Since passage of the Clean Energy Transformation Act in 2019, Gov. Jay Inslee has zeroed in on expediting building alternative energy sources. The regionwide implications for central and Eastern Washington haven’t been part of the equation, an oversight in calculating cost and benefit which is the focus of the Rural Clean Energy Study.
Every year, this newspaper runs a special issue featuring stories about students graduating from the region’s high schools. It’s coming up on that time again, and I am again happy to be part of the process.
With candidate filing over in Washington and the primary election season moving into DefCon1 for some offices, the average voter might want to brace now for the onslaught of campaign rhetoric.
My coffee column had percolated for a few weeks before I was ready to spill the beans but the response from readers proved as satisfying as a rich cup of French roast.
When the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made their final decision on translocating grizzly bears to the North Cascades, important voices weren’t meaningfully consulted. Not just human voices, but the grizzly bears.
On this day 52 years ago I found myself standing in a mountainous area near the unincorporated community of Big Creek, Idaho, between Wallace and Kellogg, as the biggest and most deadly mine disaster in the history of the state was unfolding.
The post-convention results of candidate endorsements are going to leave some newbies to the political process disillusioned. As Inigo Montoya said in “The Princess Bride,” “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”
The ability to buy a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds for a firearm is temporarily on hold. Whether that ban continues may rely on whether the state’s Supreme Court commissioner is as persuaded as a Cowlitz County judge that such a law violates the Second Amendment and various historic precedents.
A comic strip I saw some years ago showed a little boy (it might have been Dennis the Menace) kneeling by the side of his bed, saying his nighttime prayers. With hands together in prayer position he said, “Please, God, grant me patience … now!”
Earth Day is an annual reminder of our connection to the planet. How we define that relationship depends on where we see our place in the universe. What is our responsibility for the Earth and how do we live it out?
What if the looming calamities of climate change, plastic pollution, the energy crisis and our whole environmental doom-scroll are symptoms of just one malady and it’s something we actually can fix?
