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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Opinion >  Editorial

Outside view: Indoctrination in Idaho public schools? Christian nationalist group says, ‘bring it on’

Talk about indoctrination in public schools. Idaho’s resident Christian nationalist organization, the Idaho Family Policy Center, is circulating a petition to “call upon the Idaho State Legislature to pass legislation so that daily Bible readings — without instruction or comment, and with appropriate conscience protections — will once again take place in every state-funded public school.” To ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Editorial: U.N. speeches reflect grim global realities

The world, warned President Joe Biden, is at an “inflection point.” The world, warned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “is in a whirlwind.” “Our task, our test,” the president said, “is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart.” Today’s choices, he said, “will determine our future for decades to come.” “We are in an era of epic ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Idaho Statesman: Is Idaho ‘Trump Country’? 3.4% of Idaho voters sure think so

Over the weekend, Donald Trump received 85% of the votes in the Idaho Republican caucus, meaning that — as expected — he’ll receive all of the state’s 32 Republican delegates to the national convention. That led Idaho GOP Party chairwoman Dorothy Moon to declare Idaho is definitively “Trump Country,” according to the Idaho Capital Sun. Trump beat former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Delaying Kohberger trial will help to ensure this death penalty case is done right | Opinion

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing to death four University of Idaho students in November, waived his right to a speedy trial on Wednesday. That allows the judge in the case, 2nd Judicial District Judge John Judge, to schedule Kohberger’s trial later than the previously scheduled start date of Oct. 2. We all want resolution in this case, but Oct. 2 was an aggressive timeline. Rushing ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Bloomberg Editorial Board: Biden is right to send cluster bombs to Ukraine

President Joe Biden's decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine has generated heated opposition from close U.S. allies, human-rights groups, and current and former politicians, who question the morality of deploying weapons banned by more than 100 countries. Greater use of cluster bombs may well increase the death toll for both combatants and civilians. Failing to supply Ukraine with the arms it needs to prevail would be worse.
Opinion >  Editorial

Miami Herald: DeSantis’ book ban is here. Don’t say gay, don’t say ‘slave’ at this Miami-Dade school

Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, read “The Hills We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, watched by about 40 million people. She wrote the poem so “that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment,” she posted on Twitter Tuesday. But Gorman’s poem is now deemed not age appropriate, one of four library titles Bob Graham Education Center banned, following a parent’s complaint, for elementary school students, the Herald reported. 
Opinion >  Editorial

Outside view: A welcome revolt against the flawed college ranking system

A handful of top medical schools, including Stanford and Columbia, pulled out of U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings in January, following a similar exodus of more than a dozen law schools, including UC Berkeley, Yale and Harvard, late last year. It’s a welcome development that is overdue. Undergraduate institutions and other graduate schools should follow this lead. For too long, ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Outside view: Idaho Supreme Court’s abortion decision based on flawed ‘originalism’ reasoning | Opinion

It should come as no surprise that the Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday issued a ruling fairly quickly upholding Idaho’s abortion ban. The justices didn’t have to do much work; all they had to do was copy and paste from the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. In shooting down a challenge to Idaho’s abortion ban, the Idaho Supreme Court took a page – or a few – ...
Opinion >  Editorial

Sue Lani Madsen: Respect for the defense of marriage

In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. Sens. Joe Biden and Patty Murray were two of the 85 senators voting Yea. Last month, the Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act with 61 votes in favor, repealing DOMA to eliminate gender as a criterion and acknowledging the debate belongs at the state level.