Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 1380 - 1404 of 2581
To The Eagle: Mexico cannot afford to pay $25-billion right now for a wall. So why can't the U.S. give them a break in the price and showcase our modern technology by using drones and extra manpower to guard the border? We could save Mexico about $20 billion. I bet they would appreciate the great reduction in price and front the money to pay for the technology and manpower update for border security. I'm not trying to offend anyone who thinks it's a great idea to have the USA pay the $25 billion and forgo the promises of Mexico paying the...
To The Eagle: To hear and read the hysterical utterings rampant among some of our fellow citizens is both enjoyable and unsettling at the same time. I've been paying attention to national politics since my youth. This year has been exhilarating and hopeful for many of us who have been agonized over our country's drift to collectivism and nihilism. The economy seems to be getting better. Let's not ruin the mood with Hitler comparisons and pussy hats. Sincerely, Mike Swift Cathlamet...
To the Eagle: Last Thursday, a week ago, was a landmark day for us. We spent a lot of it driving up and down SR4 and I-5 listening to a cascade of breaking news on radio stations from Longview to Portland. Domestic news: Unemployment at historic lows; minority unemployment at lowest ever since record keeping began; female unemployment at a 17-year low. Stocks market at record breaking highs; 81 Fortune 500 companies giving large bonuses to all employees; Amazon to build new $30 billion campus; Apple repatriating $250 billion from overseas – wil...
To The Eagle: Two cheers for Krist Novoselic (letter in last week’s Eagle) for nailing a bad problem ($20 trillion national debt) and its cause (profligate government spending). As an erstwhile and capable leader of the Democrat Party effort in this county, we’ve long hoped Krist would eventually drift toward the conservative side of the ledger, and his comments on indulgent government squandering indicate he has – so why only two cheers? He lost that third one by characterizing a vote for the tax cut as contributing another tril-‘n- a-half...
To The Eagle: Allow me to applaud Krist Novoselic’s assertion that less knee-jerk partisanship and a restored focus on “real problems” would be healthy for Wahkiakum County. During a recent visit, I encountered a harder, more bitter right-left divide than I remember from my term as Cathlamet’s mayor (2010-13). I also sensed that tensions between old-timers and newcomers are intensifying beyond the point where the cross-current of ideas and perspectives is healthful to one where hard “camps” are emerging. In one instance, a friend shared that...
To The Eagle: The Naselle-Grays River Valley School District Board of Directors recently authorized the placement of a three year maintenance and operations levy on the February 13 ballot. This is a replacement of the existing levy at just under half the rate that taxpayers are currently paying. The rate for the proposed levy is $1.50 per $1,000 dollars of assessed valuation, or $150 per year for a $100,000 home. The current school levy expires in December 2018. The replacement levy, if passed, will be collected in calendar years 2019, 2020...
To The Eagle: I was born and raised on Puget Island and went to Wahkiakum High School. I'm of Norwegian descent and raised in a Protestant, commercial fishing family. I'm now 65 years old, and I see a lot of things that need to be fixed in this country. I'm disabled. I want to go back to work. Years ago, I was in a car wreck; a man came out of nowhere from behind at a high rate of speed as I was making a left turn in a 35 mph zone. The impact was so great that it knocked out the caps and fillings in my teeth. I was in severe pain with a back...
To The Eagle: Future scholars will sift through Trump’s digital proclamations the way we now read the chroniclers of Nero’s Rome - to understand how an unhinged emperor can make a mockery of republican institutions, undo the collective nervous system of a nation and degrade the whole of public life. Chaotic, corrupt, incurious, infantile, grandiose, obsessed with gaudy real estate and his own inflated self regard, Donald Trump is of Neronic temperament. Longing for undying fame, he has always craved attention. Now the whole world is his aud...
To the Eagle: I was recently having dinner out with friends. Over the courses, the conversation ultimately became partisan. These folks, with a liberal political opinion, seemed obsessed with how President Donald Trump needs to be removed from office. The conversation never got around to policy issues such as the liability of our $20 trillion debt, the broken healthcare system, foreign relations or other aspects of what we should refer to as politics. Now, some Liberals seem enchanted with the idea of Oprah Winfrey as the next president! This i...
To The Eagle: We want to say thank you to all of the people of Wahkiakum County that participated in helping with the Star Program for the 2017 season; Mrs. Merz’s class for fundraising and purchasing gifts, the high school classes that also raised money and shopped for extras, the families that took stars and for the businesses that allowed us to place our trees. We also appreciate the monetary gifts that completed 10 emergency families’ needs. NovaLee Knopp Director, Wahkiakum County Star Program Not a Wahkiakum County funded age...
To The Eagle: I recently made my first online purchase. I got what I wanted and I got it in two days. Sounds good, yeah? Well along the way I read a report on how Amazon is actually taking business away from the Big Box stores. So what? They have it coming for wiping out all the local Mom and Pop stores, right? Here is something to consider. I am 70 years of age and I can remember when anything and everything we needed was available locally or we made it ourselves from whatever was to hand. Again, so what? Along comes the big box stores and wip...
To The Eagle: The Lower Columbia Indivisible Group is inviting folks from throughout the Lower Columbia area to join them for a 2018 Women’s March on Saturday, January 20, from 11 am to 1 pm. This march celebrates the anniversary of last year’s marches where more than 4 million people participated worldwide, including approximately 200 people in Longview. There’s more reason now than ever to come together. Folks will meet at the Longview Civic Circle. For those not familiar with the circle, it is a large traffic circle with a park in the middl...
