I watch very little reality television but I have watched American Idol on and off for a number of years now. My wife and I began watching this season and there are numerous things about it that lead me to believe this could be American Idol’s last dance, or at least the beginning of the end of the show.
First of all, this season’s talent just isn’t there. You take the two finalists from last season, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, and they would slaughter the male competition this season. Throughout last year the song choices from them were good for the most part and there weren’t many cringing moments. Agree or disagree with it but I’ve wanted to press the mute button on my remote many times since Hollywood week began this year.

As promised my best friend came to visit this last weekend.  She has a Pepto-Bismol pink low rider with really dark tinted windows, and she drove it over Snoqualmie Pass.  We were all a bit nervous because she was a little afraid it would blow up.

“How can I be the wrong Alice, when this is my dream?” Alice Kingsly was a very distracted girl, she thought of six impossible things before breakfast. This movie will surprise, confuse and amaze you.

Occupying 327,000 acres to the north and east of Selah, Yakima Training (Firing) Center wants to first and foremost be a good neighbor and partner with our local community. Periodically I’ll update readers on what’s going on at the training center, and also address any of your issues and concerns.
Some of you may have read recently that two of our large military bases in Puget Sound have merged. Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s recommendations, officially became Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) on February 1st. It is now one of the largest bases in our military. Yakima Training Center (YTC) is a sub-installation of JBLM. What does that mean for us, and for you? Right now, we don’t expect any change in our mission, in who trains at YTC, and the frequency of that training. Our customers and our support to those customers, our service members, remain unchanged.

I am super excited for this Friday.  Why?  Because my best friend is coming here from Olalla.  Usually I travel over there so that makes it all the more special. 

Throughout the course of human history, as a people, we have confronted many different racial, sexist or just flat out hurtful words or phrases and scratched them from our vocabularies. However, many people still use some of those certain words in comedy in an effort to take away their power and I applaud them for it most of the time.

I got another one of those nice emails from one of the Washington senators, the one who is up for re-election this year, Patty Murray. She wanted to share the good news that our state will receive $590 million from the stimulus slush fund for “investment” in high-speed rail upgrades between the northern and southern borders in the Cascade corridor.

Because Richland is home to the only nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest, those of us who live here in Central Washington know that nuclear power is a safe, efficient and non-carbon emitting source of energy.  As part of an all-of-the-above energy solution, building more emissions-free nuclear energy means good-paying jobs and reliable electricity.

Earlier in the month Selah Police Chief Stacy Dwarshuis gave me the opportunity to write an article for the paper. I was told I could write about anything I wanted. Now, I have no delusions of winning the Pulitzer prize award for my work here, but I do want to talk about a select group of people who deserve to win a prize. You see, there really is (and never was, for that matter) any other topic I would rather write about then reserve police officers.

Let me first say I enjoy watching the Olympics. I like watching sports you only watch during that time of year, every two years for both the winter and summer Olympics. But in 2010 I’ve been put off more than usual and it all began with the coverage of the Georgian luge participant, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died during a training session prior to the opening of this year’s games.