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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
A new study confirms what Spokane homebuyers have long suspected: The Lilac City is one of the most overvalued real estate markets in the nation. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University released a list of the top 100 most overpriced housing markets nationwide. Spokane ranked sixth with home prices more than 45% above expected value based on past pricing history. Potential homebuyers in the most overvalued markets are paying peak prices and could find themselves later selling properties for less if there’s a market correction, said Ken H. Johnson, a real estate economist and associate dean at FAU’s College of Business.
Following concerns they were improperly stored and part of homicide investigations, Central Washington University transferred the remains of 13 people whose bones were stored in its anthropology department archives – including the skull of a woman found in the Lower Yakima Valley in 1988. Specimens released to the Kittitas County coroner and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office in late June were identified as potentially being associated with a crime or a missing person report. They included the skull of a woman, estimated to be 30 to 40 years old, whose skeleton was found by a horseback rider on Feb. 16, 1988, near the unincorporated town of Parker. Known as Parker Doe, the woman is believed to be Native American and a homicide victim.
'It would be a hardship for half of all Americans to afford a $400 emergency expense." – 2019 Federal Reserve Study. During two decades following World War II, moderation in American politics was predicated on a muscular middle class. The 1970-2020 dissipation of this “vital center” is reflected in continuing economic insecurity that oppresses most Americans, especially among those without college educations representing two-thirds of workers, and the present polarized political landscape.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit our communities hard. When cases started appearing in Washington in March 2020, the labor movement mobilized, fighting for workplace safety protections, personal protective equipment, and hazard pay for essential workers. In labor, we talk a lot about the union difference, what it means for a worker to have access to the solidarity and power of an organized workers’ movement. These past 18 months, we’ve seen that difference in action.
Like babies continuing to cry after feeding, changing their diaper and cuddling fail to soothe them. It is time to close the nursery door on anti-mask and -vax aggressors.
The United States joins Britain and Russia with failed military campaigns in Afghanistan. Read the “Afghanistan Papers” by Craig Whitlock to understand what a total debacle it was for the U.S.
Tens of thousands of people forced to flee South Lake Tahoe could begin returning to their homes after evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon as crews made progress against a massive wildfire. The orders that sent 22,000 people in and around the resort fleeing last week were reduced to warnings as the fire virtually stalled a few scant few miles from the forest areas straddling the California-Nevada border.
As patients stream into Mississippi hospitals one after another, doctors and nurses have become all too accustomed to the rampant denial and misinformation about COVID-19 in the nation’s least vaccinated state. People in denial about the severity of their own illness or the virus itself, with visitors frequently trying to enter hospitals without masks. The painful look of recognition on patients’ faces when they realize they made a mistake not getting vaccinated. The constant misinformation about the coronavirus that they discuss with medical staff.
Deadly flooding delivered to the Northeast by the torrential rains of what remained of Hurricane Ida has brought a new urgency and a fresh look to how roads, sewers, bridges and other infrastructure must be improved to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.
President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said U.S. booster shots against COVID-19 are likely to start only with the vaccine by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, while the Moderna Inc. shot may be delayed. “The bottom line is very likely at least part of the plan will be implemented, but ultimately the entire plan will be,” Anthony Fauci said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Labor Day 2021 represents a perilous crossroads. Two primary anchors of the government’s COVID protection package are ending or have recently ended. Starting Monday, an estimated 8.9 million people will lose all unemployment benefits. A federal eviction moratorium already has expired. While other aspects of pandemic assistance including rental aid and the expanded Child Tax Credit are still widely available, untold millions of Americans will face Labor Day with a suddenly shrunken social safety net.
At least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days, officials said Sunday, with conflicting accounts emerging about why the flights weren’t able to take off as pressure ramps up on the United States to help those left behind to flee.
,.,, Just before the virus arrived, food insecurity in America had reached its lowest point in 20 years, according to Feeding America, but the coronavirus changed that dramatically. In Spokane, food insecurity was estimated at 12.8% in 2019 – it jumped to 15.5% in 2020, according to Feeding America. ... As the need increased, there was a surge of help offered for people who needed food. Local delivery programs sprung up. Established systems such as the Second Harvest network ramped up to deliver more food in more ways. Government assistance rose. Now, as we’re entering a strange second chapter in the pandemic, the need has eased somewhat, though it still remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.
One of my father’s favorite sayings, and one I try hard to follow, was never to borrow trouble. It’s one that politicians rarely practice when a controversial event is just too tempting to resist. Take, for example, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who is usually among the most level-headed of statewide elected officials. But on Wednesday, he took a shot at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to block a new Texas law that would allow individuals to file civil actions against anyone involved in the abortion of a fetus that has detectable cardiac activity.
Dr. Tanya Sorensen, maternal and fetal medicine physician at Swedish Health in Seattle, said for the first time during the pandemic she’s seeing a significant number of pregnant women get severely sick with the virus. Sorensen said some pregnant women are having to deliver babies prematurely in order to breathe adequately . “Pregnant women need to get vaccinated – we need you to do it now,” Sorensen told reporters Aug. 30. “It’s heartbreaking to spend my day in the ICU taking care of women who are pregnant and (they) may not make it and maybe leave their babies motherless.”
The morning of Sept. 7, 2020, lived up to the red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service. Bill Tensfeld, director of Whitman County Emergency Management, Rosalia fire chief and fair director, drove to Colfax to work on fair business early that morning. At about 10 a.m., a dispatch came over the radio saying there was a brush fire in Colfax. ... Then the Manning Road fire was reported just north of Colfax. ... The Manning Road fire went on to burn 3,000 acres, including a historic covered bridge. The fire in Colfax took two homes and threatened others. Just before noon, reports came in of a fire on East Babb Road. The call came out over dispatch as a Spokane County fire. While Tensfeld was concerned, he had his hands full in Colfax. Minutes later came word the fire was headed toward the town of Malden. “When I got word that they were going to evacuate Malden,” Tensfeld said, “that’s when I decided to head north.” As Tensfeld left Colfax and started driving toward the small town, a plume of smoke was already visible. He called Sheriff Brett Myers, hoping to get help evacuating the town. “As soon as I got to the top of the hill I could see the smoke and I told Brett, ‘We’re screwed,’ ” Tensfeld said.
“So, Daddy died for nothing.” Not a question. Not a moment of reflection. Not a possibility to ponder for quiet minutes as we held each other and cried. Just a statement of fact from my teenage boys, who have lived almost a decade without their father. On Nov. 1, 2011, I sat them on our big bed where my husband Dave had sung them silly songs before bedtime just a few weeks earlier. I held their tiny hands, and told them there had been an accident, and Daddy wasn’t coming home from Afghanistan.
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