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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
We know that forest fires have been burning bigger and hotter, summer after summer. Now research shows they’re also burning higher – destroying forests in the upper elevations of the Mountain West that used to stay too cool and wet to burn, even at summer’s peak. Not only has this expanded the amount of land at risk of wildfire, but it has fed a vicious cycle that deepens the drought crisis, by reducing the forest structures that typically hold onto snowpack deep into the year and fostering warmer streams at higher elevations. This unseasonably sweltering week was the perfect time to consider what’s coming in the next couple of months. Weather isn’t climate, of course – just as the continued existence of snow does not disprove global warming, neither do a few unseasonably hot days alone prove it.
Last June, when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced a plan to take down a 131-year-old statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, the move was met with widespread praise and relief from racial justice activists who had long seen it as a symbol of white supremacy. A year later, the enormous bronze equestrian statue still towers over a traffic circle on historic Monument Avenue in downtown Richmond, kept in place by two lawsuits filed by people who believe it should stay where it is. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Virginia will hear arguments in the legal challenges.
Prince Harry and Meghan may have stepped away from their royal duties — but family appeared to be top of mind in naming their second child, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born Friday in California. The name pays tribute to both Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose family nickname is Lilibet, and his late mother, Princess Diana.
After a 14-year stint on the city’s Plan Commission, longtime Hillyard resident Mike Brewer wasn’t ready to walk away from public service in the late 1980s. “He made this statement to a fella at church, ‘For two cents I’ll run for City Council,’ ” remembered Brewer’s wife, Marjorie. The fellow parishioner pulled out a pair of pennies, and in November 1989 Brewer was elected to the Spokane City Council for the first of two terms. Brewer, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, booster of the Hillyard neighborhood and Spokane transportation advocate, died May 20. He was 93.
Something momentous happened in Israel on Wednesday that could have a major impact on Jewish-Arab relations. I don’t just mean the ousting of the far right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, pending ratification by the Knesset. Israel’s longest-serving premier, from 2009 to the present and 1996-99 before that, Netanyahu had clung to power with Trump-like tenacity through four indecisive elections in two years – and seemed headed for a fifth when he was unable to put together a coalition with a majority of seats.
Recently, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library launched a lecture series titled “Time for Choosing,” a name consciously echoing the famous 1964 speech that launched Reagan’s political career and put him on a path to the White House. The concept — marquee names, history-rich backdrop — is a throwback to a time when politics involved ideas and philosophies and wasn’t just about riling “the base” or “owning” the opposition. The program also gives Republicans a chance to paint their visions while wrapping themselves in the mantle of one of the GOP’s most beloved and sainted figures. But the title is something of a misnomer. Many Republicans have already chosen: It’s Donald Trump’s party and will remain so until and unless someone pries it from his fisted fingers.
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