To The Eagle: There is one disease that can explain the symptoms of the Cuban-American brain disease happening to the American embassy workers and not happening to the Cubans in the area. The Cubans, millions of them, were immunized a couple of years ago against a water-borne disease named Leptospirosis, which is also the cause of elk hoof rot. Leptospirosis (lepto) can and does cause malfunction of every organ of the body of mammals except the salivary glands. Americans do not get the vaccine. We do not have a vaccine for leptospira approved...
To the Eagle: I feel compelled to comment on the article in the Eagle (12/21/17) from the Columbia Basin Bulletin, “Group Tests Fish Trap above Cathlamet.” I attended the Wild Fish Conservancy presentation to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission and noted several inaccuracies, and the CBB added a few more. 1. Fish traps were never the “massive” harvest technology on the Columbia. They were outlawed in 1936 in Washington and 1948 in Oregon because many, if not most, were vertically integrated with the fish packers, and were being use...
To The Eagle: I would like to take this opportunity to address a couple of issues: The first is on a personal level. I imagine that many of you have heard that I will be retiring June 30, 2018. It will mark the end of my 24th year as the superintendent of Wahkiakum School District, and I just want to let everyone know what a rewarding and enjoyable tenure it has been for me. My “hat is off” to the board of directors, staff members, students and community members of this fine school district. You all make this such an awesome place to live and...
To The Eagle: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Forgive, please, the obvious rip-off of Charles Dicken's immortal line from the opening of Tale of Two Cities, but it seems rather appropriate given the times we share as Americans. It is heartening to note that ignorance and disgusting behavior was voted out by the enlightened citizens of Alabama in last week's senatorial election. It is disheartening to hear that the current administration is beginning to ban words that don't agree with the narrative they want in place to...
To The Eagle: We would like to express appreciation to the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Department for their help recently. Our daughter, visiting over Thanksgiving weekend, locked her keys in her Jeep. A call to the sheriff's department brought two deputies, Mike Balch and Josh Scholten, to our aid on a chilly, rainy day. We thank you gentlemen, along with all members of the department for all the services you provide our community. Char and Rick Damitio Cathlamet...
I am pleased to announce that the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office is coordinating a Shop With a Cop Program this year. Thanks to donors, Emergency Manager Beau Renfro, and the STARS volunteers we are making this wish a reality. On Saturday December 16th, 10 kids will be accompanied by deputies and reserves from the Sheriff's Office to shop for gifts for family members and will receive a gift themselves. Deputies will convoy to Longview with their designated child and help them pick out gifts. Once they are all through shopping the kids and...
To The Eagle: I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful the stock market has been on a steady climb for eight years now; too bad I and many do not own stocks. Hopefully it will keep going that way. Trump and Republicans want to eliminate the Consumer Protection [Agency], which was initiated after the big bank and stock debacle in 2007. I am thankful employment rate is continuing to improve at the same steady rate it has for the last eight years. I am thankful some less fortunate people still get some medical insurance relief, desp...
To The Eagle: I have wondered for years why it is that the Corps of Engineers can dredge the river and promote heavy ship traffic up and down the river at speeds that cause large enough wakes to cause such a large amount of damage to the banks of the river and not take or be held responsible for that damage. Any vessel owner will tell you that they are responsible for the wake they create. Why aren’t the people who cause the wakes that are causing the erosion and or the people who are encouraging the vessel traffic? Perhaps it's time for all t...
To The Eagle: More great news from our favorite president; President Trump has put forth 59 names for district and appeals courts around the country. He has the potential to flip the balance for the judiciary from liberal to conservative. He has filled eight appeals court seats in just 10 months. Neil Gorsuch, his Supreme Court choice, has the potential to serve for several decades. And his pending nominees for Supreme Court are going to overturn the current 4 to 4, one swing vote alignment to a more originalist and sensible court. My wife...
To The Eagle: I wish my family was getting ready to go elk hunting. I wish we were shopping for supplies, setting up our camp along the Coweeman River, and maybe even doing some scouting on the weekends. Instead, my dad, my uncle, my brother and the rest of our hunting party are boycotting our Department of Fish and Wildlife and Weyerhaeuser for the fourth consecutive year. It all began when a pitifully unsuccessful black powder rifle season prompted my family to start attending meetings and asking tough questions about why there were so few...
To The Eagle: I voted Gary Johnson for president in the last election. One of his messages was how much debt the US government carries and how bad this is for our future. During the election of 2016, federal debt was over 19 trillion dollars. The amount of debt is now over 20 trillion dollars, and if politicians have their way, it will grow even more. The GOP tax plan, currently supported by our US Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, proposes we scoop out another 1.5 trillion into the hole they’ve already helped dig. It is a valid policy p...
To the Eagle: It appears that some of our local citizenry have chosen a winter exercise program of jumping up and down on the ol’ Trump-o-line (last week’s letters to The Eagle). Great sport, but many criticisms are in the category of missing the mark, or beside the point, or, as a youngster might say, clueless. Yes, Trump got elected with less than a majority of the popular vote. That’s happened 20 times since the founding, five times when only two candidates were running, and proves the efficacy of the electoral college system. Get used to it...
To the Eagle: I know a pot store was opened in Cathlamet but after reading the three letters to the editor in last week’s Eagle I now wonder if a Kool-Aid stand opened too because the writers surely are drinking the stuff. Fact 1, Donald Trump is our president. He is getting no help from Democrats and only marginal help from Republicans to accomplish anything for us especially bringing manufacturing jobs back to America which would benefit every man, woman and child in our country. Fact 2, We need tax reform to boost our economy and create g...
