but effectively supporting Russia. He agrees that Russia clearly started the war and was/is the aggressor, and he’s assured Thrive International Ukrainian refugees that he opposes their deportation. But he completely undercuts that by his Ritzville Town Hall statement, “I don’t think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy is doing a great job”, and by his outlandish calls for Zelenskyy to resign after President Donald Trump humiliated Ze...
Has U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, no nation-wide condemnation and world apology for how President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance humiliated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28? Baumgartner’s subsequent call for Zelenskyy’s resignation makes no sense, given his statement that Russia clearly started the war and has been the aggressor. On second thought, it makes great sense considering his already evident cowardice in standing up to Trump, Vance and Elon Musk. Baumgartner certainly lacks the spine of P...
I was absolutely appalled to see a smiling Rep. Michael Baumgartner post about his “good week” on social media just days after voting to approve a budget resolution that would cut $880 billion from Medicaid- a program that 54% of children in Washington’s 5th congressional district rely on for healthcare. The budget also increases spending for immigration enforcement, increases the debt ceiling, and directs budget cuts for the education and workforce, agriculture, and transportation and infrastructure committees. It looks...
We are writing this message to publicly give a huge thank you to the staff at Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center for the wonderful and compassionate care for our mother December 13, 2024 through January 7, 2025. We want to acknowledge the Administrator Barbara, Dr. Heath, and Social Services leader Kennedy, and many wonderful nurses (Aimee, Lori, Christine, to name a few, and many others) who were so caring and supporting of mother and our family during her stay there. It is difficult enough to lose someone so dear, but...
Spokesman-Review’s February 2 lead article described the deafening silence from congressional Republicans, true of our new US Representative Michael Baumgartner, in their response to Donald Trump’s unprecedented destructive and dangerous executive orders during his first two weeks in office. This silence was especially evident in Baumgartner’s long January 31 Email message, his first to constituents since Trump’s orders commenced. So is Baumgartner closely following in the steps of his predecessor, Cathy McMorris Rodgers...
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 is...
We know President Trump’s four-year track record — no wars, secure borders, energy independence (selling oil instead of buying from our enemies), lowest unemployment in decades, highest employment of black persons, fulfilled promise to bring U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, built up our military, initiated Space Force to help protect America and still fighting for America despite getting shot and a second attempt on his life by Democrat operatives. And that’s only a partial list. We also know Kamala Harris’ track record. As Cali...
We have an unparalleled opportunity to elect someone amazing to the House of Representatives in the 5th Legislative District. Carmela Conroy is this candidate and she comes with training as a lawyer, experience as a prosecuting attorney and years serving in the U.S. Foreign Service. It is our important outreach arm for building good relationships with other countries of the world. She has served in Japan with Tom Foley, Pakistan, Oslo, Norway, and Afghanistan, as well as having other international experiences. With the...
Those of us who drive Hawk Creek Road on a daily basis by necessity were grateful when Lincoln County paved about 5.5 miles of the road between Gunning Road and Miles-Creston Road in 2023. We were mystified as to why the remaining 1.5 miles of the road were left unpaved, but we thought perhaps the County just could not find the money to finish the job. Now, after the county has repaved the same 5.5 miles of the road, leaving the same 1.5-mile stretch in a dusty, washboarded state of dirt road, we don’t know what to think. I...
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...
The Olympic Games is the mountain top of the athletic realm. After all, when you consider the thousands of young people who dedicate their lives to become a participant in those games and the millions of spectators who eagerly wait every four years to watch these wonderful athletes perform, it must be a world event. Then came Paris. In the opening ceremony, when then mockery of the “Lord’s Supper” — which in my mind had nothing to do with the Olympics — it avalanched the entire ceremony into the cesspool of humanity....
One of six initiatives introduced by Republican-allied group Let’s Go Washington, Initiative 2081 gave parents and guardians of school children certain rights, including the right to examine textbooks, curriculum and any supplemental materials used in their children’s classrooms. Although that’s innocent language, the 2024 Democratic-majority state Legislature was understandably suspicious. So, it passed a similar parental “bill of rights” that removed the initiative from the upcoming Nov. 5 ballot. Two other initiativ...
I wonder if any farmers who signed up for wind turbines did any research of their own or if they have taken serious note of WHY others are raising objections to wind turbines? Research shows that wind turbines have many serious negatives. I also seriously question why farmers in this area consider themselves “poor” when they have so many government subsidies supporting them. How many subsidies do nonfarmers get? So, people, how much is enough? And why is Mill Canyon being targeted? At least half of Mill Canyon is now sur...
