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Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. That’s particularly true in difficult times when “business as usual” no longer works.
As our national deficit approaches $22 trillion ($180,000 per taxpayer) and state and local governments deal with skyrocketing costs for health care, pensions, education and public safety, we will have to do things differently, or, in some instances, not at all. One way is to develop private-public partnerships to share costs and coordinate programs.
Take tourism, for example.

Your apparent policy of publishing all-Trump-haters-all-the-time is becoming tiresome. Case in point is the Jan. 13 piece by Ann McFeatters, which rehashes every possible reason to hate Trump, just in case any readers forgot one or two of them.
It bothers me that the USA is now supposed to admit anyone who is “escaping poverty,” according to McFeatters. Lemme see, that could include most of the population of El Salvador, Honduras and any of the countries of Central and South America.

I think the weather forecast is simple. Rain today and Wednesday. Then partial clearing and mostly sunny Thursday through Monday. Highs will migrate into the mid-50s and I wouldn’t be surprised that when east winds begin, it will be 60 degrees or better along the coast. Even in the mountains it will be in the 50s.
High pressure nosing northward from California will bring mild springlike weather to us for an extended time. Spring fever, anyone?

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, seems to be reinventing herself. An op-ed piece from Beutler, several “In Our View” editorials quoting her viewpoints, stating her positions, and glowing articles from “Our Readers’ Views.”
Her voting record January 2011 through May 2016 shows she missed 503 out of 3,729 votes, a 13 percent absence rate six times the average of fellow House members, ranking her 51st out of 434 voting members.

Am I the only one who’s been freaking out since the IPCC released their 2018 report telling us that we had 12 years to get ourselves carbon neutral or face huge consequences? I know we’ve been torpedoed with so much bad news lately that even the most committed among us have lost our fervor for outrage — but this alarm seemed to disappear from the public conversation a little too fast. After a few months of feeling depressed and hopeless, I decided we didn’t have any more time for depressed or hopeless. I hope you’ll join me.

I have read a lot of comments regarding Trump’s wall, pro and con. Some critics have noted that the wall is static and a static solution to a problem loses value as time goes on. Just like cybersecurity, if it is not dynamic and undergoing continuous upgrades, “bad guys” like Putin will find a way to breech any static security.
I have yet to see any security experts give a cost-benefit analysis of having a wall, to solve the problems that Trump thinks his wall will solve.

The partial government shutdown will end when both sides think they are losing the political war that started it — and not before then.
Yes it can end if one side caves, or if President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to fund a border wall, but that is not likely to happen within the next pay period or two, if at all.
Partisan rancor has herded voters into two corners so that both the Republican and Democratic bases don’t want their leaders to cut a deal.