________
________
________
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
________
“A new year … a fresh, clean start!” a joyous boy in red mittens said a quarter-century ago this week shortly before soaring forth on the most famous sled in American arts this side of “Citizen Kane.” And just like that, the high-spirited 6-year-old and his best buddy were never seen again – at least not in new images. Yet the beloved duo have never really left us. ... Decades later, the brilliance of “Calvin and Hobbes” refuses to dim. It remains a tiger – the tiger – burning bright. The final “Calvin and Hobbes” strip was fittingly published on a Sunday – Dec. 31, 1995 – the day of the week on which creator Bill Watterson could create on a large color-burst canvas of dynamic art and narrative possibility, harking back to great early newspaper comics like “Krazy Kat.” The cartoonist bid farewell knowing his strip was at its aesthetic pinnacle.
Amazon is the company behind plans for a large delivery station and warehouse at the former site of Lowe’s Home Improvement in north Spokane, according to a permit filed with the city last week. Amazon filed a permit to demolish the interior of the former Lowe’s building. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant will subsequently convert the 117,000-square-foot building into a delivery station and 9,600-square-foot office at 6902 N. Division St.
With 20 confirmed homicides in Spokane in 2020, the city saw the most confirmed killings since 23 in 2002. That count is also a 186% increase in homicides in the city from 2019, when police responded to seven killings. ... At least two other shooting deaths, which police haven’t determined to be either suicides or homicides, could push the year’s tally higher.
The U.S. ramped up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, government health officials said Sunday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine within his first 100 days in office is achievable. And he rejected President Donald Trump’s false claim on Twitter that coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. have been greatly exaggerated.
About two dozen Trump supporters gathered in front of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s residence in West Miami on Saturday to demand the senator challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory next week when Congress meets to formally certify election results. In a joint statement published earlier Saturday, 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said they would vote to reject Biden’s win, a course of action they acknowledge is ultimately unlikely to overturn the results of the race. Neither Rubio nor fellow Florida Sen. Rick Scott were among the statement’s signatories.
The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned Sunday by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden’s win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy. Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win. With Biden set to be inaugurated Jan. 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart.
Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected Sunday as speaker, giving her the reins of Democrats’ slender House majority as President-elect Joe Biden sets a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities. The California Democrat, who has led her party in the House since 2003 and is the only woman to be speaker, had been widely expected to retain her post. Pelosi received 216 votes to 209 for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who again will be the chamber’s minority leader.
President Donald Trump badgered and berated Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a call Saturday, repeating falsehoods about his election defeat in Georgia – the latest example of the extraordinary pressure he’s exerted on state Republican officials ahead of critical runoffs for control of the U.S. Senate. Raffensperger refused pressure from Trump to overturn the election results, telling him that the “data you have is wrong” as he pushed back on Trump’s sham theories of “stuffed ballot boxes” that the president said would reverse Joe Biden’s roughly 12,000-vote victory in Georgia. A recording of the roughly hourlong call was obtained on Sunday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was confirmed by two people involved in the conversation. It was disclosed a day before Trump is set to stage a rally in northwest Georgia for U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Throughout the call, the outgoing president.
Congress convened Sunday for the start of a new session, swearing in lawmakers during a tumultuous period as a growing number of Republicans work to overturn Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump and the coronavirus surges.
Thousands of minority-owned small businesses were at the end of the line in the government’s coronavirus relief program as many struggled to find banks that would accept their applications or were disadvantaged by the terms of the program. Data from the Paycheck Protection Program released Dec. 1 and analyzed by The Associated Press show that many minority owners desperate for a relief loan didn’t receive one until the PPP’s last few weeks while many more white business owners were able to get loans earlier in the program. The program, which began April 3 and ended Aug. 8 and handed out 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion, helped many businesses stay on their feet during a period when government measures to control the coronavirus forced many to shut down or operate at a diminished capacity. But it struggled to meet its promise of aiding communities that historically haven’t gotten the help they needed.
Their ranks include ex-federal prosecutors, a retired judge, a one-time assistant police chief, even a former priest. But a group of prominent Catholics say they still can’t get an audience with Seattle’s new archbishop in their push to address the fallout of a lingering scandal. Members of Heal Our Church, a Seattle-based alliance of practicing Catholics who seek a public review of how the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide sexual abuse scandal secretly festered within the parishes of Western Washington, contend they’re being stonewalled by Archbishop Paul Etienne.
The bottom line is that patterns for getting around have radically changed since the pandemic began, grounding potential travelers, putting a halt to countless school buses and carpools, and keeping thousands of office workers at their dining room tables instead of in a line of cars on a congested Interstate 90.
As someone who lives in the sensible center, and often feels as if I’m the only person in the neighborhood, my New Year’s resolution is to fully embrace the Goldilocks principle. Avoid the extremes. It’s in the middle where you find truth, clarity and peace. The happy medium is just right. When the discussion turns to politics – as it often did this year – you’ll occasionally hear people say it’s time to reclaim the center. That’s not right. It’s more accurate to say that, in politics, it’s time for the center to reclaim some respect. The midway point needs to bulk up and stop apologizing to the radicals for not being as crazy as they are.
The 117th Congress convenes Sunday. Let’s raise a toast to this newly hatched deliberative body and bid a fond farewell to the 116th: the least productive session in Congress’ 230 years. From January 2019 to today, our elected representatives managed to have just 1% of proposed legislation approved by the House, ratified by the Senate, signed by the President, and enacted into law. Here we have a teachable moment of Congressional inaction in action. The reason for this legislative gridlock is polarization: The two parties can’t agree on anything. The concerns of constituents back home, and their quaint kitchen-table issues, are stampeded under the juggernaut of party loyalty. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, My party, right or wrong, is like saying, My mother, drunk or sober.
Deb Abrahamson, whose fight for environmental justice made her a major figure in the push to clean up the legacy of uranium mining on the Spokane Indian Reservation, died at sunrise on New Year’s Day. She was 65. The cause of Abrahamson’s death was cancer that she attributed to the very pollution she devoted so much of her life to fighting. Abrahamson was born in Nespelem, on the Colville Indian Reservation, on March 15, 1955, but she spent much of her upbringing on the nearby Spokane reservation, where Dawn Mining Co. had opened the Midnite uranium mine a year before her birth.
________
No comments:
Post a Comment