I have read all your articles in the paper and I find that you are doing a very good job trying to balance both sides of the issues regarding the wind turbine proposal. I am on the side that is totally against them. I think the citizens of this county need to hear from others who have opinions very contrary to the farmers who have signed leases and the wind turbine companies. Plus I find it troubling when the wind turbine companies can’t answer simple questions directed their way. I am the one who asked them about the use of...
Two years ago I wrote a letter to the Odessa School Board asking them to remove my picture from our 1967 class graduation picture. I wasn’t given the respect of a response to my letter. Our class picture was damaged, by another class mate, who tore his picture out of the frame. I was willing to pay for that damage and the change I requested. I’m asking again that my picture be removed as I’m motivated to end my association with Odessa. Seems three out of four of you don’t believe in keeping our Democracy and the Democra...
Let’s have a look at the benefits of dams to human life with a special focus on Grand Coulee Dam. It is the largest hydroelectric producing facility in the U.S. and provides enough electricity to power about 2 million households every year, 68% of all Washington state households. Please keep in mind too, that it is just one of 145 hydroelectric dams in the state. Grand Coulee dam prompted the creation of the “U.S. Bureau of Reclamations Columbia Basin Project” which converted 670,000 acres (over 1,000 square-miles) of forme...
I remember Senator Patty Murray as the “soccer mom,” good for you. The lower Snakes River recent bill brings the tribes onboard. Monumental has a concrete fish way-ladder. Lock and Dam continue to work for barges. Adaptable for fish? Or use a big tunnel-boring machine to notch on the side of a zig-zag fish ladder? Cooperation’s/ compromise, not contempt or hard-headedness or extremism. You/ Governor Inslee/ President Biden need to take a step back some and look at the whole picture. Climate change (mankind only adds 3% to th...
I went to a community meeting about a proposed wind generation project encompassing Reardan and Davenport. First off. This project and the one in southern Lincoln county are huge. These have the economic power to rival or eclipse agriculture. Let that sink in a bit. Farming could take second seat to the concerns of power generation. The thought of seeing wind towers on the horizons of the county sickens me. Look around Colfax and see what I mean. One of the thoughts outside of the forum was why were they offering just a flat...
If you haven’t seen how ugly wind farms are you need to get out more. Go south to Colfax or Dayton and look at how they have destroyed the beauty of the rolling hills of the Palouse and breaks of the Tucannon in Whitman and Columbia counties, respectively. Even along the Columbia Gorge, do you see how it has destroyed the natural beauty. The only ones who win in this waste of dollars is the manufacturer of the turbine and the landowner upon which it sits. The losers are the rest of us who have to look at the eyesores and t...
Monumental Dam has a concrete fish ladder. Its lock works for barge. Rather than breach the dam – or others on the Lower Snake River – how about using a tunnel-boring machine to notch an on the side an additional zig-zag fish ladder? The answer is cooperation or compromise – not contempt or hard-headed, extremism on breaching. Sen. Murray, Gov. Jay Inslee and President Joe Biden need to step back and look at the whole picture. Errol Kramer Odessa/Ritzville...
Persons who have dwarfism (also referred to as “little people”) frequently experience employment discrimination. Although they can perform any job task well – often needing only a stool – employers frequently reject them during interview. Bars and strip clubs exploit the resulting financial problems by hiring “LPs” for dwarf-tossing events, where bar patrons pay to physically throw an them in front of a crowd of laughing and jeering customers. LPs very frequently have skeletal (especially spinal) issues requiring multiple su...
As a long-time Washingtonian I am alarmed and scared by the rise in crime in our neighborhoods and cities. Even in broad daylight it can feel unsafe just to go to the grocery store. Basic common sense dictates that fewer police officers make all of us less safe. With the wave of support for defunding the police and protecting criminals – instead of victims- these “progressive” lawmakers in Olympia are failing us and making us less safe. Washington ranks 51st – the lowest – in the country for police officer staffing....
Our problem is not that there is too much “fake news.” Our problem is that too many people believe it. Fortunately, there is an “antidope” — epistemology , the theory of knowledge or “how we know what we know.” Epistemology is a good solution because it has validity tests to distinguish between justified belief and opinion. And this distinction is central to most disagreements. Epistemology has simple and clarifying definitions, e.g., Truth has the property that corresponds with facts and reality. Can you imagine how m...
I had the great privilege of completing a summer internship in the now historic Hull-House in Chicago in the early 1960’s, more than 50 years ago. During that time, the Hull House was gradually closing, as the neighborhood it served had moved. I was astonished to learn that in “the olden days” (think 1920’s) the settlement house served immigrant families whose children worked in factories, and often did not attend school. Frequently, little children were tied to furniture all day, while their parents worked. We have come a...
