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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
While newspaper reporters must be wary of pronouncing trends – that’s the purview of cable news talking heads who guard their territory jealously – some evidence points to a cooling in Washington’s love affair with the great populist institution known as the ballot initiative measure. There will be no initiatives to the people on this November’s ballot. No initiatives to the Legislature that lawmakers either ignored or revised and sent to the voters. No referendums from people upset about something those lawmakers did and who wanted to give voters a chance to reject it. No referendums that lawmakers attached to a piece of legislation to ask voters whether they will accept it.
Johnnie Brookwood had never heard of a road named Dixie when a wildfire began a month ago in the forestlands of Northern California. Within three weeks, it exploded into the largest wildfire burning in the U.S., destroying more than 1,000 homes and businesses including a lodge in the gold rush-era town of Greenville where she was renting a room for $650 per month. “At first (the fire) didn’t affect us at all, it was off in some place called Dixie, I didn’t even know what it means,” Brookwood, 76, said Saturday. “Then it was ‘Oh no we have to go too?’ Surely Greenville won’t burn, but then it did and now all we can see are ashes.” Firefighters faced “another critical day” as thunderstorms pushed flames closer to two towns not far from where the Dixie Fire destroyed much of Greenville last week. ... Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists. Dozens of fires also are burning in western Canada and in Europe, including Greece, where a massive wildfire has decimated forests and torched homes.
Those entrusted with securing the nation’s voting systems must remain nonpartisan as a myriad of complex and growing risks continue to threaten U.S. elections, one of the nation’s top cybersecurity officials said Saturday. Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in an interview with The Associated Press that she was focused on ensuring the federal agency stays out of politics, builds trust among state and local election officials and continues to provide critical support and guidance on how to increase cyber defenses. “It’s incredibly important that we develop the right collaborative partnerships with all state and local election officials so that they know, regardless of what party they are, we are here to provide resources to help them ensure the safety and security and resilience of their elections,” Easterly said. How to combat misinformation and disinformation without drawing partisan objections will be a major challenge for the agency as the 2022 and 2024 elections draw closer.
The COVID-19 death toll has started soaring again as the delta variant tears through the nation’s unvaccinated population and fills up hospitals with patients, many of whom are younger than during earlier phases of the pandemic. The U.S. is now averaging about 650 deaths a day, increasing more than 80 percent from two weeks ago and going past the 600 mark on Saturday for the first time in three months. Data on the the age and demographics of victims during the delta surge is still limited, but hospitals in virus hotspots say they are clearly seeing more admissions and deaths among people under the age of 65.
While suburban congressional districts are swelling with new residents, lawmakers in large swaths of rural America and some Rust Belt cities are in need of more people to represent. In rural Illinois, Republican Rep. Mary Miller’s district is short 73,000 people. In northeastern Ohio, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan needs an additional 88,000 people. And the Detroit-area district of Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib lacks over 100,000 people – one of the biggest shortfalls in the country. That makes them all potential targets for map makers – and possibly vulnerable to job loss – as their districts are redrawn in the coming months to rebalance the nation’s shifting population.
The Taliban on Saturday captured a large, heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan in a major setback for the government, and were approaching the capital of Kabul, less than three weeks before the U.S. hopes to complete its troop withdrawal. The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif, the country’s fourth largest city, which Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords had pledged to defend, hands the insurgents control over all of northern Afghanistan, confining the Western-backed government to the center and east.
A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on Saturday, killing at least 304 people and injuring at least 1,800 others as buildings tumbled into rubble. Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients. The epicenter of the quake was about 78 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and widespread damage was reported in the hemisphere’s poorest nation as a tropical storm also bore down.
As President Joe Biden ends the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan this month, Americans and Afghans are questioning whether the [war] was worth the cost: more than 3,000 American and other NATO lives lost, tens of thousands of Afghans dead, trillions of dollars of U.S. debt that generations of Americans will pay for, and an Afghanistan that in a stunning week of fighting appears at imminent threat of falling back under Taliban rule, just as Americans found it nearly 20 years ago.
With Taliban forces rapidly seizing territory across Afghanistan and Americans rushing to evacuate the besieged capital, a decorated former diplomat who twice headed the U.S. embassy in Kabul said the United States could have avoided this disastrous coda to its longest war. Spokane Valley native Ryan Crocker arrived in the Afghan capital to reopen the shuttered embassy in January 2002, weeks after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime, and returned to serve as ambassador from 2011 to 2012. In an interview with The Spokesman-Review on Friday, Crocker said while the pace of the insurgents’ advance has surprised him, the Biden administration should have seen it coming.
Stacia Morfin is of medium height, slim, with arched eyebrows and long brown hair separated into two braids, both clasped with panels of red, green, blue and black beads, dressed in regalia that reflects her Native American heritage. She is leading a “Hear the Echoes of Our Ancestors” boat tour on the Snake River between Idaho and Washington state. “My name is One Who Takes Care of Water,” she tells us as the jet boat pushes away from the dock. “Our ability to hunt, fish and gather across our homelands, whether it’s berries, roots, medicines, and the responsibility to hunt our winged and four-legged relatives, is vital.” Morfin is talking about the tribe commonly known as the Nez Perce, whose name, meaning “pierced nose,” was bestowed upon them by French-speaking fur traders. The tribe, which calls itself the Nimiipuu, is known for their expertise in horse breeding and fishing. Its most famous member was Chief Joseph, whose 1877 speech marking the tribe’s surrender to the U.S. Army ended with: “My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” Numbering about 6,000 at the beginning of the 19th century, the Nez Perce once roamed 17 million acres spread across four states. Their reservation is now confined to a patch of high desert less than one-tenth that size, and their enrolled (official) membership is about 3,500. The 765,000-acre reservation is flanked by the Snake and Clearwater rivers in North Idaho, with the closest cities being Lewiston on the Idaho side of the Snake and Clarkston on the Washington side. For years, the tribe has watched as tour operators have built a $4 million riverboat business through its ancestral lands. But Morfin is forcing the tourism industry to take the Nez Perce into account – and is rewriting her own story, too. This 36-year-old entrepreneur, who once spent three years in prison, is now the owner of Nez Perce Tourism, a business that offers dinner tours, powwows, Appaloosa-riding experiences, white-water rafting and, of course, the river tours.
The Washington Department of Health recommended Saturday that people with weakened immune systems get a third dose of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as the delta variant surges in the U.S. The state’s recommendation comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that immunocompromised Americans can get an extra dose of the vaccine for better protection.
An international system to share coronavirus vaccines was supposed to guarantee that low and middle-income countries could get doses without being last in line and at the mercy of unreliable donations. It hasn’t worked out that way. In late June alone, the initiative known as COVAX sent some 530,000 doses to Britain – more than double the amount sent that month to the entire continent of Africa.
Spain set a new provisional heat record of 116.96 degrees on Saturday as Southern Europe sweltered under a relentless summer sun. Italy put 16 cities on red alert for health risks and Portugal warned 75% of its regions that they faced a “significantly increased risk” of wildfires. Data from Spain’s State Meteorological Agency said the potential new record was recorded at Montoro, Cordoba, at 5:10 p.m. If confirmed, that would exceed the country’s previous record of 116.42, set nearby in July 2017. The high heat comes only days after Sicily reported a temperature of 119.84 on Wednesday, which is also awaiting verification and would be the highest ever recorded in Europe. Europe’s current heat record came in 1977 when Athens hit 118.4.
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