Letters for Thursday, Jan. 29

Chamber endorses ‘yes’ vote for East Valley schools

The $220 million East Valley School District bond measure supporting new facilities for the school district will appear on Feb. 10 special election ballots.

East Valley’s facilities have served generations, but were constructed close to six decades ago, the district’s high school and middle school buildings are in critical need of replacement and modernization.

For student safety, effective education, and building a competitive local workforce, timing matters. This measure maximizes an estimated $55 million in state matching funds that are only available if the bond passes now. The bond prioritizes the construction of the high school and middle school, ensuring safe, functional, and essential infrastructure to meet today’s advancing curriculum.

While the district hasn’t passed a bond in 30 years, further delaying this investment doesn’t just postpone needed improvements but will also result in higher costs. With construction inflation rising each year, this election will protect taxpayers and reduce long-term costs in the future.

The plan reflects urgency and fiscal care, including input and perspectives from parents, educators, community members, and business leaders. This collaborative process is the kind of strategic planning and accountability our business community values and supports.

Quality schools are pillars of economic resilience, community pride, and long-term opportunity. A vote “yes” on the bond is a vote for a stronger East Valley today and for generations to come.

Lance Beck

President & CEO of Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce

Spokane Valley

Baumgartner supports independent query on shooting

When I was a kid, I liked watching “The Rifleman.” I liked it especially when Luke would stand up for what was right, even if others in the town didn’t agree. He would often explain his reasoning to his son about doing what was just.

I thought about that show when I first read Congressman Baumgartner is one of the brave Republicans calling for further investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti.

While I rarely agree with his political stance, I want to stand up and say I appreciate his humanity in this instance. Stepping away from the vitriolic rhetoric of DHS and the White House, and suggesting the need for a separate inquiry, the congressman is showing there is a limit. Hopefully this is the beginning of his willingness to break away from the pack and his openness to looking carefully at issues from many perspectives.

Eleanor V. Lathem

Spokane

A sleeping giant awakens

In the Monday S-R, I found Michael Baumgartner’s message to his constituents regarding the Saturday murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of nine masked thugs employed by the federal government. Having viewed the videos of the event, Baumgartner described his reaction as “disturbed” and called for a congressional investigation.

That struck me as like watching the live feed of the second 9/11 airliner strike the World Trade Center and calling your family to say you were “disturbed.” The S-R report further characterized Baumgartner as being among the Republican legislators most critical of Kristi Noem, the Border Patrol and ICE. Taking Baumgartner’s level of outrage as a measure of the will of Republicans to resist the administration’s assault on democracy and freedom, I doubt we can hope for much from a congressional investigation.

William Siems

Spokane

Baumgartner must uphold the Constitution

Back in September, 5th District Rep. Michael Baumgartner celebrated Constitution Day on Instagram. A year ago, he took an oath to support and defend our Constitution as a newly elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives. I ask Rep. Baumgartner to act on that oath by upholding the responsibility of Congress to exercise its constitutional oversight of the executive branch.

Our president is sending unqualified and untrained agents into the streets of our cities where they are murdering citizens. Citizens are being detained without due process. Our president is justifying this tragically un-American activity with falsehoods borne of his own alternate reality.

Congress must demand that the actions of agents acting in the name of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are independently investigated to ensure that our constitutional rights to assemble, to due process, to lawfully keep and bear arms, are not infringed upon by our own government. Please Rep. Baumgartner must show his district that he is serving the Constitution and the people, not the vainglorious demands of a president bent on destroying both.

Mary Douthitt

Spokane

Minnesota killings by ICE

With the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti, and the earlier killing of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, a recent statement on Threads by Michael Schecter should become a challenge to all Americans: “We are officially living out the part of history that makes school kids in the future ask, ‘Why didn’t anyone do anything to stop them?’ ”

In Spokane, the kids have taken it upon themselves to try to stop them. High school kids all over the area have stepped out of school to express their outrage at ICE. At Gonzaga, students have expressed dismay at the tepid response by the school’s administration. Also, Spokane faith leaders have raised their voices at the Cathedral of St. John. They all deserve our admiration and support.

The question becomes will the people of Eastern Washington listen to them. It is hard to say. Eastern Washington voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Republican voters knew Trump was a sexual predator 10 years ago. He bragged about it and his voters didn’t care. After losing to Biden in 2020, they didn’t care when Trump summoned the mob to overturn the election, which ended in the beating of police officers and sacking the Capitol.

Good’s and Pretti’s killings are reminiscent of 9/11. Americans remember when the first plane hit Tower One and then the next plane hitting Tower Two …

These Minneapolis killings should evoke a similar response. It’s later than you might think.

Michael Burns

Spokane

Postmark changes at USPS

The USPS has implemented new procedures which mean letters, bills, tax forms, and yes, your ballots, will be postmarked when they are processed through centralized sorting facilities. Additionally, under the new rules, no evening mail pickup will occur for towns more than 50 miles from the processing center at the Spokane airport.

The significance of this is that mail dropped in rural areas in surrounding counties may not be postmarked until a day or two after the Post Office takes possession of the mail. This may create real challenges for rural consumers dealing with deadline-driven mail, from IRS filings, property tax payments and Medicare documents to mail-in ballots and government benefit notices. These rule changes affect about 70% of all ZIP codes.

Small businesses are impacted as well. Local newspapers with public notices have been delayed all over the region, often arriving after the event has been held. Small businesses that mail tax returns, payments to vendors, or other legal documents near a deadline may find the official postmark date is after the due date, potentially leading to late fees, penalties, or rejected filings.

So while election ballots may be the most publicized aspect of these rule changes, they have broader implications. Election season is here, tax season is coming. That the USPS did little to inform us of the changes is indefensible.

Let Rep. Baumgartner know about it.

Angela C. Glenewinkel

Republic, Washington

Time for a new treaty

I’m writing to thank the organizations behind a billboard on North Market Street.

Facing north at Liberty Street, it urges we contact our representatives in D.C. about the need for a nuclear weapons agreement between the U.S. and Russian governments. The current one, nicknamed New START for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, expires Feb. 5. That agreement has limited the numbers of nuclear warheads each government will maintain. It further restricts development and test detonations of these weapons of mass destruction.

This is a global and local issue. The extreme toxicity of fallout from bomb tests in the Marshall Islands and from waste materials at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has caused cancers, thyroid problems and other health issues to people living in our community. The materials used in these systems stay radioactive for thousands of years.

We need another treaty. One that reduces these numbers further and reduces the likelihood of accidental launch. Specifically the number of armed warheads and those on mobile systems.

In reality, no number is safe. Deterrence is a myth. For facts visit Back From the Brink’s website at preventnuclearwar.org or NWANW.org/newstart.

People seem to have forgotten the existential threat nuclear weapons and power plants pose to humanity and our natural environment.

So … for their diligence, compassion and ongoing work to bring sanity and awareness to a war-torn world … thank you to Physicians for Social Responsibility, Spokane Veterans for Peace and Northwest Against Nuclear Weapons.

Jamieson Kelly

Spokane