Whitman County residents unprotected
The residents of Whitman County need to be aware of an important meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., concerning the moratorium on industrial wind turbines. The meeting place is the Public Service Building in Colfax.
A moratorium is absolutely vital in order to update and revise the wind ordinances so that they protect the people of Whitman County and the environment. As currently written, there are gaping holes in the document which leave you, the residents of Whitman County, unprotected from being encroached upon by wind turbines.
Among many of the issues with the ordinance as currently written, is the topic of decommissioning the wind project. Like who gets stuck with the clean-up bill if the wind company goes bankrupt? That would never happen, right! How much of the project infrastructure can be left behind in the soil? What if there are toxic materials from the turbines that contaminate the soil? Is there enough money in their so called “bond” to fund cleanup? Will the county be stuck with the cleanup bill? Or will the landowner be stuck with the cleanup bill?
All these and many more questions need to be answered and put into a robust ordinance which will protect our residents and precious land for generations to come. After all, Big Wind (Steelhead Americas/Vestas) is only in town to grab the money from the government subsidies, sprinkle some of their ill-gotten gains as a token of appreciation, and then leave us country folk as they look for new victims!
William A. Clark
Pullman
Be wary of wind company
Have you heard? Harvest Hills is going to have a “Moderated Information Session” on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at the Lewis Alumni Center in Pullman at 6 p.m.
Interesting how when you go to RSVP for the event, that after entering your contact info, you then are taken to a screen entitled “Support — Sign up to support Harvest Hills Wind Project.” You then are required to pick at least one item of options on “How to Show Your Support,” otherwise you do not get a confirmation of your RSVP. Kind of a bait and switch if you ask me. You RSVP and we’ll get you signed up to be one of our supporters! What a deal!
Makes me wonder how shady their contracts are for those people who got persuaded into signing a lease? If this is how they operate for a community meeting, they clearly are not a transparent or a trustworthy company.
For those who have been approached by them, you best be wary, your land will never be the same after they leave it permanently altered and damaged. Other families have engaged with Harvest Hills Wind and after deliberation decided against it. It was not in their best interests, nor the community’s, nor the environment’s best interests to sign a lease, the extra income was simply not worth it.
For those who have signed leases, it’s never too late to back out. And keep in mind, in no way is this project a done deal at this point! Remember, “Buyer Beware!”
Tom Thompson
Pullman
Hamas brought it on themselves
Truth is being perverted by persons criticizing the Jews for their treatment of the Gazans.
“Palestinian” is a co-opted label that was actually applied to Jews and some others living in Israel after the Roman emperor Hadrian in 135 AD renamed the land Palestine to spite the Jews. During most of the period from 135 to the late 1800s, there were very few people of any nationality living in the land of Israel because God promised that the land would remain barren when the Jews were displaced from it. When the Jews started buying the land from rich Arabs in the late 1800s, draining the swamps and cultivating the land, Arabs from the surrounding countries came to Israel to work for the Jews.
The name, “Palestinian” was not applied to the Gazen as an “official” title until it was co-opted after the 1967 war. The media misleads people to think that the Jews stole the land from the Gazans when they did not. In 1948, thousands of Arabs living in the land of Israel left at the behest of the invading Arab armies, thinking they would go back after the Jews were wiped out. Obviously God gave the Jews victory. However, the Arabs that left could have gone back and had full citizenship in Israel like the several million that live in Israel now. Instead they chose not to, believing the surrounding Arab nations would wipe out the Jews.
The extreme hate of the Jews by the radical Muslims living next to them and wanting to destroy them makes it impossible for the Jews, who want peace, to tolerate Hamas, and the Gazans who support them. Hamas and the Gazan have brought on themselves all the suffering they are experiencing by continually waging war against the Jews. For peace, Hamas has to go.
Larry Kirkland
Moscow
Keep Medicaid Expansion
A young wife and mom, married with two delightful children, became seriously ill. She was admitted to a local hospital, but her infection worsened to the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) stage. She was transferred to Kootenai Hospital in Coeur d’Alene as it had the medical staff and equipment to treat her. After weeks of treatment, she recovered enough to return home. Fortunately, Medicaid Expansion covered her treatments and the family did not walk away with a medical debt of six digits.
In 2018, the Medicaid Expansion Initiative passed with 61% of Idaho voters and a majority of voters in 35 counties. In a more recent survey (2023), 73% of Idaho voters opposed repealing Medicaid Expansion.
Rep. John Vander Woude introduced House Bill 58 to repeal Medicaid Expansion. Should HB58 pass, 90,062 Idahoans will lose their access to affordable health care. These neighbors and citizens will find themselves in medical bankruptcy and making “GoFundMe” requests. Idaho clinics and hospitals will be forced to cut back on services with the possibility of closures. Finally, Idaho will lose $1.1B in funding.
I am asking you to personally email CRasor@house.idaho.gov, JRedman@house.idaho.gov and LMcCann@house.idaho.gov stating your support of Medicaid Expansion. If not opposed, Idahoans will lose quality medical coverage and clinics and hospitals will be forced to cut back on services or closures.
Vickie Fadness
Lewiston
No surprises here
Wouldn’t you know that the legislators who want to repeal Idaho’s expansion of Medicaid also want to further restrict the citizen initiative process through which that expansion became law? Repeal would deny health care to the more than 80,000 Idahoans who have benefited from the popular initiative financed mostly by the federal government.
And wouldn’t you know that many of the same legislators who say the state cannot afford the resulting growth of Medicaid want to start handing tax dollars to private schools? They say this unprecedented support for schools not operated or overseen by the state will be limited to $50 million — next year. Meanwhile, other states that have started such practices have seen their costs grow like wildfire in successive years as religious and other schools have cashed in at taxpayer expense.
And wouldn’t you know that instead of suggesting a way to pay for this new spending, the legislature’s top dog, House Speaker Mike Moyle, proposes a cut in the income tax, and later, in the sales and property taxes, too.
Finally, wouldn’t you know that voters, because the legislators behind these shenanigans are Republicans, will continue returning them to office?
Jim Fisher
Moscow
You are ruled by God
Response to William Brock’s Jan. 23, 2025 editorial wherein he proclaimed that he is “not ruled by (our) God.”
“And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:35)
“Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.” (Isaiah 34:3)
You so, so are.
And if God doesn’t give you faith and repentance, then you’re a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction and you’re headed straight to Hell. Your unbelief won’t stop God from doing all his pleasure (Isaiah 46:10).
Jonah B. Phelps-Roper
Member, Westboro Baptist Church
Topeka, Kan.