Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Latest Stories

Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Can St. Patrick and green beer save American democracy?

Let’s make a few things crystal clear right up front. First and foremost, green beer has always been a bad choice and is without any saving grace. I also doubt that even St. Patrick in his prime could drive all the political snakes out of today’s Washington. The history of St. Patrick’s Day itself is not without major warts – particularly regarding who could and couldn’t participate.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: ‘Oppenheimer’s’ best performance — reminding us that we live in dangerous times

On Oscar night, millions will tune in to see whether the captivating story about the race to create the world’s first nuclear weapon will take home an armload of Academy Awards. As we watch, we must remember this: No matter who lands a golden statuette on March 10, we will all wake up on March 11 just one terrible miscalculation, accident or deliberate act of madness away from ...

Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Trudy Rubin: Gaza needs humanitarian aid now — with or without a cease-fire

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is far too serious to remain unresolved as Israel and Hamas play chicken with negotiations over a temporary cease-fire. While Palestinian families eat leaves, grind animal feed to make bread, and babies die from malnutrition, Israel and Hamas are dawdling over finalizing a U.S.-backed plan for a humanitarian cease-fire that would permit a partial hostage ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Charles M. Blow: Arab American fury toward Biden

On Monday, at a hip Arab coffee shop in Dearborn, Michigan, Nihad Awad, a co-founder and the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, told me that as a Palestinian American Muslim who voted for Joe Biden in 2020, he feels “betrayed bitterly” over the administration’s position on the war in the Gaza Strip.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Without even ruling on Trump’s immunity claim, the Supreme Court handed him a huge victory

Given the Supreme Court’s possible responses to Donald Trump’s appeal of the D.C. Circuit’s denial of his claim of immunity from prosecution, the justices’ decision Wednesday has to be counted as a gift to the former president. That’s because the court came through for him on the most important axis: time. The court’s fairly Delphic order retains a stay on the case pending its consideration of ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Is America still the indispensable nation?

Back in 1998, Madeleine Albright, then the secretary of state, called the United States the “indispensable nation.” She meant that this country, armed with unmatchable force and influence, stood at the helm of a web of alliances and global organizations that guided world events. More than 50 years after the invention of nuclear weapons, the U.S. had presided over a Pax Americana that had kept the peace among the nuclear powers.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Sabine von Mering: Peace is necessary to give the climate a chance

When my son was a teenager and he first began to notice what I do for work, he used to roll his eyes when he saw the books I was reading: “Why do you like reading about all this depressing stuff, Mom? World War II, the Holocaust, climate change?” Why indeed. As a professor of German and European studies, the answer is complicated. Last semester, I taught two courses — one on European ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Trump would drain the South Carolina wallets that Haley helped fill

When Donald Trump won 20 of Iowa’s 40 nominating delegates – 20 of the 2,429 who will be allocated nationally; 20 of the 1,215 needed to nominate – he declared the game over. Enlarging his emotional repertoire – leavening a barrel of petulance with a pinch of synthetic magnanimity – he said it is “time now for everybody, our country, to come together.” Presumably, he was not inviting to this group hug those Americans he calls “vermin.”
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Pamela Paul: ‘Barbie’ is bad. There, I said it.

We can all agree 2023 was a good year for the movies. Critically and commercially, several movies did well, and only one of those successes took place within the Marvel cinematic universe. Even the 10 Oscar nominees for best picture, announced Tuesday, included nine actually good films.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Paul Krugman: Bidencare is a really big deal

In 2010, at the signing of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, Joe Biden, the vice president at the time, was caught on a hot mic telling President Barack Obama that the bill was a “big deal.” OK, there was actually another word in the middle. Anyway, Biden was right.