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

This content reflects the opinions of the writers. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

Latest Stories

Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Outside view: Why do Americans think their neighbors are ‘bad’ people?

We Americans are a proud bunch. We are a nation founded on the principles of freedom and the rule of law, and our commitment to these values has propelled human flourishing to new heights and made us the leader of the free world. But in recent years, as our politics and media have become more toxic, we have become more cynical. Now our cynicism is making us stand out in a bad way. A recent Pew ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Leana S. Wen: The CDC is in chaos. But here’s where it’s devastating.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been without a permanent director since the removal of Susan Monarez in August. Its recently installed acting director, Jay Bhattacharya, is also running the National Institutes of Health, located hundreds of miles from the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta. The CDC has also lost scores of senior staff and shuttered key programs, including those focusing on tobacco control and injury prevention.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Michelle Goldberg: The idea that Trump was anti-war was always delusional

In 2023, JD Vance, then a freshman senator from Ohio, endorsed Donald Trump for president in a Wall Street Journal column headlined “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars.” It suggested that despite his impolitic rhetoric, Trump was a statesman who understood that “the U.S. national interest must be pursued ruthlessly but also carefully, with strong words but great restraint.”
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Commentary: Corporate America’s new slogan: Make more, pay less

America is now living in what might be called the Age of the Corporation. Corporate profits, after having reached 8% of GDP only once in the previous 94 years, have averaged 9% since 2021. The statutory corporate income tax rate, meanwhile, is now just 21% — down from 52% in 1960 — as federal tax revenue from corporations has fallen from 4% of GDP to just 1.8% in that same period. That’s how ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Paula J. Dobriansky and Paul J. Saunders: How to make NATO great again

At January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the collapse of the rules-based order. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz likewise declared at February’s Munich Security Conference that the rules-based “order, imperfect as it was even at the best of times, no longer exists.” Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the American delegation in Munich, was more forward-looking, announcing a “new era in geopolitics” ahead of the trip and outlining a vision for a NATO that retains what works while adapting to new realities.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Heidi Stevens: Dissenting Americans keep making lemonade out of Trump’s lemons — including his hockey call

For the first time in history, the USA women’s hockey team and the USA men’s hockey team both won gold at the same Olympic Winter Games. The men’s team last won gold in 1980, against Finland, shortly after defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union in a match that stunned and sustained a weary nation. The game against the Soviets, which inspired the fantastic movie “Miracle,” happened exactly ...
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

George F. Will: Stand back, Congress needs a second Supreme Court jolt

By curtailing the president regarding tariffs, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday perhaps applied a defibrillator to Congress. Its weak contemporary heartbeat threatens the constitutional architecture of powers separated, checked and balanced. But Congress’s fluttering pulse requires a stronger jolt than last week’s 6-3 decision. It addressed only part of the problem that Congress has created by behavior that fuels today’s rampant presidency.