Opinion

I just read the article by Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center ("Environmental groups perfect art of scare tactics," June 25) regarding, among other issues, the return of spring chinook on the Snake River. Cathy McMorris Rodgers put out the same information in a release to constituents on Wednesday of this week.

When I tell people that I cover politics for a living, the response I almost always hear is that people want Congress, or the Legislature, or fill-in-the-blank-government-entity to “put politics aside and solve problems.”

Advocates for congressional term limits have an easy target: representatives and senators so easily re-elected that they can elevate their own and their donors’ interests above those of their voters. Adding to this worry over real or perceived self-interest, with or without actual corruption, is concern about our long-serving elected leaders’ reduced capacities to govern as they age.

In a landmark First Amendment opinion, the Supreme Court has limited schools’ ability to punish students for off-campus speech. In a case involving a cheerleader who was suspended from her team after criticizing her coaches and the cheer program in a profane Snapchat post, the court held that the school had gone too far.

Time to fish or cut bait, everybody. We KNOW that Big Smoke is coming, just as surely as we have seen it over the past four or five years and that our only personal recourse, so far, is to hide in our houses in the vain hope that we may avoid having to breathe that poison.

I finally figured out what word best describes many Republicans - Mitch McConnell, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Kevin McCarthy et al. - and that would be "parasite." The second definition is "a person who habitually relies on or exploits others and gives nothing in return."

The arguments against the Spokane Public Schools (SPS) boundary changes are full of appeals to emotion, and claims without providing evidence. Claims of segregation based on socioeconomic status are unfounded and show a lack of understanding and wisdom. As someone who grew up in a segregated school, I find it highly insulting that someone would make these claims as a way to score quick political points during a time when real, fundamental change and attention to detail are needed.

Nearly everyone knows the story of the boy who cried wolf. The moral of the story is that if you lie repeatedly, people stop believing you.

Crises like the wallop imposed by COVID-19 on the economy cry out for leadership.

I’m the executive chef of a local restaurant with 21 years in the restaurant industry and take pride in serving delicious, wholesome and – above all – safe food.